TrailNet to build new headquarters and bicycle station

Trailnet owns the old Laclede Power Co. building and has begun renovating it as a $5 million trailhead center for the St. Louis Riverfront Trail. The building, at 1246 Lewis Street, is next to floodwall gates that double as an entrance to the trail.

Trailnet, a nonprofit group that promotes bicycling and trails, announced on Friday that it received a grant to pay for most of the $525,000 park, to be known as RootWad Park. Trailnet wants to finish the park and trailhead center in 2007. . . .

Tucker said a $4.5 million restoration of the Laclede building is to include bicycle rental, a restaurant, new Trailnet offices and parking. Trailnet already has done tuckpointing and roof repairs and intends to begin the major work in late spring, with completion some time in 2007, he said.

Tucker said it can become "the Grand Central Station of the Confluence Greenway," the trail system along both sides of the river.