Four long-vacant buildings in North City are getting extra attention from the city—which plans to hire contractors to shore up the sites to the point that developers can restore them for future use.
All four buildings have deep significance to local Black history:
Get a fresh take on the day’s top news
Subscribe to the St. Louis Daily newsletter for a smart, succinct guide to local news from award-winning journalists Sarah Fenske and Ryan Krull.
- The Wellston Loop Pavilion in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood, once a hub for North City public transit.
- Club Imperial in Walnut Park West, which helped launch Ike and Tina Turner, and, in turn, helped integrate St. Louis’ music scene.
- Chuck Berry’s former home in the Greater Ville, where he lived in the 1950s and recorded hits including “Johnny B. Goode” and “Maybellene.”
- The Sara-Lou Cafe in the Greater Ville, a destination for local diners and visiting luminaries alike from 1945 to 2002.
All four are owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority, the land bank that serves as “owner of last resort” for vacant properties lost to abandonment or foreclosure. During its ownership, several of the buildings have deteriorated badly, alarming preservationists. Sara-Lou, as just one example, has been considered a “place in peril” by the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation dating back to 2018.
The St. Louis Development Corporation is determined to stop the slide and attract owners who can put the buildings to constructive—and historically appropriate—use.
“It’s not as high-profile as a Millennium Hotel or Railway Exchange, sure, but these projects face similar challenges where they’re underwater,” explains St. Louis Development Corporation CEO Neal Richardson. “In order to get a developer to come in, you have to get it at least back to zero to create a clean slate.”
To that end, the SLDC has issued a request for bids for structural and related work on Sara-Lou (a pre-bid meeting is set for March 7; sealed bids are due March 19). Once their work is done, Richardson says SLDC will work in partnership with the community to develop requests for proposals for future ownership. The goal is not getting maximum value for the properties, but rather finding the right steward, he says.
The city plans to spend up to $5.5 million on rehab work for the four buildings, most of it coming from American Rescue Plan Act dollars, Richardson says. That’s not huge in light of their needs—but considering the $5.9 million earmarked to help major buildings downtown including the Millennium Hotel, it suggests how highly the city is prioritizing this work.
For Richardson, who was born and raised in North City—he grew up in Penrose Park, and his parents still live in the Lewis Place neighborhood—the project comes with a sense of urgency.
“Any moment, one of these buildings could collapse, and the history can be completely gone,” he says. “Our focus right now is just trying to get it completed, get it stabilized, and create some momentum in North City that shows that people care and that those assets are important to the fabric of our city.”
