The Centennial Malt House building (2017 Chouteau)—former home to Hamilton Hospitality‘s Vin de Set, PW Pizza, 21st Street Brewer’s Bar, and Moulin Events—never reopened after being damaged by a fire in September 2022. The company put the building up for sale shortly thereafter. Last week, Malt House Lofts, LLC, acquired the property. The majority owner is St. Louisan Rich Conyers, a principal at BOTI Architecture, which has an office in Lafayette Square.
The Project
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Plans for the renovated building include 17 loft apartments on the upper levels, a restaurant on the first floor, office space, and reuse of the building’s six event spaces, some of which can be combined. Conyers says the rooms can accommodate 20–220 seated guests in the large ballroom.
The former Vin de Set bar and rooftop deck will become an additional private event space, which can also be used as a pre-function area in conjunction with one of the other rooms.
The event spaces will be operated under a separate LLC headed by Conyers’ wife, Cally, who has extensive experience in corporate and wedding event planning. Malt House will be working with preferred catering partners, including Cally’s yet-to-be-named company. A dedicated banquet kitchen is being built to service the event spaces.
An as-yet-unnamed restaurant will occupy approximately 5,000 square feet on the southeast corner of the ground floor, the site of the former PW Pizza and Grand Petite Market. At this time, Conyers can only say that it will be “a full-service restaurant and bar from a small, well-known St. Louis restaurant group.” It will be a concept that Hamilton Hospitality co-founder Paul Hamilton says “will be different than anything else in the neighborhood,” which was part of the reason that he was so excited about it.
Conyers says The Malt House will be a phased project and that more information will be disseminated as the respective businesses are announced, but the first phase will include several of the seven event venues.
While Conyers and his wife are majority owners of Malt House Lofts, the other principals are Bo Hagerman (president at BOTI Architecture), Tim Flacke (principal at Midas Construction), and Ron Buerges (retired executive/consultant).
BOTI Architecture will act as architect and designer for the project. C2 Construction, another company owned by Conyers, will act as general contractor.
“We’re maintaining the exposed brick, the high ceilings, and the modern industrial aesthetic,” Conyers says. “We’re utilizing everything that the building naturally offers us.” He notes that while the shell of the building is intact and useable, most of the interior was water-damaged and needs to be fully renovated, which he refers to as “a very real renovation.”
Construction is expected to begin this fall, with full completion slated for late 2025.
The Backstory
Hamilton told SLM that following the fire in September 2022, “the building had to be completely gutted: electrical, HVAC, ductwork, lighting, drywall… All of that had to be replaced, and the costs were mind-boggling.”
Hamilton Hospitality’s other nearby businesses—Eleven Eleven Mississippi, Hamilton’s Urban Steakhouse & Bourbon Bar, Winnie’s Wine Bar, and two event spaces, Rhone Rum Bar and The Garage—remained operational (and continue so to this day). In spring 2023, however, the hospitality group put the Malt House building up for sale.
The negotiations with Conyers began soon afterward, says Hamilton. “Rich’s family has a history in restaurants, and both he and his wife have a foodservice background, but Rich ultimately became an architect and runs an office in the neighborhood,” says Hamilton. “His construction company takes on a lot of historic tax credit projects, so you can’t ask for a more perfect combination.”
Conyers says Hamilton was “very emphatic that we would be using the event venues and that there would be a restaurant component.”
There were other offers on the table, but Hamilton thought Conyers’ plan made the most sense for the neighborhood. “I like the idea of the lofts because it brings more diners to the area, and I’m excited for the restaurant, because it attracts more people to the area in general,” says Hamilton. “We kind of created a ‘restaurant row’ situation there, so I’m excited to put that piece of the puzzle back in place.”
Although the building had been under contract for several months, the closing occurred just last week. “Although it’s better known as the ‘Vin de Set building,’” Conyers says, “the proper name is Centennial Malt House, so we’ll be referring to it simply as The Malt House”—though he concedes that “we may be working uphill on that one.”
