urbanSTL

DaronDierkes wrote:

RobbyD wrote:I wonder if there is some sort of office in City Hall or the RCGA that actively seeks potential relocatable business. I think there are enough arrows in teh quiver of St. Louis City to pick off business, large and small, from surrounding metros and bring them into the fray here. Especially in the slowly emerging downtown tech scene.

I mean, we can look at empty buildings creating ZERO tax revenue and depressing the current business climate with their forboding, hulking shadows of blight or we can attract new business to fill/rehab these buildings by returning a percentage of newly created tax revenue to the very businesses generating the income. Looking at that list, I vote for giving tax money back to those who are willing and able to bring these gems back to life.

Do you know about that nomadic art gallery in Boston that only filled vacant storefronts until tenants were found, then it moved on. We could do that.

Should do that.

The additional idea of putting municipal offices in vacant buildings at cost of basic repair and operational costs would seem to benefit the building's owner and the City both. Why not do something like this? It would appear to be a win all the way around.

stlgasm wrote:The building in question is at 1717 Olive Street. The name on the front entrance says Plaza Square Building, although it looks like it was originally known as the Butler Bros. Building.

I've wondered a lot about that building.

Here's a blog post about it.

http://www.stlonfoot.com/2010/11/02/but ... -building/

If you drive by on Street View you can see what looks like a person in a blue shirt working inside.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 72,,3,0.85

Loading or unloading I guess
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 82,,2,-0.1

At least part of the building is still in use. It's a handsome building, even though it is so massive. Hopefully it's all structurally sound.

There appears to be a door open around the other side
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 8.9,,2,3.1

Here's the Butlers Brothers entrance signs and the For Lease sign. According to the For Lease sign it is 350,000 SF total.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 0.9,,2,0.2

The entrance
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 84,,2,0.23

Address is 1717 Olive
The building permits go back to 1992
http://stlouis-mo.gov/data/address-sear ... OLIVE%20ST

That's the link to the assessor, but I had the wrong address, so instead of 1720 you need to click on 1717 across the street.

The service requests go back to 1997.

The building has four possible addresses
05100000100 1717 OLIVE ST Primary addresses
05100000100 309 N 17TH ST Related addresses
05100000100 316 N 18TH ST Related addresses
05100000100 1724 LOCUST ST Related addresses

Bing overhead view shows that the building has a center atrium
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qf4sg6 ... t.%20Louis

Interesting building.

Sorry to bring up a dead thread, but builtstl has some more info on the Butler Brothers building.

http://builtstlouis.net/central-corrido ... ing01.html

I recently found this "Ghost Buildings" article (before my time) and then found the related thread. I thought it'd be fun to look at what happened to these 12 buildings and what buildings have become vacant since, as far as I am aware.

Mercantile Exchange- 510 Locust St: 
-As far as I can tell, it became part of the Gallery Villas apartments, which includes 50 apartments and a 400-space parking garage. I have been able to find virtually nothing about this building specifically though. So, it could still be vacant.

505 Washington:
-Received a $4.6 million renovation in 2020 but still remains completely vacant.

Cupples 7:
-Demolished in 2013, the site became the 148-unit 11th and Spruce Apartments.

Cupples 9- 900 Spruce:
-Redeveloped in 2013 into a 145,000 square foot office building with 6.6k sf of retail space.

Arcade Wright Building- 800 Olive:
-Redeveloped in 2015 into 282 apartments and 55,000 square feet of (office?) space which was used by Webster University until 2023.

Chemical Building- 721 Olive:
-Vacant today.

GenAmerica Building- 700 Market:
-Renovated in 2015 to become the headquarters for Spire (127.5k sf of office)

LaSalle Building- 509 Olive:
-Redeveloped in 2019 into the 88-room Hotel Indigo.

Jefferson Arms- 401-415 Tucker:
-Currently being redeveloped into a 225 room AC Hotel and 235 apartments, along with 29,000 square feet of retail space.

WS Hotel- 400 Washington:
-Redeveloped in 2012 into 78 apartments and 10,000 square feet of retail space. 

917 and 921 Locust:
-Redeveloped sometime after 2017 into 88 apartment units.

Of the 12 listed vacant buildings in this 2011 article, only 2 remain vacant and 1 may still be vacant or is now a parking garage. The other 9 have become (or will soon become) 327,500 square feet of office space, 831 apartments, 313 hotel rooms, and 45,600 square feet of retail space.

Unfortunately, other buildings have since become vacant. There hasn't been any recent article running down the vacant buildings, but we all know 909 Chestnut, the Millenium Hotel, Wainwright Building, and Railway Exchange have all become vacant since this article was written in 2011. There are other, smaller vacancies mixed in as well, such as Shannon's at 620 Market.

^ There also is this thread that looked back at that article.
downtown-ghost-buildings-t10151-s75.html