Business

Ferguson and Dellwood are building back from 2014 unrest damage

Published

1 year ago

August 9, 2024

[ad_1]

South Florissant Road and West Florissant Avenue bear similarities beyond their names.Both four-lane arterial roads, just a few miles apart, traverse multiple north St. Louis County municipalities, with some stretches packed with storefronts and others serving as gateways to nearby suburban residential neighborhoods.The roadways were where protests and unrest erupted a decade ago in response to a white Ferguson police officer killing Michael Brown Jr. in 2014.But 10 years later, the roads are worlds apart.West Florissant saw the worst of the destruction, said Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones, who was first elected in 2013.“It was unbelievable the anger people had,” he said. “I can remember coming home at night and just seeing devastation to places that were once thriving businesses and gathering places and literally sit there and just watch some of them go up in flames.”Dellwood, a neighbor of Ferguson with a population of roughly 5,000, saw similar destruction, Jones said. Here, 13 businesses burned, he said, quickly adding that figure eclipses the damage in Ferguson.It’s a point Jones said he fought to highlight to the media that descended to the area because he wanted to make sure his city would also see economic development money.“I didn’t want people to forget about Dellwood and just soak everything into Ferguson, which still kind of happened,” he said.

St. Louis County police gather outside a QuikTrip that was set ablaze during Ferguson unrest in 2014.

‘It takes years to recover’Since then, Dellwood has made strides in rebuilding. Of the 13 businesses that burned down, only one came back, he said — an O’Reilly Auto Parts. Jones said the city fought to attract new tenants to those sites.“It takes time,” Jones said. “Even though things happened basically overnight, it takes years to recover.”Today, only one of those 13 sites doesn’t have a development plan, he said. The rest are beginning to bear fruit.Earlier this year, the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis opened a $10 million, 42-unit senior living facility on the same lot along West Florissant Avenue that used to have an Auto Zone. Every unit was filled the day it opened, said Michael K. Holmes, executive vice president for the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.“We’re looking at what’s next,” he said, describing a new north county senior living center. “It’ll be bigger, probably 100 or more units.”The organization also plans to break ground Friday on a $10 million business plaza on the other side of West Florissant that will have a bank, restaurant, storefronts and multipurpose space that could host community meetings or small receptions.

Wiley Price

St. Louis American Community leaders prepare to cut the ribbon in front of the Ferguson Community Empowerment Center in July 2017. It’s on the site of the QuikTrip that was burned during protests following Michael Brown’s fatal shooting.

The Urban League also helped build the Ferguson Empowerment Center in Ferguson, which helps residents with job placement, on the site of a QuikTrip gas station that burned on West Florissant.Holmes said these developments are the result of the commitment from Michael P. McMillan, the Urban League’s president and CEO, to invest and rebuild on the lots affected by the unrest a decade ago.“If you don’t react or do something immediately, people move on,” he said.This commitment may spur other businesses and organizations to follow suit and invest in the area, Holmes hopes.Jones, the Dellwood mayor, also notes there are business plazas that have been rebuilt with new tenants and others that were long vacant have been filled in.It’s a work in progress.“We are still recovering,” said Idowu Ajibola, who owns African Depot, a small grocery and retail store tucked behind an auto shop and across from the senior living facility on West Florissant.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioIdowu Ajibola, the 66-year-old owner of African Depot, stands among traditional African clothing his wife sells on Aug. 2 at their store in Ferguson.

Ajibola has been in this space since 2006 and ran the pharmacy next door before selling it in 2021. He said the unrest spurred him to carry fewer beauty supply products because they were frequently stolen.“The building was broken into. The doors were broken,” Ajibola said. “We had to do a lot of close down [for] repairs.”These days, traffic to his store is growing more consistent as people search for his unique African products, such as Ghana yam or garri, flour made from cassava root. Still, Ajibola said there could stand to be more shops directly around his store on West Florissant.“We need some more business, family places, grocery stores around here,” he said. “And shopping areas.”Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones (no relation to Dellwood’s mayor) agrees and adds a sit-down restaurant to that list.“Just as much as South Florissant is growing, we need West Florissant to grow,” she said.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioA sunflower and other plants grow in a community garden next to a strip mall on Jennings Station and Lewis and Clark Roads on Aug. 2 in Bellefontaine Neighbors. The Hathaway Hills Shopping Center, right, will undergo a nearly $10 million redevelopment.

Reimagining West FlorissantOne way regional leaders hope to promote new growth is through a long-talked-about redesign of West Florissant that will bring greenery, raised grass medians, islands where pedestrians can safely cross the busy road and other improvements.The project dates back to 2013, and Dellwood Mayor Jones said it has taken years to secure a crucial grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.“We applied every year, but it was not until Joe Biden’s administration got in office, we got to meet with Pete Buttigieg and his department, and we were awarded the grant,” he said.The $30.4 million project is fully funded, said David Wrone, public information manager of the St. Louis County Department of Transportation and Public Works. He said federal grants account for $21.8 million and local funds, the majority coming from St. Louis County, make up the remaining $8.6 million.Construction is set to begin in fall 2025 and expected to take a few years.In preparation for the redesign, the cities of Ferguson, Dellwood and Jennings have each adopted comprehensive zoning ordinances that will help guide new developments along the corridor.Dellwood Mayor Jones calls the zoning law “a great asset” and said it will help the city avoid allowing businesses it doesn’t want along West Florissant, like payday lending facilities, and promote ones it does want, like a sit-down restaurant.“Everybody would like to shop, play and eat and don’t go too far from home,” he said.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioA collection of businesses line South Florissant Road on Aug. 2 in Ferguson.

A ‘Black business haven’The street redesign and new zoning are a start, but more funding is always needed, said Ferguson Mayor Jones. She said her No. 1 goal in the coming years is to help West Florissant develop the vibrancy that has flowered along South Florissant Road.“It’s [thousands of] cars that pass West Florissant every day,” she said. “We need them to stop. If we don’t have a reason to stop, they’re going to keep going.”But replicating South Florissant’s vibrancy in other north county business corridors may not be as easy, said Tony Davis, who owns Pop Pop Hurray!, a gourmet popcorn and ice cream shop on South Florissant. Small businesses do better when they’re next to some kind of anchor that acts as a main draw for traffic, he said.“They’re not built to survive on their own,” he said.Since he opened his shop four years ago, the stretch around his business has developed into a “Black business haven,” he said, easily rattling off roughly a dozen businesses nearby, including mainstays such as Cathy’s Kitchen and recent additions like the Hive Cafe.“It’s an energy there,” Davis said. “That’s a real concentration of Black-owned businesses in such a small area. I don’t know of any other place like that in St. Louis.”Davis said he was struck by the outpouring of support he received when he opened in 2020. The previous tenant, a Quiznos, had moved out after being vandalized in the unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder in May of that year, he said. When Davis took over, the space was covered in glass.“I remember how happy people were because it was something that was bright, vibrant, kid friendly. And something that was opening in a time that everything was closing,” he said.As a father of three, it was important to him to open a place that reflected what he wanted to see in his community. Davis encourages other people considering opening new businesses in north county to do the same.“Create the stuff that we want outside of what we typically get, the stuff that we have to go outside of the community [for],” Davis said.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioLove Davis, 60, of Belle Ridge, hands a bag of flavored popcorn to a customer on Aug. 2 at Pop Pop Hurray! in Ferguson.

Community resourcesDavis has the type of energy that Beverly Jenkins sees more broadly among people and organizations across north St. Louis County.“Whatever they feel like is missing, they’ve decided to create it,” she said. “And I think that’s beautiful.”Jenkins and her husband, Ken, both pastors in the area, did the same thing with Refuge and Restoration, their nonprofit, whose CEO is Jenkins. It runs the R&R Marketplace, a $20 million redevelopment of a previously vacant Dellwood stripmall.The 90,000-square-foot site now hosts a plethora of services to help promote economic mobility and access, including a bank, child care facility, addiction recovery and treatment, employment training and coworking space.“These were the opportunities we felt like were missing in [the] community,” Jenkins said. “Spaces that our community was traveling to or utilizing in other neighborhoods or communities but was not accessible in their own.”

Eric Schmid

St. Louis Public RadioBeverly Jenkins speaks with a community member in September 2023 during the grand opening of the R&R Marketplace in Dellwood.

Providing this kind of access, especially to a bank that’s interested in investing into community-based ventures, has proved essential, Jenkins said. Since the opening last September, she said she’s had many interactions with community members, some who even have lucrative jobs but still struggled to finance new businesses.“We’re already creative enough. We already know what it is that we want,” Jenkins said. “We understand how to do business, but we don’t necessarily have access to the capital to get it done.”Even the Jenkinses faced a challenge in securing financing for the marketplace. The idea for it came before the protests and unrest in 2014, which intensified their commitment to seeing the project through.“It took us these many years because, honestly, there’s not a lot of private equity investments in communities that people forget about,” she said.That long timeline reflects the strategic economic disinvestment that happened across north St. Louis County communities for decades, Jenkins said.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioA billboard advertises events programmed around the 10-year anniversary of Michael Brown Jr.’s killing in Ferguson.

More than only FergusonAnd this reality isn’t confined to the city or immediate area around where Michael Brown lived, said Jessica Carter. The conditions and challenges that were scrutinized intensely in Ferguson after his death are also present in other north St. Louis County municipalities, she said.“Ferguson was not the only [place] that needs the additional support of our officials,” Carter said.Carter is the site director for the North County Community Nexus, a forthcoming redevelopment of the old Hathaway Hills Shopping Center on the border of Jennings and Bellefontaine Neighbors.The nearly $10 million project by A Red Circle, a nonprofit that promotes community betterment in north St. Louis County by responding to racial equity issues, is still in its early stages but has secured a $3 million grant.And there’s already activity at the intersection of Lewis and Clark Boulevard and Jennings Station Road. A small garden along the road is producing cucumbers, collard greens, watermelons and other food.“The neighbors, they love it,” Carter said. “It’s not for us at all; it’s for the community.”

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioCars drive up and down West Florissant Avenue on Aug. 2 in Ferguson.

Healthy foods are a cornerstone of this project. There are plans for a demonstration kitchen to help teach those in the surrounding community how to make healthier foods on their own, Carter said.About 10,000 square feet of the shopping center will be transformed into a grocery store, to provide a high volume of nutritious produce from local farmers and other providers for an area Carter describes as a food desert.The nearest grocer is a few miles away, meaning many people in the surrounding area shop at the nearby convenience store for a lot of their needs, Carter explained.“We’re all not privileged enough to get from A to B without any restrictions,” she said.Similar to the R&R Marketplace’s in Dellwood, the goal of the Nexus is to bring economic access and wellness to part of north St. Louis county. The development will also feature a small-business incubator and spaces for entrepreneurs to lease, she added.The services that will eventually be housed in this development directly reflect what the community members living around it want to see, she said, adding they deserve as much access to these resources as any other part of north county.“Mike Brown wasn’t confined to one city,” Carter said. “It happens all over.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Business

Laclede’s Landing is moving from nightlife hub to neighborhood

Published

1 year ago

August 28, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

Laclede’s Landing has cycled through many identities throughout the history of St. Louis. Now, some people involved with its redevelopment in recent years hope the landing’s next one will be as a residential neighborhood.The small district tucked directly north of the Gateway Arch National Park has quietly undergone a massive redevelopment with more than $75 million pouring into the rehabilitation of many of the historic buildings at the landing.“We are starting to feel that momentum, especially in the last really 60 days. Things have drastically changed around here,” said Ryan Koppy, broker and owner of Trading Post Properties and the director of commercial property for Advantes Group.Advantes alone shouldered the rehabilitation of six of the historic buildings, which now sport a mix of apartments and retail or office space, he said. Four of those buildings are completed, and of the 119 apartments available, about 90% are filled, Koppy said.“It just shows you what kind of demand we do have for the area,” he said. “We’re separated from downtown a little bit, and for the tenants, their local park where they’re walking their dogs, it’s a national park.”

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioInterior of the Peper Lofts at Laclede’s Landing on Aug. 16

Another 40 apartments are set to come online next year along with some retail space, Koppy said. He added he’s noticed a wide range of people who are considering and moving into the newly refinished apartments.“It’s very mixed, surprisingly,” Koppy said. “We have a lot of young professionals, maybe on their second job out of [university], we have some empty nesters too.”Part of the newfound momentum comes from a new market, the Cobblestone, and coffee shop, Brew Tulum, opening recently and bringing more foot traffic to the area, said Brandyn Jones, executive director of the Laclede Landing Neighborhood Association. She added that more apartments are set to come online within the next few months.“We have a great riverfront area here and so there are plans in the works to activate those spaces, bring people in,” she said.That could be more daytime events, like a farmers market, music festivals (one of which is happening this weekend) or just bringing in food trucks to Katherine Ward Burg Garden, Jones said. It’s a departure from the identity the district held a few decades ago as a hub for nightlife and entertainment.“That’s part of what connects so many people to Laclede’s Landing,” Jones said. “It’s important to tell the story of where we’re evolving. It won’t be what it was in the same exact way, but it will still be fun, and it can be fun early morning, midday or late night.”It’s a view shared by Koppy.“It’s grown up, it’s a bit mature,” he said. “We’re not going to have 3 a.m. bars here anymore because we have residents here.”Koppy added that Advantes is joined by other developers working to rehabilitate buildings in the district.“We all work in unison,” he said. “If I get a call and [a client is] asking for something and maybe the square foot doesn’t really match up with what I have available, but I know it matches up over there, they’re getting a very warm welcome and introduction.”

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioRyan Koppy looks out the window of Brew Tulum Specialty Coffee Experience on Aug. 16 at the Cobblestone on Laclede’s Landing in downtown St. Louis.

This push toward making Laclede’s Landing a residential neighborhood also comes alongside broader conversations about the future of downtown St. Louis more generally as it looks to move away from a dependence on office space. While the city as a whole continues to lose population, downtown added about 1,700 people between 2010 and 2020, according to U.S. Census data.“It’s been wonderful timing to have all that going on, that stress that you’re not just in downtown to work has been critical to part of this rejuvenation and energy down here,” Jones said. “Sometimes people forget Laclede’s Landing is part of downtown, really the original downtown.”And success in the small district could spread beyond its small confines and potentially serve as a model for success, Koppy added.“My idea is, if we could get all the great things of St. Louis coming in through here, we can eventually spread that,” he said. “We understand we can’t change the whole world, but we’ll just make the effort to try and change the world around us.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Business

St. Louis barbecue festival Q in the Lou canceled

Published

1 year ago

August 27, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The largest barbecue competition and tasting festival in St. Louis, Q in the Lou, has been canceled. The event was planned for Sept. 6-8, but organizers decided to cancel it due to poor ticket sales and insufficient corporate sponsorship.The traveling festival had low attendance in Denver last week, said Sean Hadley, a festival organizer.“We made the tough decision to cancel Q in the Lou,” said Hadley. “We’re seeing a lack of support … it’s just not there.”The traveling event first came to St. Louis in 2015 and drew hundreds of people to downtown St. Louis for barbecue, live music and a “major party.”“It shut down out of the blue … I’ve gone every year,” said Scott Thomas, local chef and food blogger. “It’s brilliant. You could take a tour of some really amazing barbecue restaurants and competition barbecue guys all in one place.”In a late July news conference, city officials touted Q in the Lou as a significant tourism draw and a boost for downtown revitalization.“Bringing a signature national festival back to downtown St. Louis … is making us stronger,” Greater St. Louis Inc. CEO Jason Hall said then.Less than a month later, ticket holders from every festival stop learned they’d be refunded. On Monday, organizers privatized the Q in the Lou website and deleted its social media accounts.Conner Kerrigan, a spokesperson for Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office, said city officials are disappointed the festival won’t be back this year.“St. Louis knows how to throw a festival … bringing people together to celebrate our culture is one of the things we do best as a city,” Kerrigan said in a statement. “Should Q in the Lou try to come back next year or any year after that, they’ll have the support of the Mayor Jones administration.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Business

Alton’s Jacoby Arts Center likely to relocate permanently

Published

1 year ago

August 27, 2024

Natural Bridge

[ad_1]

The Jacoby Arts Center, a staple of Alton for many in the Metro East community, will likely permanently move out of its downtown building at the end of September.Its departure and relocation from the historic building that the arts center has called home for the past 20 years has created a tense situation for not only the arts center’s supporters but also the local development company working to revitalize Alton’s downtown that owns the building.“It’s an unfortunate situation,” said Chad Brigham, the chief legal and administrative officer with AltonWorks, the real estate company owned by another prominent local attorney working to develop the town. “I wish there wasn’t misunderstanding and disappointment in the community. It’s difficult sometimes to clarify that.”When news of the likely departure spread in June via a letter from the Jacoby Arts Center to its supporters, an outcry on social media quickly followed. Some assumed it would be the end of the arts center.“There’s a lot of feelings right now that I think are more about the building itself than there are about the Jacoby Arts Center,” said Valerie Hoven, vice president and treasurer of the nonprofit arts center’s board.For supporters of the Jacoby, moving from the building and likely never returning will be a sad affair. Exactly what’s next for the arts center remains unclear. However, Jacoby board members believe this will not be the end of the organization. It will likely look different though.

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioThe Jacoby Arts Center earlier this month in downtown Alton

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioThe Alton-based Jacoby Arts Center features more than 75 St. Louis-area artists and their work.

The history of the buildingFirst dubbed the Madison County Arts Council, the nonprofit arts center renamed itself after the Jacoby family gave it the current building in 2004. AltonWorks founder John Simmons purchased the Jacoby Building in September 2018, according to property records from the county.Managing the large building, at 627 E. Broadway, became too expensive for the Jacoby Arts Center. In 2018, the organization approached Simmons to purchase it, said Dennis Scarborough, a past president of the board and a downtown business owner.“Of course, it sounded really, really good,” Scarborough said of Simmons’ purchase. “He took over the insurance, property taxes, all those kinds of things that were really, really getting into our budget, and he rented it to us at a fair price.”The two parties entered into a lease agreement initially for five years. Since then, Simmons has spent more than $1 million in upkeep, taxes, insurance and more on the building. The lease has been extended twice until the end of September this year.Over the six years, Jacoby paid $1,500 per month, which covered a portion of the utilities.“It’s been wonderfully generous of AltonWorks,” Hoven said.Because the building is aging and needs repairs, Brigham with AltonWorks and those connected to the arts center have long known the Jacoby Arts Center would need to relocate — at least temporarily.

Renovations on the Jacoby building will begin this fall. They’ll include modernizing the aging building, repairing the old elevator and putting in apartments on the second and third floors.

News of the likely departure and controversyRenovations will begin this fall. They’ll include modernizing the aging building, repairing the old elevator and putting in apartments on the second and third floors.In May, it became clear that a preliminary proposal for the arts center to return to the building after renovations finished in 2026 would not work for them, Hoven said.She estimates the first floor and basement of the Jacoby Arts Building span roughly 20,000 square feet.

Chad Brigham is a business and legal adviser for AltonWorks.

AltonWorks’ initial idea floated to the arts center would only provide 2,553 square feet, according to both Hoven and Brigham. While the board calculated the price for the new space to be at least triple the current payment, Brigham said there was never a specific price discussed.“No discussion in terms of actual rent price,” he said.AltonWorks didn’t make a specific rent offer because the organization doesn’t even know itself, Brigham said.In addition to cash from John Simmons, there will be loans, tax increment financing and state tax credits to cover the $20 million in building renovations. The entities financing the cost of renovations will also help determine the rent when the construction is complete, Brigham said.Regardless, the price required to return will be too much for the arts center to pay, Hoven said. Also, the organization would like to maintain the many programs it offers to the community — a rentable event space, a dark room and a clay studio, for example — in the future.“For us to really meet the needs of the community and be sustainable, we need a space where we can offer some of those programs — the artists’ shop, and other spaces that offer some kind of income as well — so that we can continue to give money back to the community,” she said.AltonWorks offered at least two other locations as possible alternatives from their vast stock of buildings along Broadway to house the arts center during the roughly 18 months of construction. Those alternatives came with similar deals requiring the Jacoby to cover only utilities, Brigham said.“We did put in a great deal of work behind the scenes in trying to find an interim solution,” Brigham said. “We wanted to find a place for them to go, where it was easy for them to continue programming, whether it’s 100% of it or some portion of it, that would work for them.”Initially, the arts center hoped to keep the basement during the renovations, Hoven said. When it became clear the preliminary offer to return was for much less space than the arts center anticipated, the letter to the community was sent.“The letter that came out was merely showing our surprise,” Hoven said. “Don’t misinterpret it as panic. Don’t misinterpret it as desperation.”

Sophie Proe

St. Louis Public RadioA smorgasbord of radios are displayed at the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton.

The commentary on social media was passionate. Some critics of AltonWorks said the organization has good intentions but hasn’t executed those plans. Others said Jacoby hasn’t planned well enough for the future.For Brigham and the AltonWorks team, some of the criticism has been disappointing.“I thought that there were some decent solutions. Were they perfect? No, but they were very, I thought, very good solutions,” he said. “And the fact that it has come to the point that it is right now is a bit hurtful.”AltonWorks remains committed to the arts, Brigham said. John Simmons remains one the largest donors of the Jacoby Arts Center, Hoven and Brigham said.“I don’t think there’s ever been a question of our support of that organization — of our affinity for that organization,” Brigham said. “While some of the events were unfortunate, some of them were encouraging. The entire community rallied around the Jacoby Arts Center. That’s a good thing. It’s a good thing to have a love for the arts like that in a downtown community.”Sara McGibany, the executive director of Alton Main Street, an organization aimed at preserving the town, said AltonWorks should be commended for its vision. In many ways, her organization and AltonWorks share a vision for a thriving downtown.Even though AltonWorks hosts public meetings, McGibany believes the current situation lacks true community engagement.“We really think that if AltonWorks can get past some of the communication hurdles — and harness the community’s passion and shift to more of a bottom-up decision-making process that centers on community input — then we can turn around the growing sentiment of distrust that’s happening now,” McGibany said.Scarborough, the past board president and downtown business owner, echoed the praise for Simmons and his support of the Jacoby Arts Center. With the Jacoby likely moving, the future looks bleak, though.“It’s a community arts center that does a lot of good work,” Scarborough said. “The community is going to suffer, and they’re going to be missed by the community if they’re not there.”

Eric Lee

St. Louis Public RadioShalanda Young, director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, talks to Illinois U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, during a tour of a construction project by AltonWorks last April in Alton. AltonWorks, who is building the LoveJoy Apartment Complex is receiving over $1 million in federal funding.

What does the future hold?AltonWorks will continue forging ahead with its ambitious plans to revitalize Alton. The organization hopes to conclude construction on the Wedge Innovation Center, which will have a restaurant, retail and co-working space, this fall. Lucas Row, a mix of apartments and retail space, is scheduled to be completed next spring.The remainder of the arts and innovation district, currently named after the Jacoby, will also move forward.“I believe in two years it’s going to be a much different place,” Brigham said of Alton. “It’s going to be thriving. It’s going to be new businesses, new tenants — and it’s going to be a nice proof of concept for what you can do in a small community like that.”The Jacoby board recently formed a strategic planning committee. Its task: figuring out what’s next for the arts center. The committee will reevaluate what space the Jacoby needs, what programs it wants to offer to the community and how they want to make that a reality.Keeping the arts center is essential for board members like Hoven. In her experience, it’s been a place where local aspiring artists get their start.“Art is one of the only ways to show your true authentic self,” Hoven said. “And there’s more people than I realized who do not get that opportunity every day.”The Jacoby will shut its doors to pack over the next month. Hoven said she’s optimistic the board will have concrete plans by the end of September when their lease officially ends.“Alton is such a fabulous and supportive community,” she said. “We still have lots of great options, so that the Jacoby Arts Center will continue to thrive in Alton and beyond.”

[ad_2]

Source link