Blog > Blog > 2008 > October

October 31, 2008 at 11:21 am

Last October a pair of big projects were announced for the northern section of the Forest Park Southeast (The Grove) neighborhood. One was to be developed by Jerry King of Citirama fame (Gaslight Square) and the other by Saaman. I was as excited as the next guy about these projects, but following the collapse of Saaman and the continual silence about the projects I just assumed they were dead like so many others. Turns out I was wrong. Read more

October 30, 2008 at 12:58 pm

We all know them, we all hate them. They are pigeons. Or if you prefer, “rats with wings.” As with squirrels, they are fine in rural or suburban settings where there numbers are limited, but in urban areas they can be a real pain. They are noisy when they roost and I don’t need to tell you about the mess they leave behind. So how do you get rid of them? Read more

October 29, 2008 at 3:10 pm

In the current economic environment, I see a lot of people worrying about their own personal economic situation. The typical pattern is to pull back on expenditures and investments, which is a natural and understandable reaction. For many people, this conservative approach is the best way to weather a storm like this. However, for the more adventurous at heart, times like these are not time for panic, but of opportunity. The chance to make profit through real estate might be the best it will ever be in our lifetimes. Read more

October 24, 2008 at 9:54 pm

Following the power outages of the summer of 2006, Ameren UE began tackling a lot of deferred maintenance. In the two years since those massive thunderstorms passed through St. Louis, Ameren has made some big strides in clearing overhanging branches from local power lines. Now it’s onto the next phase of the cleanup process: your properties. Read more

October 22, 2008 at 5:55 pm

While Cherokee Avenue in the Benton Park and Benton Park West neighborhoods as had its share of troubles in the past few years, there is no doubt that the overall outlook has looked continually positive. I’ve posted about Cherokee locations such as The Stable and Foam, but it looks like the whole area is getting a pat of the back. This time from the Riverfront Times in their Annual “Best of” list. Read more

October 21, 2008 at 5:46 pm

Tucked away in the northeast corner of the Benton Park neighborhood of South St. Louis, neglected and lonely, is the former Falstaff Brewery. Maybe not as beautiful or well known as its cousin 10 blocks to the south, the Lemp Brewery, but a piece of local history nonetheless. But while talk has continual gone on for years about redeveloping the old Lemp complex, the Falstaff has gotten far less fan fare. Read more

October 21, 2008 at 5:04 pm

I just came across a bit more information about the one of the projects in Forest Park Southeast (The Grove) that I spotlighted yesterday. It turns out that this building at 4212 Manchester is going to be a green development. Surprisingly, this would be the first green development in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood. Plans submitted to St. Louis City estimated that the project would cost $2.1 million.

I found that information on Forest Park Southeast’s website. While I was there, I also found another interesting bit of information about the neighboring parcels at 4542-44 Manchester. Here is what the site says is going on with the property:

Developer: Peter George, Blue Shutters Raineri
Description: Request the purchase of two vacant LRA lots to be developed as a 24,000-36,000 square foot retail/office building. The developers are assembling properties for the project.
Estimated Project Cost: $4.2 million
Development Committee Action: Supported request to purchase two vacant LRA lots.

If this project could actually get off the ground, there would be an impressive amount going on along this block. With Mia Rosa alread finished, and the Sitelines Project underway, this could add yet another pip to the collar.

October 20, 2008 at 9:40 pm

As with Benton Park, there are a lot of smaller sized projects going on in Forest Park Southeast (aka the Grove). While most of these projects are being worked on by Amy and Amrit Gill’s Restoration St. Louis, but there are other developers in play. I have spotlighted some of these projects in the past (see Update on activity in FPSE and 3 developments in FPSE), but some are new Read more

October 17, 2008 at 12:17 pm

If you’ve had any trouble over the past few days with the website or feed not loading correctly, its not you. I’ve been tweaking a few things behind the scenes and things have gone down a few times. I fixed the broken and misformatted feed issue last night as well as most website issues. I don’t anticipate any problems on the main site from here on out. If you have any issues, particularly with the feed, I would appreciate a heads up via email or contact form.

I will, however, be continually working on a property database for properties currently on the market. Some of the less promionant pages could be a little glitchy over the next week. I’m delving into come css and php programing that is a little (a lot) out  of my league, so bare with me.

October 17, 2008 at 10:18 am

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but the looting in our area seems to be getting worse all the time. Whether the target is scrap or antiques, its running rampant. Most of the time, the cost is economic, but sometimes the cost is much higher. Unfortunately, this is a pretty egregious case of the latter. Read more

October 14, 2008 at 2:41 pm

I am happy to say that my rehab project, which was my life for 5 months worth of weekends and evenings, is now under contract. I should mention that this is after only 5 days on the market. And this offer came in on Sunday so it was really about 3 days. I also had a verbal offer (too low) and another buyer who was going to write one today. I couldn’t be happier with the response. Read more

October 14, 2008 at 1:20 pm

As a followup to my post about Koronaz, the proposed (but probably dead) bar/restaurant in Benton Park, I drove through the rest of the Benton Park neighborhood and took pictures of a few prominent rehab projects currently going on in the neighborhood. Anyone who has written off this area as dead is missing out on some great opportunities. Here are a few projects that i thought were noteworthy: Read more

October 14, 2008 at 1:15 pm

I just got some terrible news on this. I just got a message from a reader who said that the Neighborhood Association didn’t approve their proposal. They wanted the Friday and Saturday hours to be restricted to 10pm. Knowing they couldn’t compete with other nearby establishments under those restrictions, Koronaz walked away. If anyone reading this was part of the group fighting this, I have a personal message to send out:

Shame on YOU! Someone wants to invest their hard earned money and labor in your neighborhood, during a downturn in the economy, and you tell them to buzz off. I live about four blocks away from this location and I know full well what the area is like. I just don’t see how you could think this would be a bad addition. There are still a lot of rough buildings in this part of the neighborhood. I’m glad to see that you support “progress”.

Sickening. Just sickening.

October 13, 2008 at 7:46 pm

I’ve been closely following a rehab project, being developed by Phoenix Redevelopment Group, in the Benton Park neighborhood of South St. Louis over the past few months. I always thought this building at 2730 McNair (at the corner of Lynch and McNair) had a lot of potential and was glad to see someone was taking it on. Now I find out that it’s not only under construction, it seems that they have a commercial tenant lined too: Koronaz. Read more

October 9, 2008 at 5:00 pm

I’ve seen quite a few Blue Brick signs in various areas of South St. Louis over the past couple of years, but never really took the time to find out more about them. A few weeks ago, Brad Roell, co-owner of Blue Brick, contacting me through this blog to see if I wanted to check out some of their projects. I accepted his invitation. Read more

Next Page »