A little more than a year since the much anticipated Marquette Homes project broke ground in South St. Louis, the rehabilitation of one of the most recognizable buildings in the $26.3 million scattered site project is nearly complete.
This week, community members got a look at the progress inside the Grandview Arcade along South Grand Boulevard, which has gone from a long-vacant building to one that will soon welcome residents leasing the affordable units in its upper floors.
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“It’s surreal,” says Tom Florent, a project manager with Lutheran Development Group, one of the organizations working on the project being spearheaded by Rise Community Development. “This is a behemoth of a building. It’s a landmark on the Southside and it was a long road to get this project to the closing table and under construction.”
Florent says Rise Community Development has managed to keep the overall project on time and under budget. Leasing for the 16 new affordable housing units (three 3-bedroom units, 10 2-bedroom units, and three one-bedroom units) could begin next month.
“I would imagine most of the second and third floor will be leased out and maybe even inhabited by the end of next month, if not very early November,” he says. “I can’t necessarily say for sure just because a lot of these things are moving timelines.” The first floor, which will eventually be commercial office space for nonprofit organizations, will take a little longer to finish out, Florent says.
The 16 affordable housing units in this building are part of the 52 overall being produced across nine properties in Gravois Park and Dutchtown. Within the overall Marquette Homes, 42 units are earmarked for people making up to 60 percent of the annual area median income, while 10 are specifically for those making up to 30 percent of the annual area median income ($68,100 and $34,050 for a family of four, respectively).
Inside the Grandview Arcade building, Florent says the project has taken pains to preserve historic features, such as terrazzo floors and a hallway the length of the building on the third floor. Other elements, like the decorative moulding, were recreated via 3D printing, he says.
Florent adds that it’s gratifying to see the project come together after the building sat vacant for years.
“You just have to keep pushing, and that’s the name of the game with anything dealing with old historic buildings. It’s only going to get more expensive,” he says. “It’ll never be cheaper than it is today to do them. And the more winters that these buildings go through, the worse shape that they get in if they’re not secured and stabilized correctly.”
Community members along for the interior tour remarked at the quality of the new apartments, in which natural light poured through new windows that effectively blocked out noise from the busy thoroughfare below.
“I’ve been watching this building for, I’d say, 15-plus years. It’s really nice to see something happen with the building that’s going to impact the community positively,” says nearby resident Antionette Bedessie. “Just for the building not to be vacant anymore will be a win. I live a block away and it’s just very exciting to see the project move along, and it’s moved along really quickly as well.”
And Community Builders Network Linda Nguyen noted how many apartments in the building have multiple bedrooms that families can make use of.
“It’s nice to see something that can actually accommodate the current residents in the area,” she says.
For Florent, it’s another sign of progress in this part of the city, as other developments focused on affordable housing or senior housing get floated or near their own groundbreakings.
“There’s a lot of momentum in this part of town,” he says.” It’s really a community effort by a lot of the nonprofit developers in the area.”
