KWMU’s Maria Hickey interviewed Coast Guard Commander Mark Cunningham about the incident involving Miss Rockaway Armada; listen here.
According to recent articles in both the St. Louis Business Journal and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, developers McCormack Baron Salazar may seek the new Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit for the massive Chouteau Lake and Greenway project that they have contemplated for nearly a decade. This possibility is based on the fact that the state Department of Economic Development considers the entire city of St. Louis a distressed area under the legal definition of the tax credit act. Thus, any project in the city that meets the tax credit’s other requirements could qualify.
This probably isn’t what the authors of the tax credit had in mind, but the use would not be a bad thing. After all, the connection between the south side and downtown historically has been weak due to the railyards and Mill Creek before that. While rail lines are important and could see greater use in future times, the visual and physical barrier along the southern edge of downtown is detrimental. On one side, we have downtown and its burgeoning vitality. On the other side, the strong historic neighborhoods of the near south side. Between, we have the rail yards, the anti-urban campuses of AmerernUE and Ralston Purina and countless marginal uses. Making connections across this expanse will be a huge and visionary undertaking.
According to Richard Baron of the firm, he and his partners already control 23 acres in the project area. The tax credit would allow them to acquire more. Their project is unlikely to involve any residential relocation at all, although it may eventually include eminent domain.
While perhaps not the most pressing need for urban development, the Chouteau Lake project could be very good for the city. The details need full and open discussion. That discussion would benefit from the participation of developer Paul J. McKee, Jr., who has big plans for the northern edge of downtown. Unlike Baron, McKee has not published any rendering or discussed many details of his project. McKee has stated that he wants to use the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit in north city. In fact, his attorney Steve Stone is credited with writing the first version of the tax credit act.
These two large projects on the edges of downtown could unite the central city to its neighborhoods. The Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit could enable wonderful urban-scaled projects that resolve big, old problems in the city — or it could enable years of neighborhood fear, deferred dreams and unfulfilled promises. Baron and McKee need to engage the public, each other, city planners and neighborhood leaders so that we don’t let two good opportunities turn into huge failures.
Categories
Miss-hap
by Michael R. Allen
If your hand-made river vessel, powered by wind, bio-diesel and sun and made of junk, sadly happened to fall apart in the river, you probably couldn’t have better fortune than to have that happen near the city of St. Louis. St. Louis teems with scrappy mobs of ingenious anarchist inventors, bands of starstruck architects, teams of poetic moonshiners and do-it-yourselfers who know how to rebuild even whole neighborhoods.
I think that Miss Rockaway Armada has found the perfect port to recover from strange misfortune. No doubt that the good crew will be afloat one way or another within a few days.
Florissant house added to National Register – Brian Flinchpaugh (North County Journal, September 17)
Want to know where Henry Shaw’s townhouse stood? Why the Chemical Building is so named? Heard about the Gateway Mall but not quite sure what that is? Or maybe you just want to see four bronze turtles carrying a lamp-post.
You can get your questions answered every Saturday from April through October on a Metropolis Downtown Architectural Walking Tour. Metropolis offers both an eastern and western tour each Saturday at 10:00 a.m. Tours generally last two hours.
Enjoy the last few weeks of tours in pleasant weather. Docents will share architectural information about downtown past, present and future (okay, I don’t know about the other docents but I offer some predictions).
Eastern tours start on the western steps of the Old Courthouse, near the corner of Market and Broadway.
Western tours start at the entrance to the Hyatt Regency Hotel at Union Station, near the corner of 18th and Market streets.
The tours cost $5. More information here.
Demolition of Old MFA Feed Store Will Begin Monday – Sarah Wienke (Washington Missourian, September 14)
A former lumber mill built in 1865 and located in Washington, Missouri will meet its end starting Monday — but there’s a small silver lining. The owner of the building, most recently used a feed store, plans to salvage every part of the building that he can.
Thanks to Richard Callow for the link.
by Michael R. Allen
Karen Heet is now Real Estate Coordinator for the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group. Karen formerly worked for Millennium Restoration and Development Corporation where her work put her at the forefront of community-driven historic preservation work. I look forward to Karen’s involvement with my neighborhood. Some challenges ahead include development of city-owned land, dealing with Paul McKee’s holdings in Old North, developing design standards for the neighborhood and completion of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home project.
The Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance recently created the new position of Historic Preservation Specialist for Matt Bivens, who is now working on the “Crown Square” project almost daily. The creation of this position shows that RHCDA anticipates continued and growing involvement in historic preservation projects. This is also one of the most interesting new jobs in historic preservation created in St. Louis. Matt was one of my predecessors at Landmarks Association of St. Louis and most recently was serving as Senior Architectural Historian for SCI Engineering of St. Charles. Matt is energetic, tenacious and an asset to any organization.
Meanwhile, the Cultural Resources Office will soon be considering applicants for its new permit review position.
Categories
The End of Noah’s Ark
by Michael R. Allen
Today I passed by the site of the Noah’s Ark Restaurant in St. Charles, Missouri. The ersatz ark fell to wreckers on August 29. The restaurant had to be one of the most prominent and best-loved pieces of Googie architecture in the St. Louis region. The Biblical premise behind the off-the-interstate restaurant charmed and delighted as many as it baffled. Built in 1967 by an airline pilot with a dream, the ark once marked the outer limits of St. Louis suburbia. My one childhood trip from the east side to the ark seemed like a journey to the edge of the world that I knew as St. Louis. Nowadays, the site is east of the homes of hundreds of thousands who call themselves St. Louisans. In place of the whimsical restaurant and its attached hotel will come a pool and exercise center.
(Last year Toby Weiss posted her thoughts and photos of Noah’s Ark here.)
by Michael R. Allen
Detail of commercial building at 2712 N. 14th Street.
A land assemblage project has led to large-scale development in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. Construction is almost fully underway at Crown Square, better known as the “14th Street Mall” redevelopment project. The moribund 14th Street Mall had long been an impediment to redevelopment of the historic neighborhood, with a pernicious spread of abandonment out from its center at the intersection of 14th and Montgomery streets. Since the closure of 14th street in 1975, the commercial district lost viability and eventually almost every commercial and residential tenant.
The abandonment of buildings led to fires and demolition into the late 1990s. Since the “mall” began as a thriving urban commercial district, ownership was never consolidated. In the years of decay, divided ownership and some land speculation proved as big an impediment to revitalizing this area as the abandonment.
Several years ago, the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group formed a partnership with the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance (RHCDA) to acquire properties around the mall for redevelopment. This move was debated within the community and initiated by the neighborhood organization, which sought the strategic partnership with RHCDA.
The assemblage strategy was to overlay the area. Basically, if a property was vacant, the partnership made an attempt to acquire it. If it was occupied, the partnership did not. The partnership expressly avoided the use of eminent domain, rumor-mongering or threats in their assemblage operation. In fact, they did most of the necessary assemblage without a redevelopment agreement that would have granted condemnation rights.
Also noteworthy is that the overlay approach was based upon full respect for the traditional lot sizes of the neighborhood. This restriction would force the partnership to do development on the intimate, urban scale of Old North St. Louis. However, the partnership intended to not only respect the scale of the neighborhood but its architecture as well. The plan of the partnership was to rehabilitate each of the nearly 30 buildings acquired, and later build on vacant land.
The goal of historic rehabilitation both honored the community’s pride in its heritage and allowed for utilization of an important financing mechanism: the state historic rehabilitation tax credit. That tax credit was key to ensuring that this project was economically feasible. The uncapped historic rehabilitation tax credit has seeming infinite use in north St. Louis and other areas where large-scale renewal is needed.
In the end, the partnership acquired about ten acres within a 25-acre redevelopment area. The remaining acreage includes streets and alleys — also key components of community renewal — as well as property owned by rehabbers, homeowners and businesses that are now stakeholders in the Crown Square project. As soon as assemblage reached desired levels, the partnership secured a redevelopment agreement with the city of St. Louis and sought financing to make the neighborhood’s dream come true. This is the project that should have been the basis for a smart distressed areas development project.
The result is a $32 million project that will create 78 residential units and 26,000 square feet of commercial space within a 16-block area. In a historic neighborhood with small blocks on a street grid, that’s a large project — and a great model for future endeavors in north St. Louis. Hopefully, the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit and the scale of development that it stipulates does not discourage people from learning lessons from Crown Village.
Follow the fast-paced construction work at Crown Square on the What’s New in Old North blog.
by Michael R. Allen
Yesterday Governor Matt Blunt signed into law the “economic development” omnibus passed by the Missouri legislature last week. The bill contains the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit, a measure designed to reimburse landbanking costs in impoverished areas. Specifically, the tax credits’ authors intend for them to be used in north St. Louis for a project by developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. The details of that project are not available to elected officials or citizens.