PASSION PROJECTS
The New $23 million “Factory” Opens in Chesterfield Valley to Rave Reviews Written by Craig Kaminer / Photos by James Cooke
In the music world, few cities have as many outstanding performance venues as St. Louis. Artists regularly praise St. Louis from the stages of Jazz St. Louis, The Touhill, The Sheldon, The Pageant, Powell Hall, The Stifel, The Muny, The Fox...the list goes on. Each venue surprisingly fits a unique niche for music genre, audience size, acoustics, technical capabilities, and location. And just when you thought St. Louis didn’t have room or need for another, Michael Staenberg and Steve Schankman just opened The Factory in Chesterfield Valley to offer what no one else has offered before. You can’t have too many business conversations in St. Louis where the names Michael Staenberg and Steve Schankman won’t come up or go many places where their names don’t appear on a building or piece of public art. Each has had a brilliant career in their chosen fields of real estate development and entertainment respectively, and while they have been longtime friends, until now their spheres of business influence have never really overlapped. But as luck would have it for St. Louis, Staenberg had an idea for how to transform the former Taubman Prestige Outlets in Chesterfield Valley, across from Chesterfield Commons which he developed in 1997, into a regional entertainment district. Adding to the success of Top Golf and Main Event off Interstate 64-U.S. 40 just east of Boone’s Crossing, Staenberg envisioned bringing a multi-use performance venue to what is the emerging demographic center of St. Louis. With more than 89,000 cars passing by the site daily, Staenberg was convinced this would be the perfect spot for 68 slmag.net
live entertainment, not to mention the best way to draw thousands of people to the area for shopping, dining, and fun. Schankman admits when he and Staenberg first talked about this idea, he wasn’t sold. But over time, Schankman realized its location, highway access, proximity to pre- and post-event nightlife, hotels, a private airport, and Gateway Digital Studios were the components of a seriously successful entertainment operation. So Staenberg jumped on a plane with Brian Carp, formerly with the 11-location House of Blues live entertainment venue chain and now Chief Operating Officer of The Factory, looking at the latest and greatest venues in the country to figure out what would work best in St. Louis. They all collaborated on the business plan, the design, and technical requirements, and soon had a roadmap for something that would help attract more nationally touring shows to St. Louis. When the two men met again, Staenberg says he told Schankman, “If I’m going to do this, I’m going to build the best thing I can build. I want to build things architecturally that are timeless. I want to make something that is cool, functional, and that’s different from anything else out there. I said, ‘Where are the best green rooms?’ When we found them I said, ‘Brian, copy those green rooms.’ Then we met with the top artists’ production managers and asked, ‘What do you like? What don’t you like?’ So we built three truck docks which makes loading in and out much easier. We built a party area so when it’s nice weather guests can just hang out like at Ballpark Village. We also have an outdoor venue planned for smaller acts.”
