Category: North St. Louis

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North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

A Blairmont By Any Other Name

by Michael R. Allen

Our good friends at Blairmont Associates LC are slow in unveiling some of their other names. Here are some names that they own but are not yet using for purchasing properties, with dates of incorporation:

NGV Partners LLC (4/14/2003)
Vashon Developers LC (4/14/2003)
BMA Partners LLC (4/14/2003)
NDC Venturers LC (4/14/2003)
1891 Holdings LLC (2/2/2004)
Benton Company LLC (3/4/2004)
Maiden 25 Partners LLC (3/4/2004)

Notice the references to street and landmark names from the near northside: Benton Street, Maiden Lane, 25th Street and Vashon High School. Also note that three of the companies have aconyms that correspond to the name sof other companies in the “family”: BMA for BlairMont Associates; NDC for Noble Development Company and NGV for N & G Ventures.

None of these companies own parcels, and the recent purchase pattern includes newer entities MLK 3000 LLC and Dodier Investors LLC. Perhaps these other companies are being used to direct the venture capital being used to fund purchases.

I know, I know — this is trivia to some of you. But to those on the near north side, we should keep a watch out for these companies.

Categories
Mullanphy Emigrant Home North St. Louis Old North

Mullanphy Emigrant Home Effort Needs Your Donations

What have you done to help the effort to preserve the Mullanphy Emigrant Home? The endangered near north side landmark — follow the link to read a basic history — suffered a wall collapse in April that prompted the successful effort of the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group to acquire the building.

Now, the Restoration Group is seeking funds for an estimated $100,000 stabilization project. With every day of inclement weather, than goal becomes more urgent.

Please send a tax-deductible contribution of any size ($5 isn’t too small to help):

Old North St. Louis Restoration Group
2800 N. 14th Street
St. Louis, MO 63107

If you have questions, call the Restoration Group at 314-241-5031 or e-mail info@onsl.org. I can assure you that the Restoration Group is serious about stabilization and your money literally will go straight into bricks and mortar.

The eventual restoration of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home will do more than save one building. This project has the potential to initiate major investment in the southern end of Old North St. Louis and aid in development that will link our renewing downtown to Old North St. Louis.

Categories
North St. Louis Old North Rehabbing

The View at Home

by Michael R. Allen

Here is the view from the south window of the third floor of our house. From here, I can see nineteenth century houses and tenements, the downtown skyline and the Arch, the spires of St. Liborius and Zion Lutheran churches, the tall smokestack of the former Columbia Brewery and, off in the far distance at night, the beacon of the Continental Life Building. This is one of the best views I’ve enjoyed in the city, and it’s here at home.

Of course, all of the winter rain has penetrated our weak roof membranes — soon to be replaced, but that promise doesn’t stop a leak. The continuing pileup of snow will lead to a cold day Saturday when I will have to sweep the roofs to minimize water penetration when the snow melts. Ah, well — for now there is this view!

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Fire JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Former Syphilis Center Burns

by Michael R. Allen

The former Better Donut Drive-In at the southeast corner of Grand and Cass burned last night. This two-story early twentieth century commercial building has been vacant for several years, but is infamous as a major contact point in the city’s syphillis epidemic during the early 1990s (see Malcolm Gay’s insightful article published in the Riverfront Times last June).

Incidentally, the owner of the building is VHS Partners LLC.

Categories
North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Map of Blairmont Holdings

Categories
Adaptive Reuse Historic Preservation Mullanphy Emigrant Home North St. Louis Old North

New Life for the Mullanphy Emigrant Home

by Michael R. Allen

Given its institutional form and floor plan, and the dire need to retain and restore its special architectural character, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home seems best suited to an institutional or cultural use rather than any of the most likely prospects for reuse.

The building would make an excellent museum or exhibit center, library, school or hostel. I think that adapting it for use as apartments, condominiums or offices might involve architectural compromises and inefficient floor plans. Perhaps now is the time for near north side leaders and city officials to figure out what the building should become, and how the new use could be endowed.

Due to shrinking funding under the Bush and Blunt administrations, this is a bad moment to launch a new museum or cultural center. Yet the Mullanphy Emigrant Home would make an excellent museum of the city’s ethnic heritage, an outstanding small art museum, a cool alternative school, a great architectural center emphasizing vernacular forms and styles, or a youth hostel in conjunction with more public uses. Rarely does the city have the chance to restore such an old and important civic building. This is a momentous opportunity for the city, and time for creative thought.

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Mullanphy Emigrant Home North St. Louis Old North

ONSL Restoration Group Now Owns the Mullanphy Emigrant Home

The Old North St. Louis Restoration Group has closed on its purchase of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home. Now, the hard work begins.

Here is a letter from the Restoration Group’s Executive Director, Sean Thomas:

Dear Friend of Old North St. Louis:

Today the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group has taken a huge leap of faith. As of this morning, we are the proud – and very nervous – owners of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home building at 1609 N. 14th Street, just a few blocks north of Downtown St. Louis. Although we’re a community-based not-for-profit organization with an extremely tight budget, our Board decided to take this action because nobody else seemed willing or able to save the buiding from demolition or collapse. But we did so with the support and encouragement of many who recognize the building’s historic and architectural significance. Now we’re at a point where we need more than words of encouragement – we need your financial support to preserve the building.

On April 2 of this year, severe wind gusts hit the Italianate brick structure that was built in 1867 to house the Mullanphy Emigrant Home. These winds knocked out much of the south wall and led to an order from the City of St. Louis Building Division to demolish the building. Because of determined efforts by Old North St. Louis
Restoration Group, aided by many friends inside and outside of city government and a structural engineer’s report indicating that the building was not in imminent danger of collapse, the City rescinded the demolition order. Thankfully, the building has survived over the past seven months without additional damage. If the building is going to survive through the winter, though, we will need to take immediate measures to shore up the south end of the building and re-build the wall. Because the total bill for acquisition, insurance, and stabilization work will equal at least $150,000, more than half of the amount we have to raise every year for our basic organizational operations, we need financial support well beyond our usual sources of revenue. To help us reach this goal, we’re asking all who care about Old North St. Louis to make a contribution of whatever amount they can afford.

The Old North St. Louis Restoration Group is dedicated to re-building the neighborhood in a way that incorporates the community’s rich history and respects the beauty and architectural significance of the built environment – and the skill and craftsmanship of past generations that created it. We invite you to help us with a contribution to the preservation of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home. Please send a tax-deductible contribution to us as soon as you can, using the enclosed form. And if you know of anyone else who cares about preserving our city’s unique architectural heritage, please encourage them to contribute as well.

Thank you!

Sean Thomas
Executive Director

(By the way, Preservation covered the effort to restore the Mullanphy in a recent article.)

Categories
North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North

Who Owns Parcel 03650000710?

by Michael R. Allen

I had no idea that the mailing address for the City of St. Louis was c/o Dodier Investors, 721 Olive Street, Suite 920. (See this parcel information page for the Assessor’s recording of the address for a section of the Illinois Terminal Railroad right-of-way on Tyler Street.)

Either the city is having such a tough revenue crunch that it had to move City Hall into the corner of a real estate office, or something else is going on.

UPDATE: The Assessor’s Office made a mistake in recording the transaction for the parcel. Here’s how it happened: On October 5, Ironhorse Resources transferred the parcel via quit-claim deed to Noble Development Company LLC, which sold the parcel on the same day to Dodier Investors LLC.

The parcel was carved from larger holdings of Ironhorse that were transferred on December 30, 2005, to the Metropolitan Park and Recreation District for the new trail that will utilize the old Illinois Terminal Railroad trestle. It seems hard to fathom that the future transfer to Noble Development was not in the works then.

The truth, then, is scarier than it seemed: the large parcel abutting a future trail is wholly owned by a private company with fictitious registration that is acquiring property at a rapid rate with little public scrutiny.

Categories
Fire North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Givens Row Suffers Fire; Another Blairmont Blaze

by Michael R. Allen

Givens Row, the group of three limestone-faced, three-story row houses on the north side of Delmar just west of T.E. Huntley, suffered a small fire yesterday. The fire started at the eastern building in the group, 2903 Delmar Boulevard, which has been owned by Noble Development Company since September 13, 2006. The fire spread to the middle building, but was confined to the upper floor or each building. The cornices of the eastern two buildings were damaged. The western building, which is in use as apartments, suffered no damage at all.

The Italianate-style Givens Row was built in 1886 by businessman Jay Givens, who would later make a substantial donation to Washington University.

Noble Development Company is named for Harvey Noble, the real estate agent who is its registered agent. However, the company has deep ties to the Blairmont land scheme. Readers will recall that a tragic fire struck the Brecht Butcher Supply Company Buildings, owned by Blairmont Associates LC, last month.

Categories
JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North St. Louis Place

Strange Purchases on the Near Northside — Is There a Plan?

by Michael R. Allen

On October 13, the city recorded the quit-claim transfer of a sliver of property on Cass Avenue just east of the Greyhound station from Iron Horse Resources of O’Fallon, Illinois to Noble Development Company LLC. This parcel is the tunnel approach section of the right-of-way of the former Illinois Terminal Railroad’s electric interurban railroad.

The interurban ceased its runs in the 1950s, and this right-of-way has been vacant ever since. Currently, the section of the interurban line that ran on an elevated trestle to the McKinley Bridge is being converted into a trail. The “tunnel” section under Tucker Boulevard will be filled in by the city so that improvements can be made to Tucker.

Noble Development Company LLC is, of course, part of the “Blairmont” family of real estate companies. Supposedly a great mystery to city officials, these companies have a great knack for purchasing property that is strategic to various public works initiatives or urban planning projects. I find it very difficult to fathom that city leaders would let a parcel like the old Terminal Railroad right-of-way section slip through their fingers when it is needed for two large projects that are underway.

Is it possible that the transfer of the land to Noble Development Company was a result sought by someone in city government and that the mysterious company is holding the parcel and others in accord with a master plan for the near northside? I’m not sure, but it seems possible. Until city leaders address the strange property acquisition pattern of these companies, people are going to be led to such conclusions.

Hopefully, rehabbers and business owners on the near north side will stand their ground and avoid panic as rumors float. What a shame that as Old North St. Louis gains development traction the Blairmont scheme emerges without comment from the mayor or others who could instill confidence.