I
wouldn't be surprised if this area is really booming in five
years," says an architect, referring to the Locust Business
District in St. Louis, an area running from 18th
St. to Jefferson Avenue, between Market Street and Washington
Ave.
The
architect making that prediction is Josh Bridie of the Lawrence
Group, project architect and manager of the restoration of
the old Hamilton-Brown Shoe Co. building on 21st
Street and Olive Street into insurance company offices for
Welsch, Flatness & Lutz, Inc.
"A
lot of development is going on in a number of buildings around
here," he notes. "Plus a lot of buildings have been sold,
and the area is picking up with new parking and landscaping."
According to Clarence "Turk" Turley, vice chairman of the
commercial real estate broker Colliers Turley Martin Tucker,
there is no question tax credits are helping to promote the
activity.
A.G.
Edwards, for example, is expanding eastward from its Jefferson
Ave. campus. The company is adding a four-story, 48,600-square-foot
addition to the A.G. Edwards Trust Building east of Jefferson,
and it bought the vacant Sherwood Medical Building on Olive
at 19th Street.
The
St. Louis Brewery and Taproom expanded on 21st
Street Dr. Karen Harris is opening a dentist's office a block
away at 20th Street and Locust.
MBL
Realty is developing the old six-story Willys-Overland Automobile
building at 23rd Street into facilities for the
SJI Companies. Across Locust, Bruton Stroube Studios Inc.
plans to renovate the 108-year-old Beethoven Conservatory
building into a photography studio. Across 23rd
Street from that, the Friedman Group plans to redevelop the
old People's Hospital into commercial or mixed commercial
and residential space.
Two
blocks north of Welsch, Flatness & Lutz sits the massive
Sporting News Building. Developer Robert Wood is preparing
to begin converting it and two neighboring buildings into
residential loft condominiums with parking and first floor
commercial space. The three-building complex will have a total
of 103 living units, he says.
While
there has been a corporate presence on the borders of the
area for years, with A.G. Edwards on the western edge of the
neighborhood and Busch Creative Services and Bank of America
on the eastern edge, Dennis Flatness, president of commercial
insurer Welsch, Flatness & Lutz, says the area is now
"coming alive with renovations, because a handful of entrepreneurs
have been willing to make the investment," helped by state
and federal tax credits.
"A
lot of firms today are looking for their own identities, and
looking to attract young employees with their creativeness,"
says Donald Woehle, vice president of Grubb & Ellis/Kromback
Partners, "and the buildings in the Locust Business District
are great for that." Both SJI and Welsch, Flatness & Lutz
are leaving space in large, Class A office buildings for "signature"
buildings of their own.
Above
Left: The
Lawrence Group rehabilitates the historic Hamilton-Brown Shoe
Company Building at 21st and
Olive Street for commercial insurance agency Welsch, Flatness
& Lutz.
Above
Right: This
artist's rendering shows the interior work spaces at the just
completed renovation of the Welsch Flatness & Lutz building.
"These
are wonderful buildings," says Mark Herman, principal of Gray
Design and design director on SJI's project. It takes patience,
time, and capital to do these buildings right, "but ability
to have brick in interior spaces and the amount of natural
light they have solves a lot of the problems that creative
companies are looking at. They're not antiseptic; they have
personality; they're comfortable; and they're spaces that
stimulate and motivate people."
Flatness
agrees, adding that when his company's restoration is complete,
"We'll have all the amenities of a Class A building at a significantly
lower cost. We'll have our own parking, and close access to
Union Station and restaurants."
At
the 176,000-square-foot Willys-Overland building, SJI chief
executive officer Mark Shevitz will be able to consolidate
his four operating companies, which provide everything from
creative services and event planning to call centers and order
filling for catalog and e-commerce orders. Currently, the
company's operations are split between two locations at One
Metropolitan Square and the 3600 block of Market Street.
"Downstairs
will be the staging area for trucks used by SJI Events," Shevitz
says. "We'll have two huge freight elevators, 7,500 pounds
each, to help us efficiently move merchandise from the ground
floor to the warehouse . . .and, of course, we'll have creative
offices."
"Everyone
says we are crazy to do this," he adds. "Most people wouldn't
put these operations together in the same building, much less
a multi-floor building."
The
interior of the 84-year-old Willys-Overland building hasn't
been occupied for 20 years, Shevitz says, and it has been
neglected for longer than that. It is getting all new systems:
HVAC, electricity, communications, plumbing and elevators;
and new windows, to create a modern interior while the exterior
is restored to its former appearance. "We're undoing 35 years
of dormancy," Shevitz says .
The
exterior restoration, he continues, "is a painstaking labor
of love and money. We are literally moving brick from one
facing to another to make the front perfect, because the brick
is no longer available." Tax credits, 25 percent on state
taxes and 20 percent on federal taxes, help to make it affordable.
"The
whole first floor will really please everybody," Herman says.
"We are catering to the streetscape and history of building.
It will be almost a hotel-like gathering space for all the
companies." Shevitz is even trying to get a Willys-Overland
car to put in the lobby window.
"There
is a lot of competition for people in creative fields," Herman
notes. "As Mark Shevitz is always saying, you are as good
as the people you have working for you. This building gives
him a leg up on his competition." And not only is the building
attractive, but the area is close to amenities, has easy access
to highways and convenient parking.
"Once
these buildings are restored, it definitely helps create an
image and has marketing appeal," Flatness says. "It's a different
kind of look than being in a Class A building. You don't look
like everyone else."
Welsch,
Flatness & Lutz will lease out the top four floors of
its 50,000-square-foot building. Grubb & Ellis/Krombach
Partners is the leasing agent. "We're getting a lot of interest
from advertising and technology companies, that are considered
modern businesses," Flatness says. "That old look with a techie
inside appeals to them."
While
the image the building creates is a plus, Flatness says the
chief reason for moving to the Locust Business District is
that it is a convenient location for both customers and employees.
"A good number of both are in Illinois," he says, "so a midtown
location with good highway access works out well."
The
tax credits, he adds, don't make or break a renovation, but
"they give you a much better finished product and keep a look
that distinguishes St. Louis."
