Seven crumbling multifamily homes along Kingshighway near Interstate 64 in St. Louis managed to stay standing through years of neglect, but they were no match for the excavator that quickly turned them to rubble in late February.
The emergency demolition ordered by the city makes way for a new apartment development and removed some of St. Louis' most prominent vacant homes, situated near one of its busy intersections.
鈥淭he neighborhood behind these buildings made extraordinary gains over the last couple of decades,鈥� said Alderman Michael Browning, whose . 鈥淎nd yet you wouldn鈥檛 know it by looking at these properties.鈥�
There had been plans to revitalize some of the homes in the early 2000s that never materialized, he explained. They were vacant by 2014 and then bounced between a few owners who Browning said avoided investing in stabilizing them.
鈥淛ust a really cynical strategy of demo by neglect in order to get around preservation ordinances,鈥� he said.
Multiple development ideas for the parcels came and went.
Drury Development Corp. had planned to build a hotel before it sold the land to apartment developer Lux Living in 2021, which had ambitions to build an apartment building on the site. Those plans were marred by the city鈥檚 historic preservation board, though, which , saying the properties had architectural merit and could still stand for a few more months.
All the while the row of homes along Kingshighway continued to decay until the , Browning said. While that case worked through the courts, Lux Living , who then sold them to the current owners, Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development.
鈥淎s soon as they bought them, it was communicated that the properties were in terrible condition, unable to be saved,鈥� Browning said. 鈥淭here were a couple of partial collapses that happened right before the sale occurred.鈥�
Developers scooping up properties only to let the buildings on them sit vacant and decay is a familiar story to Torrey Park, director of the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative.
鈥淯ltimately, it鈥檚 about private owners who purchase land or purchase a building with the idea that they can turn it into a profit,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 speculative.鈥�
Similar situations have plagued north St. Louis neighborhoods, which have the overwhelming majority of the city鈥檚 , she said.
The newly cleared lots along Kingshighway aren鈥檛 set to stay that way. Their new owner, NorthPoint Development, has with roughly 150 units.
The developer also intends to construct a second apartment building to the north, on land owned by Washington University between Chouteau and Gibson avenues, totaling 328 new units between the two projects and costing nearly $120 million.
NorthPoint Vice President of Development Jennifer George explained the developer is attracted to 鈥渢he continued demand for housing鈥� in the area close to the Barnes-Jewish Hospital campus, Wash U鈥檚 medical campus and Cortex.
鈥淲e鈥檙e super excited about the connectivity opportunity there,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of bike (and) pedestrian connections in the area. It鈥檚 got good Metro access.鈥�
These kinds of assets can make development enticing but aren鈥檛 evenly spread across St. Louis, which underscores why there isn鈥檛 a one-size-fits-all approach that will solve the city鈥檚 vacancy challenges, Park said.
鈥淭he north side has less of an infrastructure,鈥� she said, 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 have the same kinds of amenities. You鈥檝e got food deserts, lack of banking institutions.鈥�
Park argues this is by design.
St. Louis鈥� central corridor historically received more economic development incentives and investment attention than north St. Louis and some southside neighborhoods such as Dutchtown and Gravois Park, she said.
鈥淭o really redevelop, (those areas) need an influx of cash,鈥� Park said.
Striving for equity
The city does have cash from the American Rescue Plan Act and Rams settlement, some of which is allocated to spur development.
鈥淐apital funds, incentives, tax credits, all of those are tools that can be used,鈥� Park said. 鈥淲e need to think about where the need is and not necessarily divide those funds equally across the city.鈥�
Mayor Tishaura Jones agrees.
鈥淭hat is equity,鈥� she said. 鈥淭aking a look at where resources are needed and pouring [them] into neighborhoods and places that haven鈥檛 seen investment in decades.鈥�
It鈥檚 the underpinning of the city鈥檚 economic justice action plan, which seeks to reverse the historic harm done to the city鈥檚 majority Black and brown neighborhoods from decades of disinvestment.
Jones clarified that it doesn鈥檛 take away from neighborhoods that have seen revitalization, but rather focuses attention on the parts of the city that still need it.
鈥淗alf of our city has been left to fail for decades and these are the steps we鈥檙e taking so that all boats in the tide rise,鈥� she said.
The visibility of vacancy
While the properties along Kingshighway may have been highly visible to thousands of vehicles passing by them each day, they aren鈥檛 perfect surrogates for the majority of vacancy in St. Louis.
Just 5.5% of the parcels are vacant in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood, which includes The Grove entertainment district. More than two dozen north city neighborhoods have parcel vacancy rates above 20%, according to . Two-thirds of the city鈥檚 vacant parcels have no building on them, and some empty swaths span entire blocks.
鈥淔olks living in the areas with high vacancy have to live next to it every day,鈥� Park said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very visible to them.鈥�
And it can be more than just a visual marker, said West End resident Tonnie Smith, who has advocated for ways to improve her north St. Louis neighborhood for more than a decade.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just 鈥榦h, it鈥檚 terrible to look at,鈥� but it affects our mental health and also property values,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd just safety in general.鈥�
When Smith and her family first moved into their home 17 years ago, nearly half of the 50 structures on her block were empty, she said. Today, only eight remain that way, and they鈥檙e all maintained, Smith said.
This change was far from automatic, but instead something Smith and her neighbors spent years working toward.
鈥淲e always wished these vacant properties would somehow be taken care of,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e would talk about it all the time.鈥�
Smith said she began her journey into improving the neighborhood after leaving her role as a branch manager at U.S. Bank. Her neighbors and family encouraged her to learn how other parts of the city became thriving centers with active parks and clean alleys.
What started as work to beautify the neighborhood shifted to addressing vacancy, she said.
鈥淲e shouldn鈥檛 just plant flowers and make things look nice when we have all this abandonment,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hen learning about the things that were done on purpose to cause this was another reason that was important to me to help rectify [the vacancy].鈥�
鈥業t does not happen overnight鈥�
Revitalizing a neighborhood with higher vacancy can be quite challenging because of how empty buildings and lots can drag down property values, said Linda Nguyen, executive director of the Community Builders Network of Metro St. Louis. She added that vacancy also hurts neighborhoods by giving a perception that they have minimal activity.
鈥淚t makes people not want to invest in neighborhoods,鈥� Nguyen said. 鈥淪eeing things that are happening, it makes people want to be part of it. When people don鈥檛 see anything happening, there鈥檚 nothing to be a part of.鈥�
Reversing this image can take many years of work where the fruits of that labor aren鈥檛 obvious, she explained.
鈥淲hen it comes to neighborhood change, I think [it鈥檚 important] to remind folks it does not happen overnight,鈥� Nguyen said. 鈥淭here is a strategy and intentionality to it.鈥�
This is something Smith is familiar with from her own experience in the West End neighborhood. It took time to both document the vacancy and explain to her neighbors which lots they were focused on, Smith said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e focusing on the properties that are in really bad shape and causing issues from trespassing, people breaking in, the ones that are really causing issues for the neighborhood,鈥� she said.
One success about six years ago that stands out for Smith is when she helped persuade the owner of a vacant duplex to sell the property, which had had continual calls to the police for various reasons. She explained she got important help from organizations like Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to facilitate the sale.
鈥淧eople were really amazed by that on my street that we were able to do that ourselves,鈥� she said.
Neighborhood plans
More recently, Smith said neighborhood residents were able to develop a neighborhood plan, with some funding from , which . It lays out priorities for the area such as developing the center of the neighborhood at Maple Avenue and Goodfellow Boulevard, turning the Hodiamont tracks into a greenway and others, Smith said.
鈥淭hrough many years and a lot of community engagement, I think residents saw we can have a say in what happens to our neighborhood,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o when people do want to come into the neighborhood, they can use this as a guideline to know what it is the residents have said they wanted.鈥�
are powerful tools to guide development that responds to local challenges and fits what residents desire, Nguyen said.
鈥淎 lot of our [community] organizations are in the know,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the shortcut: they know the residents who live there, they know the businesses around there, they know where the open vacant buildings are and how long it鈥檚 been vacant.鈥�
Nguyen adds Forest Park Southeast is now reaping the benefits of a , which lays out rules for how developments should look on particular parcels based on input and feedback from existing community stakeholders, like local residents and business owners.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 something the neighborhood had a say in 10 years ago,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the power they have.鈥�
And beyond written plans and codes, Nguyen said continued neighborhood representation and engagement in development proposals is also critical.
The Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood Association has regular meetings and a where residents and those who work in the neighborhood consider opportunities that come up.
George, with NorthPoint Development, said she finds it refreshing to work with a neighborhood that is well organized and has formalized ways of engagement. It makes soliciting feedback from many residents a lot easier, she added.
鈥淎 lot of times where we might do neighborhood engagement or outreach, we鈥檙e trying to do cold letter mailings or cold door knocking to introduce ourselves,鈥� George said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have to do this here.鈥�
NorthPoint is still working out some of the details for the new apartments, and George said she expects direct feedback from the community will influence how those plans look once finalized.
