South Florissant Road and West Florissant Avenue bear similarities beyond just their names.
Both four-lane arterial roads, just a few miles apart, traverse multiple north St. Louis County municipalities, with some stretches packed with storefronts and others serving as gateways to nearby suburban residential neighborhoods.
The roadways were also where protests and unrest erupted a decade ago in response to a white Ferguson police officer killing Michael Brown Jr. in 2014.
But 10 years later, the roads are worlds apart.
West Florissant saw the worst of the destruction, said Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones, who was first elected in 2013.
鈥淚t was unbelievable the anger people had,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 can remember coming home at night and just seeing devastation to places that were once thriving businesses and gathering places and literally sit there and just watch some of them go up in flames.鈥�
Dellwood, a neighbor of Ferguson with a population of roughly 5,000, saw similar destruction, Jones said. Here, 13 businesses burned, he said, quickly adding that figure eclipses the damage in Ferguson.
It鈥檚 a point Jones said he fought to highlight to the media that descended to the area because he wanted to make sure his city would also see economic development money.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want people to forget about Dellwood and just soak everything into Ferguson, which still kind of happened,鈥� he said.
鈥業t takes years to recover鈥�
Since then, Dellwood has made strides in rebuilding. Of the 13 businesses that burned down, only one came back, he said 鈥� an O鈥橰eilly Auto Parts. Jones said the city fought to attract new tenants to those sites.
鈥淚t takes time,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淓ven though things happened basically overnight, it takes years to recover.鈥�
Today, only one of those 13 sites doesn鈥檛 have a development plan, he said. The rest are beginning to bear fruit.
Earlier this year, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis on the same lot along West Florissant Avenue that used to have an Auto Zone. Every unit was filled the day it opened, said Michael K. Holmes, executive vice president for the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at what鈥檚 next,鈥� he said, describing a new north county senior living center. 鈥淚t鈥檒l be bigger, probably 100 or more units.鈥�
The organization also plans to break ground Friday on a $10 million business plaza on the other side of West Florissant that will have a bank, restaurant, storefronts and multipurpose space that could host community meetings or small receptions.
The Urban League also helped build the in Ferguson, which helps residents with job placement, on the site of a QuikTrip gas station that burned on West Florissant.
Holmes said these developments are the result of the commitment from Michael P. McMillan, the Urban League鈥檚 president and CEO, to invest and rebuild on the lots affected by the unrest a decade ago.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 react or do something immediately, people move on,鈥� he said.
This commitment may spur other businesses and organizations to follow suit and invest in the area, Holmes hopes.
Jones, the Dellwood mayor, also notes there are business plazas that have been rebuilt with new tenants and others that were long vacant have been filled in.
It鈥檚 still a work in progress.
鈥淲e are still recovering,鈥� said Idowu Ajibola, who owns African Depot, a small grocery and retail store tucked behind an auto shop and across from the senior living facility on West Florissant.
Ajibola has been in this space since 2006 and ran the pharmacy next door before selling it in 2021. He said the unrest spurred him to carry fewer beauty supply products because they were frequently stolen.
鈥淭he building was broken into. The doors were broken,鈥� Ajibola said. 鈥淲e had to do a lot of close down [for] repairs.鈥�
These days, traffic to his store is growing more consistent as people search for his unique African products, such as Ghana yam or garri, flour made from cassava root. Still, Ajibola said there could stand to be more shops directly around his store on West Florissant.
鈥淲e need some more business, family places, grocery stores around here,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd shopping areas.鈥�
Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones (no relation to Dellwood鈥檚 mayor) agrees and adds a sit-down restaurant to that list.
鈥淛ust as much as South Florissant is growing, we need West Florissant to grow,鈥� she said.
Reimagining West Florissant
One way regional leaders hope to promote new growth is through that will bring greenery, raised grass medians, islands where pedestrians can safely cross the busy road and other improvements.
The project dates back to 2013, and Dellwood Mayor Jones said it has taken years to secure a crucial grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
鈥淲e applied every year, but it was not until Joe Biden鈥檚 administration got in office, we got to meet with Pete Buttigieg and his department, and we were awarded the grant,鈥� he said.
The $30.4 million project is fully funded, said David Wrone, public information manager of the St. Louis County Department of Transportation and Public Works. He said federal grants account for $21.8 million and local funds, the majority coming from St. Louis County, make up the remaining $8.6 million.
Construction is set to begin in fall 2025 and expected to take a few years.
In preparation for the redesign, the cities of Ferguson, Dellwood and Jennings have each adopted comprehensive zoning ordinances that will help guide new developments along the corridor.
Dellwood Mayor Jones calls the zoning law 鈥渁 great asset鈥� and said it will help the city avoid allowing businesses it doesn鈥檛 want along West Florissant, like payday lending facilities, and promote ones it does want, like a sit-down restaurant.
鈥淓verybody would like to shop, play and eat and don鈥檛 go too far from home,鈥� he said.
A 'Black business haven'
The street redesign and new zoning are a start, but more funding is always needed, said Ferguson Mayor Jones. She said her No. 1 goal in the coming years is to help West Florissant develop the vibrancy that has flowered along South Florissant Road.
鈥淚t鈥檚 [thousands of] cars that pass West Florissant every day,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e need them to stop. If we don鈥檛 have a reason to stop, they鈥檙e going to keep going.鈥�
But replicating South Florissant鈥檚 vibrancy in other north county business corridors may not be as easy, said Tony Davis, who owns Pop Pop Hurray!, a gourmet popcorn and ice cream shop on South Florissant. Small businesses do better when they鈥檙e next to some kind of anchor that acts as a main draw for traffic, he said.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not built to survive on their own,鈥� he said.
Since he opened his shop four years ago, the stretch around his business has developed into a 鈥淏lack business haven,鈥� he said, easily rattling off roughly a dozen businesses nearby, including mainstays such as Cathy鈥檚 Kitchen and recent additions like the Hive Cafe.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an energy there,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a real concentration of Black-owned businesses in such a small area. I don鈥檛 know of any other place like that in St. Louis.鈥�
Davis said he was struck by the outpouring of support he received when he opened in 2020. The previous tenant, a Quiznos, had moved out after being vandalized in the unrest that followed George Floyd鈥檚 murder in May of that year, he said. When Davis took over, the space was covered in glass.
鈥淚 remember how happy people were because it was something that was bright, vibrant, kid friendly. And something that was opening in a time that everything was closing,鈥� he said.
As a father of three, it was important to him to open a place that reflected what he wanted to see in his community. Davis encourages other people considering opening new businesses in north county to do the same.
鈥淐reate the stuff that we want outside of what we typically get, the stuff that we have to go outside of the community [for],鈥� Davis said.
Community resources
Davis has the type of energy that Beverly Jenkins sees more broadly among people and organizations across north St. Louis County.
鈥淲hatever they feel like is missing, they鈥檝e decided to create it,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd I think that鈥檚 beautiful.鈥�
Jenkins and her husband, Ken, both pastors in the area, did the same thing with Refuge and Restoration, their nonprofit, whose CEO is Jenkins. It runs the R&R Marketplace, a $20 million redevelopment of a previously vacant Dellwood stripmall.
The 90,000-square-foot site now hosts a plethora of services to help promote economic mobility and access, including a bank, child care facility, addiction recovery and treatment, employment training and coworking space.
鈥淭hese were the opportunities we felt like were missing in [the] community,鈥� Jenkins said. 鈥淪paces that our community was traveling to or utilizing in other neighborhoods or communities but was not accessible in their own.鈥�
Providing this kind of access, especially to a bank that鈥檚 interested in investing into community-based ventures, has proved essential, Jenkins said. Since the opening last September, she said she鈥檚 had many interactions with community members, some who even have lucrative jobs but still struggled to finance new businesses.
鈥淲e鈥檙e already creative enough. We already know what it is that we want,鈥� Jenkins said. 鈥淲e understand how to do business, but we don鈥檛 necessarily have access to the capital to get it done.鈥�
Even the Jenkinses faced a challenge in securing financing for the marketplace. The idea for it came before the protests and unrest in 2014, which intensified their commitment to seeing the project through.
鈥淚t took us these many years because, honestly, there鈥檚 not a lot of private equity investments in communities that people forget about,鈥� she said.
That long timeline reflects the strategic economic disinvestment that happened across north St. Louis County communities for decades, Jenkins said.
More than only Ferguson
And this reality isn鈥檛 confined to the city or immediate area around where Michael Brown lived, said Jessica Carter. The conditions and challenges that were scrutinized intensely in Ferguson after his death are also present in other north St. Louis County municipalities, she said.
鈥淔erguson was not the only [place] that needs the additional support of our officials,鈥� Carter said.
Carter is the site director for the North County Community Nexus, a forthcoming redevelopment of the old Hathaway Hills Shopping Center on the border of Jennings and Bellefontaine Neighbors.
The nearly $10 million project by A Red Circle, a nonprofit that promotes community betterment in north St. Louis County by responding to racial equity issues, is still in its early stages but has secured a $3 million grant.
And there鈥檚 already activity at the intersection of Lewis and Clark Boulevard and Jennings Station Road. A small garden along the road is producing cucumbers, collard greens, watermelons and other food.
鈥淭he neighbors, they love it,鈥� Carter said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not for us at all; it鈥檚 for the community.鈥�
Healthy foods are a cornerstone of this project. There are plans for a demonstration kitchen to help teach those in the surrounding community how to make healthier foods on their own, Carter said.
About 10,000 square feet of the shopping center will be transformed into a grocery store, to provide a high volume of nutritious produce from local farmers and other providers for an area Carter describes as a food desert.
The nearest grocer is a few miles away, meaning many people in the surrounding area shop at the nearby convenience store for a lot of their needs, Carter explained.
鈥淲e鈥檙e all not privileged enough to get from A to B without any restrictions,鈥� she said.
Similar to the R&R Marketplace in Dellwood, the goal of the Nexus is to bring economic access and wellness to part of north St. Louis county. The development will also feature a small-business incubator and spaces for entrepreneurs to lease, she added.
The services that will eventually be housed in this development directly reflect what the community members living around it want to see, she said, adding they deserve as much access to these resources as any other part of north county.
鈥淢ike Brown wasn鈥檛 confined to one city,鈥� Carter said. 鈥淚t happens all over.鈥�
