urbanSTL

The Gills have the Chemical building under contract.

Who are the Gills? Do they have any other successful projects in the area?

Thanks.

Downtown2007, do you have any insights or thought if they are going to make this their new corporate location/home? Might be a great fit if so and probably a lot better move after they proposed the Grove mixed used development with their offices on ground floor and apartments a year or two ago (can't recall) and then pulled back with parking issue.

roger wyoming II wrote:Bryant must not have asked the Gills about their interest in the Chemical, but it does appear it will be sold again soon.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... user-share

I'm sure he knows they have interest. Probably didn't want to put it out there in the media.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the plan to renovate the Chemical Building (1896) into an apartment complex has fallen through and the building is now back on the market for $4.5 million. While the article says the building was designed by Louis Sullivan...it was not. The Chemical Building was designed by Henry Ives Cobb. The 1893 Union Trust Building nearby was designed by Adler and Sullivan.

This is a poorly edited article, for sure. But we must read carefully.

...Plans for a boutique hotel survive on that block of Olive. Next door to the Chemical, at 705 Olive, is the building owned by developers Amy and Amrit Gill, who plan to redo it as a hotel and apartments. It's not just any building. Constructed in 1893 for Union Trust Co., the building's design is by renowned Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, who pioneered the use of steel frame construction in tall structures.

The article has a paragraph structure which is confusing to the reader.

RW, do think the Gils might be looking at relocating their own corporate HQ to the Chemcial if they close on it? Their website notes the rehab in the Grove but they also had proposed that new mixed use infill that went nowhere once the surface parking lot component came known.

I don't think it would be a bad move on their part and adding 100 jobs here and 150 there starts to get downtown heading back in a positive direction

^ no idea.... I believe they are still at the Coranado Building which they no longer own but I don't know what their plan is. Do you or anyone recall what happened to the plan for the new build in the Grove? Is it dead? (records show they applied for the building permit in January 2014 but never issued.)

As for the Chemical, I don't think Restoration Saint Louis itself needs a lot of office space but perhaps a few floors of boutique office with them and a couple tenants would be a nice component of a mixed-use project with retail on ground floor and residential up top as well. (I doubt they'd do more hotel but you never know.)

Some kind of rehab work going on at this building next to the Chemical on 8th Street


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^ love that building with an interesting mix of uses... event space Rovertown offices. residential. Permit is for masonry work, btw, doesn't look like a big ticket item.

StlToday - Chemical building back on the market

http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... fd7d7.html

I would've thought the lasalle would have been great for micro apartments. A part of me would love to see large condos in the chemical, similar to the St Regis, but at this point any use for the building seems better than none


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Sooner or later, something is bound to stick, right?

Post-Dispatch: Another developer eyeing the Chemical building

A day after local developers Amy and Amrit Gill dropped their plan to renovate the Chemical building in downtown St. Louis, an out-of-town developer expressed interest in the structure.
...
Purchase by the out-of-town developer might not be close and the Chemical remains on the market. But the developer said Friday a mixture of apartments and a hotel might make sense for the building.

Real estate experts have said the asking price of $4.5 million has been an obstacle to completing a sale.

Alex Ihnen wrote:^ It's true. The Gills weren't the only bidder/interested party. At $3M it sells tomorrow.

The asking price is absurd given what other historic properties with less challenging layouts (and some with parking) are selling for on a per-square-foot basis.

It continues to suffer from the "tie-it-up-then-figure-out-what-to-do" development strategy because of the price.

The sellers have apparently "taken it (chemical) off the market"... I sure would love to see this building redeveloped...

The Indy company that plans to rehab the row of 900 block Locust buildings is planning 135 apartments with first floor retail for the Chemical

http://www.stltoday.com/business/column ... user-share

I believe the $4.25M price tag is a bit of a drop so perhaps this will finally get done.

Any updates on this? Having the Chemical building and the hotel at 705 Olive renovated would really cement the Post Office Square as my favorite part of downtown.

Yet again.....A new buyer has the Chemical Building under contract and hopes to close this summer and rehab the building into apartments.

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... g-the.html