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NextSTL

Jan-Mar building permit applications down

2 days 5 hours ago

Building permit data from the first three months of 2025 are concerning. The dollar amount and number of application are down. The dollar amount can be quite lumpy due to large projects dominating. For example there is the $400M Cardinal Glennon Hospital permit application yet to be issued. So analysis of or extrapolation from short […]

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Richard Bose

Four Townhomes coming to Morgan Ford and Arsenal

3 weeks 4 days ago

After decades of blight, the southwest corner of Morgan Ford and Arsenal across from Tower Grove Park in the Tower Grove South neighborhood is becoming four townhomes. The demolition of the low-productivity auto-oriented land use commenced today. A developer based in south St. Louis County acquired the property last year. An $800k building permit was […]

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Richard Bose

Cordish proposes complete rebuild of the Millennium site

1 month 1 week ago

On Wednesday the Gateway Arch Park Foundation announced (Press Release) it had chosen The Cordish Companies of Ballpark Village fame to replace the Millennium Hotel site downtown. The GAPF put out a request for proposals last year after it acquired the property, which has been vacant since 2014. The nearly $670 million preliminary plan integrates […]

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Richard Bose

DMG Investments proposes apartments at Forest Park and Vandeventer

1 month 2 weeks ago

DMG Investments of New York City is proposing a 7-story apartment building, dubbed “Air St. Louis” on the vacant lot at 3901 Forest Park Ave and Vandeventer across from Ikea currently owned by CORTEX. A $25M zoning-only building permit application was submitted last August. We’ve gotten a first look via documents submitted tot he city. […]

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Richard Bose

Fighting for Safety on St. Louis’ Most Dangerous Roads

2 months 4 weeks ago

By Matt Wyczalkowski and Christian Frommelt This is a pivotal time to advocate for bicycle and pedestrian safety in St. Louis. As car crashes and dangerous roads imperil us and divide neighborhoods, the City will spend hundreds of millions over the next three years to address traffic violence. The $46M Principal Arterial Traffic Safety program, […]

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Matt Wyczalkowski

An Inventory of 70 Former Public School Buildings in STL

4 months 1 week ago

Earlier this year,  I happened upon the drone video work of Jimmy Wolfe aka Empty Midwest on Youtube.  In his now 22 part series on abandoned STL structures, Jimmy has documented many of STL’s most endangered architectural treasures from above, revealing the damage and decay invisible from the curb. Prominent among the dozens of structures […]

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Mike Mccubbins

St. Louis’ Sad Suburban Design

6 months 3 weeks ago

How (Bad) Urban Design Affects the Way We Feel Hanging outside of a bar with a group of friends in Turin, Italy, I’m amazed at how the city feels so alive. The night is black, the piazza lights cast a dim yellow, and the streets are filled with countless people out and about. They’re enjoying […]

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G.F. Fuller

Why Crash Statistics are Inadequate for Planning Safer Streets

7 months 4 weeks ago

People Walking, Biking, Busing Count––We Should Count Them (Literally) In May 2024, Chicago’s Department of Transportation claimed that biking had doubled in that city over the past five years. If biking doubled in my hometown, St. Louis, we may never know it. Measuring modal share—the proportion of people walking/rolling, biking, taking public transit, and driving—will […]

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Christian Frommelt

St. Louis Residents Call for Better Bike Infrastructure

8 months 3 weeks ago

Late last summer, I proposed that the city implement a city-wide bike network using recently awarded Rams Settlement Funds. Eventually, this idea was included among 20 other finalists, rising up as one of the more popular possibilities for use of the windfall, among hundreds of citizen proposals initially submitted. In anticipation of the informal public […]

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Malik Lendell

Construction photo roundup July 2024

8 months 4 weeks ago

Construction continues in full swing at many job sites big and small. Below is a sampling. 1014 Spruce – The 11TH & Spruce Apartments. 148 apartments Grand and Papin – Steelcote Edwin – 196 market-rate apartments, 249 affordable structured parking spaces, 65,000 square feet of retail for Target, and 141 surface parking spaces. It looks […]

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Richard Bose

St. Louis Charter Commission to make recommendations

9 months ago

The last public hearing of the St. Louis Charter Commission is Monday 7 pm at Julia Davis Public Library at 4415 Natural Bridge Ave. The meeting will be live streamed by STL TV athttps://www.youtube.com/@CityofStLouisMissouri/streams After this commission members will vote to send their recommendations to the Board of Aldermen who may put them on the […]

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Richard Bose

Versa Development plans to convert the Optimist International building into a hotel

10 months ago

Last week a $0 zoning-only building permit was submitted to convert the Optimist International at Lindell and Taylor in the Central West End neighborhood into a hotel. Winzerling of Versa Development and partner Rothchild Development are planning to preserve the pavilion building and replace the 1979 annex with a new 7 story building. The hotel […]

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Richard Bose

Large Collection of St. Louis Neon Signs and Memorabilia to be Sold at Auction

1 year ago

For over fifty years Greg Rhomberg, the former CEO of Nu Way Concrete Forms who passed away last year, collected and restored neon signs and other St. Louis memorabilia. Half a century later the collection has become an extensive private museum in a nondescript building called Antique Warehouse in Lemay, just south of St. Louis […]

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Jason Deem

Millennium Hotel could be blighted, acquired with eminent domain

1 year ago

The long vacant Millennium Hotel in downtown St. Louis could finally see some movement. On March 26 the LCRA Board will consider a blighting study and authorization of the use of eminent domain to acquire the property. LCRA staff recommends up to a 90% property tax abatement for up to 20 years on incremental improvements. […]

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Richard Bose

Infamous vacant lot in the Grove for sale

1 year 1 month ago

Another sore thumb property in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood is showing signs coming unstuck. 4101 Manchester at Sarah near the eastern end of the Grove commercial strip owned by Spencer Development LLC is listed for $2.2M by CBRE. The land was a surface parking lot owned by the city’s land bank, the LRA, until […]

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Richard Bose

Infamous Kingshighway buildings in FPSE come down

1 year 1 month ago

As the last golden hour ends for these storied properties on Kingshighway, let’s go down memory lane of Drury’s and Lux Living’s demolition by neglect. The buildings’ condition belied the massive investment in the neighborhood behind. Over $340M in building permits have been issued since 2007 when Drury started buying up properties. A proposal by […]

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Richard Bose

New Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital needs site plan adjustment

1 year 2 months ago

In September SSM Health officials announced plans for a new Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital at the corner of Grand and Chouteau in the Tiffany neighborhood. It would replace the current facility further south on Grand. They submitted a $300M building permit application last week. They plan to have it complete in 2027. Unfortunately the rendering […]

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Richard Bose

AHM Downtown West proposal moving along

1 year 2 months ago

The first buildings of AHM’s Downtown West proposal are proceeding through the approval process. It’s been a year and a half since AHM presented their plan for new builds and rehabs on the block surrounded by 21st, Locust, 22nd, and Washington and a mass-timber tower on the block to the east. NextSTL – AHM Presents […]

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Richard Bose