Village Inn walls come tumbling down

Village Inn walls come tumbling down

By DawnDee Bostwick – Apr 20, 2009 Waynesville Daily Guide

St. Robert Mayor George Sanders took the first knock at the old Village Inn located off Missouri Avenue near Fort Leonard Wood’s main gate. Developers have plans for a new hotel, convention center and retail spaces on the old Fields property.

The Village Inn’s walls came tumbling down on Friday morning with the start of demolition work on the old Fields property.  Several people showed up for the demolition including St. Robert, Waynesville and Fort Leonard Wood officials.  “We are at another milestone for the future economic growth in the City of St. Robert,” City Administrator Alan Clark said during his opening remarks at the event. “This is going to do a lot of things... This is a great day.” 

The property, now known as Woodland Hills, is planned to have a hotel and convention center, as well as retail space and other business entities. Conceptual plans for the property will be brought to the city’s Planning and Zoning committee and then to the Board of Aldermen upon Planning and Zoning’s recommendation.

“We have a lot of people to thank. This simply could not happen without the support of this community,” Doug Wheeler, of Fort Wood Investments, LLC, said. “We appreciate and greatly value the experience we had here as the developer of this project.”  The development will bring another layer to the quality of life in the community and area as a whole.    

Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin touched on that aspect of the impact the development will have in the city and at Fort Leonard Wood. “We got great young people coming in,” Martin said, adding that quality of life in the communities Army posts are in relates to retention of those soldiers.  “I think more and more people are going to come to Fort Leonard Wood and your community,” he said. “This is a huge step forward in the developing this area.” 

St. Robert Mayor George Sanders took the first strike at the building, knocking down the first bricks.   “I know you’re going to make this a beautiful place to come and to shop,” Sanders said, noting that he was glad that after months of saying the building was coming down it finally was.   Demolition is expected to take between three and four weeks and largely depends on having the trucks take the debris to the landfill. “We’re going to recycle all the material we can out here,” Wheeler said. “My hope is about three to four weeks that the debris will be off-site.” Once the old facility is removed, the land will undergo an extensive makeover as the front of the property is lowered to a better level with Missouri Avenue and the back of the property is built up. “Our hope is that if we can remain on schedule, we can be moving dirt about the first of July,” Wheeler said.   The ground work alone will require the movement of about 1 1/2 cubic yards of dirt and rock