Earlier this year, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis announced their intention to purchase the Caleres company headquarters in Clayton, a 6.7-acre property that has been described as “the most valuable real estate in the St. Louis area.”
On December 19, OTSL closed on the property after 11 months of extensive due diligence. The site is set to be redeveloped as a state-of-the-art performing arts center that will act as both a permanent home for the OTSL and a venue for other arts organizations.
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“We are excited and humbled to step into this new chapter,” said OTSL general director Andrew Jorgensen in a release announcing the purchase. “This land purchase is the single most significant transaction in our 50-year history and will be transformative for our organization as we plan for a new, permanent home that will add to the artistic vibrancy of our region. This moment is only possible thanks to the extraordinary generosity and support of our community, and we look forward to being in dialogue with OTSL’s audiences, local arts partners, and Clayton stakeholders about how this site can become a civic asset that serves the entire region.”
The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis has spent the last half-century mounting performances at Webster University’s Loretto-Hilton Center and celebrating its season in the adjoining gardens. Jorgensen told SLM in March that, while Webster has been “a great partner,” the Loretto-Hilton was not built for the needs of the opera.
“The truth is that space was never designed to do what an opera company asks it to do,” said Jorgensen. “The orchestra pit is inadequate. The wing space, the backstage space, the fly tower, the acoustics have famously never been strong in that space. And so we’ve been talking about this. If you go back and read our strategic plans at five-year increments, going back 20 years, at least, we’ve been talking about the need to address this challenge.”
Now, OTSL plans to address that challenge with a proposed space that would place all of the theater’s operations under one roof. According to OTSL, early studies indicate that the proposed redevelopment of the Caleres site into a year-round performing arts space could increase the region’s GDP by approximately $3.9 million and generate new tax revenue of more than $800,000 annually.
“We couldn’t be more pleased that our current property will be redeveloped by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis—like us, an organization with deep roots in the St. Louis community,” said Caleres president and CEO Jay Schmidt in the same release. “Their new performing arts center will benefit not only Clayton but the entire St. Louis metro area.”
OTSL says the next step for the project is to solicit input and feedback from community members and work with the City of Clayton on permitting and design approvals. Audiences can expect to experience a few more garden parties and performances at the Loretto-Hilton before the vision for a new Opera Theatre of Saint Louis becomes a reality.
“While we are full of optimism and excitement, we still have a great deal of work to do to realize our vision for a new home,” Jorgensen said. “I want to thank Webster University for their decades of collaboration and support—we look forward to presenting several more seasons at the Loretto-Hilton Center and continuing our partnership with the university for many years beyond that.”
