Wildwood Council Expresses Doubt on Manchester Road Branding Effort

Wildwood is expressing little interest in helping pay for a branding study that would develop a unique identity for the section of Manchester Road that spans from Wildwood to Ballwin.

The idea of the project, explained Wildwood City Administrator Daniel Dubruiel at a council meeting Monday night, is to develop a marketing strategy to create a more appealing image of the Manchester corridor.

“We would have an identity similar to other areas of St. Louis, such as the Chesterfield Valley, Lafayette Square, the Loop or South grand,” he said, noting that these areas have a specific identity and image associated with them.

The study would focus on Wildwood, Ballwin and Ellisville. Each city is being asked to endorse a bid proposal for the branding research from a company called North Star that will cost a total of $83,000, or about $27,000 per city.

The councils of the other communities have expressed support for it, Dubriuel said, and if Wildwood were to do the same, than formal ordinance could be drawn up for official action.

However, a majority of the 16-member Wildwood City Council expressed skepticism that such marketing research would benefit Wildwood, saying instead that its neighbors to the east were the ones in need of an image overhaul.

“I think Wildwood is the polar opposite of Ellisville and Ballwin,” said council member David Geile. “We have our own unique brand right now.”

Council member Tammy Shea echoed this sentiment.

“We already have a branding message and we paid for that a long time ago,” said council member Tammy Shea. “I think the word is out that Wildwood is a great place to live.”

The branding effort is tied to a larger, multi-decade, multi-city effort to revitalize Manchester Road called the Great Streets Initiative. Even big proponents of Great Streets, such as council member Paul Wojciechowski said he was “underwhelmed” by a presentation from North Star.

The timing of such a marketing effort was also questioned, since it would be drawing attention to an area that is about undergo a significant construction project.

Wildwood, along with Ballwin and Ellisville, received a $5 million grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation to upgrade Manchester Road as part a state project to resurface the street between Route 141 and Route 109.

Wildwood will use about $1 million of that total to make enhancements to the intersection of Manchester Road and Route 109 and is projected to get underway next year.

“Part of the idea is when 2014 comes around, you will start seeing some of these other improvements,” Mayor Tim Woether said. “You can have that branding in place so that you can say, ‘Hey, this improvements are part of the overall great streets effort’ to start driving that hum."

The proposal did have some supporters, such as council member Dave Bertolino, who said Wildwood should set an example of leadership and cooperation.

“Chesterfield and Fenton have this all about me attitude when it comes taxes” Bertolino said. “They say, ‘We don’t want to share.’ I see a little bit of this in us, saying we don’t want to share our vision or our talens with the people down the street.”

In the end, a motion to not proceed with endorsing the branding proposal passed by a vote of 13-3 with council members Bertolino, Ron James and Katie Dodwell opposing it. 

After the vote, Woerther said it would likely not be the last time the council would hear about the issue.