It was in 2019 that Shane Million first moved to downtown St. Louis. A software engineer, he grew up in rural Scott County, Illinois, and St. Louis always felt like the big city. He’d come to town for Cardinals games and just be in awe.
And since moving to the city’s heart six years ago, he’s found a great lifestyle. At his current apartment, in The Victor, he can swim in the rooftop pool or play pickleball in the adjacent court. He walks everywhere. “My car is five and a half years old, and it’s got 21,000 miles on it,” he says. “Because all I do is walk to the grocery store. I walk to work. I want to go have a beverage somewhere, I walk—unless it’s freezing cold, and then I have an electric scooter.”
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He’s also found community. “When I lived in Chesterfield and West County, it was not as easy to make friends out there,” he says. “I’m not saying that the people are bad or anything, but there just wasn’t as much opportunity to meet people.” Now he can’t imagine living anywhere else.
The Downtown Neighborhood Association hopes to persuade other people to give downtown a chance and see what residents like Million are raving about. This Saturday, it’s hosting its Downtown Living Tour for the first time since 2018. Twelve residences—from a penthouse-style condo in the Syndicate building to a condo listing for less than $200,000 in the Printers Loft building—are showcased, with both rentals and units for purchase part of the mix. Participants can make their own path, viewing what they’re interested in and skipping what they’re not, with a complimentary shuttle to help them maximize their time, before joining downtown residents for an afterparty at Hayden’s Irish Pub.
Says Dan Pistor, chair of the neighborhood association, “We don’t just want to showcase the buildings. We also want to showcase the neighborhood and what living downtown is like.”
Both Pistor and Million scoff at the idea that downtown is violent. They agree that it experienced trouble in the pandemic, with stunt drivers using the area as a staging ground and short-term rental parties getting out of hand. But the city streets today feel peaceful, and both say they personally feel safe. Says Pistor, “I’ve lived downtown for 17,18 years, and I’ve never once encountered a violent incident.” Million echoes that, albeit for a shorter time frame.
But the neighborhood’s dangerous image has been a difficult one to shake after its pandemic woes generated not just local but national press. The Wall Street Journal’s reporting has made clear that downtown business districts across the nation are dealing with the kind of “doom loop” that it identified in St. Louis—and also made clear the definition only applied to one small area of downtown dealing with significant vacancy. Many online commenters haven’t been interested in the nuance. And downtown has seen a raft of closures even this year, including Blondie’s Coffee, Rated Test Kitchen, and even, yes, Hooters. Each had its unique reasons, but the overall impression has been less than rosy.
Sales figures maintained by the St. Louis REALTORS show no big movement on median prices in the 63101 and 63012 ZIP codes. Both dipped in the pandemic but later swung up a bit. The average time a residence spends on the market spiked during the pandemic, but in recent years has been lower on average than it was 10 years ago.
Pistor has lived through swings before, and he’s hopeful that downtown is headed in the right direction as proactive owners (such as Alex Oliver’s Oliver Properties and AHM Group in Downtown West) are replacing absentee ones.
“Those efforts have been a positive,” he says. “And that’s something where we’re in better shape than in 2018 or 2019.” He’d like to see more bars and restaurants fill vacant storefronts, but he likes the overall trendline.
And Million, who now serves as vice chair of the neighborhood association, has no complaints.
“There’s something special about this place,” he says. “I’m not saying that we can’t talk about some of the negative things, but let’s talk about some stuff that’s good for a change, too. Because there’s a lot of great stuff happening down here.”
Downtown Living Tour tickets are $15 and can be purchased online.
