St. Louis Neighborhood Development Blog
A Catalog of St. Louis developments, large and small
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The mixed use building at 4831-37 Fountain Avenue may not be long for this world without immediate stabilization.
The building, which sits on the northeast corner of the lovely, oblong Fountain Park, beautifully envelops the gentle curve of its host street in a way we rarely see today. This is especially true since so many commercial buildings on complex parcels, like triangular wedges and traffic circles, have been demolished for much smaller, automobile-oriented buildings with parking lots.
It has been nearly six years since St. Louis blogger Toby Weiss has profiled this elegant building, and even then the building looked worse for the wear. Today, the building it at a crisis point and needs immediate investment to patch holes in its roof and repair the beautiful, though crumbling, storefront.
Below is a 2007 image from Toby Weiss’s BELT blog:
While it is hard to clearly make out the subsequent deterioration in this 2013 photograph obtained from the nextSTL Twitter account, nevertheless, conditions have indeed worsened.
So, readers, if you know of any angel investors willing to approach the owner of this property—Titsworth Properties, LLC according to Geo St. Louis—and make an offer on it, please do so. This is not to say the building is for sale, or even that the current owner is willing to fix the property up, but it’s worth a shot to try to save one of St. Louis’s most unique commercial properties, isn’t it?
Consider:
- The building is in a National Register of Historic Places district (Aubert Place-Fountain Park), which makes it eligible for federal and state historic tax credits.
- The building is located merely three blocks north of the bustling Central West End.
Click here for a map of the area.
Titsworth LLC’s Registered Agent is Mitchell D. Jacobs. His contact information is below.
Mitchell D. Jacobs
225 S. Meramec Ave., Ste. 1021T
Clayton, MO 63105
Telephone: (314) 726-6030 -
The Interstate Blood Blank is constructing a $2.5 million new facility at 5101 Delmar in the Academy neighborhood.
Below is a photograph from this weekend showing the progress.
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An old, mid-block mixed use storefront building located at 1419 North Market in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood may soon see a $75,000 rehab by owner AJ Squared, LLC. A building permit was issued on March 3, 2013 for interior and exterior alterations.
Below is a Google Streetview capture of the building:
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On a tidy block in the charming Penrose neighborhood on the city’s North Side sat a vacant home at 4420 Sexauer that brought down its home block. Thanks to a $60,000 rehab by the Acts Partnership, 4420 Sexauer now shines.
Below is a recent photograph of the rehabbed home (hat tip: 21st Ward NSO Michael Powers):
And here is a “before” shot, courtesy of Google Streetview:
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The large (and long vacant) apartment building at 4011 Delmar in the Vandeventer neighborhood just west of Midtown may soon see a rehab into 68 residential units, thanks to Low Income Housing Tax Credit approval by the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC). A permit application was filed with the City’s Building Division earlier this month, sent for approval by Zoning prior to issuance. Click here to read a St. Louis Business Journal article that mentions the 4011 Delmar project, called Freedom Place. The developer is the Vecino Group, LLC.
Below is a Geo St. Louis photograph of the building:
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A stately single family home at 5146 Vernon in the Academy neighborhood may soon see a $67,000 rehab. A building permit in that amount has been issued.
Below is a Google Streetview capture of the boarded structure:
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Three new homes will be built in College Hill by the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod’s National Housing Support Corporation. The homes are the first in a development called Nazareth Homes planned with several phases spanning over several blocks. More information on the development may be found here.
The homes will be located at the three lots spanning 1514-24 E. College Ave. The site is currently vacant lots. The groundbreaking for the project is today at 10am, on site.
Below is a rendering of the three homes:
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The hulking mixed use building at the corner of Blair and Salisbury in the Hyde Park neighborhood has been fully restored as a part of the Hyde Park South Development by developers Duffe Nuernberger. Overall, 50 new units have been created in 26 gut rehabbed buildings. The subject of this post—1435 Salisbury—was the largest single project of the bunch and the most iconic.
Below is a recent photograph of the recently completed rehab:
Here is a Google Streetview capture from August 2011, showing the previous state of the front facade:
For years the building sat open and un-boarded, leading to significant deterioration. Below is a shot from Geo St. Louis showing the building in 2007:
The rehabbed structure will house 1 large commercial space on the ground floor and 5 residential units.
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A single family home located at 5853 Saloma in the Walnut Park East neighborhood may soon undergo a $200,000 rehab by the Riverview-West Florissant Development Corporation.
Below is a Geo St. Louis photograph of the structure:
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The $9.8 million rehab of the St. Louis Stamping Lofts, part of the Farmworks development in the city’s Near North Riverfront neighborhood, is well underway.
The Stamping Lofts will house 56 affordable studio apartments geared towards veterans, the homeless, ex-offenders, and other special needs/at-risk populations. The goal of the Farmworks project is to connect these populations with job opportunities on-site, as the other buildings in the Farmworks complex (addressed at 101-125 Cass) will include an urban farm and green business incubator. More information about the development may be found on its website here.
Below is a recent photograph of the structure at 219 Cass, the residential component of Farmworks:
A different angle:
The rehabbed building will soon welcome travelers on the nearby new Mississippi River Bridge (also under construction) to a more sustainable, attractive Near North Riverfront.
Below is a small photograph from Farmworks’ site that shows the building in its previous state of ruin, having suffered a partial collapse following high winds last year (at left). The structure is shown stabilized at right.
Rehab photographs were provided by Ryan Albritton.
