On Olive Boulevard, The Smallest Storefronts Are Doing The Most Changing

On the stretch of Olive Boulevard between I-170 and Skinker, where did the year's changes happen? At the west end, two large stores opened within two weeks of each other this spring. To the east, changes come one former pizzeria or bento shop at a time.

The two ends are changing in very different ways, and this summer the region put that difference in writing. An East-West Gateway planning document from August describes Olive as a corridor that "has, in ways, symbolized division and friction," and sets a goal of turning it into "a central, unifying spine." What opened this fall, and what is about to, shows how far apart the two ends are now.

The West End Is Finished

At I-170, the big pieces arrived in May. Dierbergs set a May 5, 2026 opening for its new 75,000-square-foot store at 8680 Olive, in the Market at Olive on the southeast corner of I-170 and Olive, with an 8:15 a.m. ribbon-cutting before opening to customers at 9. St. Louis Public Radio's May restaurant roundup also noted a new Corner 17 location inside that Dierbergs.

Across the boulevard, Target's University City store at 8645 Olive opened May 17, 2026, according to Target's corporate store-openings fact sheet. Explore U City reported the store at roughly 149,000 square feet with more than 170 jobs, and called it the biggest Target in the St. Louis area.

Those two stores complete a project that started years ago. The Market at Olive covers roughly 50 acres on both sides of Olive, from I-170 to Woodson and McKnight, and its Costco opened in late October 2022. The planning document calls this end "a relatively new retail area." The priorities it lists here are about getting around the stores: active transportation, transit, wayfinding and localized safety.

Put simply, the west end got a finished shopping district in one go. The planners now mostly want to make it easier to reach without a car.

East Of McKnight, Change Comes One Lease At A Time

Cross Woodson and McKnight heading east and the scale drops to individual storefronts. The same planning document names this area by its character: an international commercial district that includes Asian businesses and restaurants. Nobody here opens 150,000 square feet at once. A new restaurant takes over a lease someone else left.

St. Louis Magazine's October openings tracker lists two such handoffs on this stretch for fall 2026:

• Bukchon Kimbap at 7827 Olive, in the former Chuang Yi Bentos, with an announced soft opening of October 8.
• Double Sword Ramen & Udon at 8111 Olive, in the former Frank & Helen's Pizzeria, listed for fall with no firm date yet.

The magazine filed both under "coming soon" on October 5. Neither one had a confirmed opening-day report at that point, so a quick check of their social accounts before you go is smart.

The newcomers are moving in among restaurants and grocers that have been there for years. Here is the east-end stretch from west to east, using the most recent coverage we could find for each:

Double Sword's new space sits across the street from Wonton King, so the 8100 block will soon have a ramen and udon counter facing a dim sum room. Sauce Magazine's 2025 roundup of Asian restaurants is the most recent coverage we found for the established spots in the table. These are long-standing businesses, but hours and menus change, so check ahead before a special trip.

All of this happens in small increments. The west end added two anchor stores this year. The east end's fall additions are a kimbap shop and a ramen counter that are still on the way, both in spaces other restaurants used before.

The Outlier Near Skinker

The one new arrival that fits neither pattern sits close to the corridor's eastern edge. Café O'Play opens October 21 at 6757 Olive in University City. It will be open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. with specialty coffee, breakfast, lunch and kid-friendly options. It comes from Urban Sprouts Child Development Center, and kids can explore play materials and books while the adults eat, work or meet up.

St. Louis Magazine's September profile reports that preschoolers came up with the idea, and that later plans include after-school programming and food access for local families. Alexis Qualls, director of storytelling and engagement for Urban Sprouts, was direct about it in that profile:

"If you don't want to hear kids in the background while you're working, it's probably not the space for you. But that's the whole point of it."

Here a local child development center is opening a shared everyday space, and public space is one of the subjects the corridor plan is meant to address.

The Plan Meant To Connect The Two Ends

In August, the East-West Gateway Council of Governments chose University City for its Great Streets Initiative and asked for consultant proposals for a detailed plan covering Olive Boulevard, which is MoDOT Route 340, from Skinker west to I-170. Proposals were due September 11, 2026. We haven't found a public announcement of the selected consultant yet.

The plan area includes the full depth of the properties along the road, not just the pavement. It is supposed to address land use, transportation, public space and stormwater flooding from the River Des Peres. The document also admits a local frustration. It tells the eventual consultant to be "sensitive to local planning fatigue and desire for timely implementation," because the corridor has seen plenty of planning and, in some areas, little progress.

Three specific items in the document show where the street itself could change:

1. Repaving with a new layout at the east end. St. Louis County and MoDOT were preparing to mill and resurface Olive at the study area's east end, and the plans include restriping, a lane reduction and bike lanes. No construction date has been published.
2. An extension of the Centennial Greenway. Great Rivers Greenway is holding public engagement on extending the greenway within the study area. The current trail runs two paved miles from Shaw Park in Clayton up to Olive. University City manages the section from Delmar to Olive, and a sidewalk along Olive between McKnight and Price carries the route farther.
3. An empty former market site. The document points to a vacant former market property near 81st Street and the River Des Peres as a major planning subject.

The former market property is the one vacant site the document singles out by location, and the planners, not a new tenant, will shape what is proposed for it first.

For now, the greenway is the clearest physical link along the corridor. It already reaches Olive from Shaw Park, and the sidewalk between McKnight and Price carries the route along Olive itself. An extension, plus an east-end layout with bike lanes, would change how Olive works for anyone traveling on foot or by bike between Olive Supermarket, the new restaurants and Café O'Play.

Corridor plans like this one shape what nearby blocks feel like years from now, and keeping up with them is part of how we follow University City and Clayton closely. If you want to talk about how changes on Olive could affect your street, Svoboda Shell is happy to walk through it with you. Start your home journey with Svoboda Shell.