urbanSTL

The retail is not street level either.

I heard about a month ago that this building may have been placed under contract. Hopefully something will move forward, but who knows.



Thanks,



-Brent

I contacted Alderman William Waterhouse about this building, and he said, and I quote

"For $4 million, its yours." He said that the price has dropped $1.5 million as it was originally listed at $5.5 million. He also said that if it was up to him the building never would have been built. Also said that all of the condos are completed, but the people who owned Lehman didn't want to do anything with them because it was for sale and didn't want to do anything to inhibit the sale. So, hopefully it will drop down a couple more million and we'll get something out of that piece of crap

JuiceInDogtown wrote:(Alderman Waterhouse) also said that if it was up to him the building never would have been built.

Interesting- I thought aldermen (1) knew what was best for their area and (2) had somewhat of a final say about what gets built and what doesn't.



Although I've long thought that aldermen should have a say in the process, I've also thought there should be some form of citywide architectural review so that buildings like this, Southtown Centre, and the wide array of mullet houses in the city would never make it past the drawing board.



While Scotto made some good points about the structure, I still cannot get past (1) how poorly it relates to the intersection it faces and (2) the poor design of the living spaces on the upper levels. Even if it's bought at a discount, I'm not sure how a new owner/developer could successfully address these major flaws.

ThreeOneFour wrote:

JuiceInDogtown wrote:(Alderman Waterhouse) also said that if it was up to him the building never would have been built.

Interesting- I thought aldermen (1) knew what was best for their area and (2) had somewhat of a final say about what gets built and what doesn't.

The development was approved by former Alderman Tom Bauer, who was recalled in 2005. Waterhouse is the current alderman. The two have very differant views on development issues.

They need to just demolish this building and start over. With Chuy's gone the east side of the Clayton/Tamm intersection is just dead. Dogtown deserves a better central core than this.



-Brent

It is really a shame to see the owner get suckered into making the building bigger and more expensive. The building turned out quite a bit different then he wanted.



Like has been noted before the price of the units are way to high for Dogtown. No one can afford to move into those spaces. In addition, as noted before, the retail space should have sat on the street level. The buildings massing is way above a pedestrian friendly scale and does not fit the neighborhood. Also, there is no green space for residents to use.



Now if a similarly sized development were to be built on the other side of the street it might be more palatable. But, with Lehman Place not going anywhere, the market being poor and no one interested in developing the site.....it won't happen any time soon.

dweebe wrote:So I guess this hulking white elephant is going to sit there doing nothing for a couple more years?

The funny/sad thing is that had the original building been retained, it probably would have a new tenant or tenants a long time ago.

Well, take it how you want, but I noticed today that there are "FOR LEASE" signs up. I believe those are new. It is being managed, evidently, b the Schlafly Corporation (www.schlaflycorporation.com).



That is, I suppose, a good sign compared to just blinds covering the windows and nothing on them at all, owned by the bank.



It would be cool if all 4 spaces were rented by artists or something.



My apologies if those signs have been up forever, living 100 feet off of Manchester and 3 blocks east of McCausland, I don't get to "downtown Dogtown" much.



Looked at the property page for Lehman place

I'm emailing them. Here's the information sheet they have for it.

Award Winning Mixed-Use Development in the Central West End Near St. Louis University



* Small Shop Space Available next to SLU Huh?

* in the Central West End Wow guess my property values should be shooting up with the expansion of the CWE

* Large Amount of Surface Parking Exactly what every urban area needs!

* Restaurant Space with Outdoor Patio

* $18.00 sq.ft. NNN

* Excellent Demographics with large daytime population

* Near to Washington University and St. Louis University Bit of a stretch

* 73 Designated Parking Spots for Retail use

* Excellent Location in Large Retail Corridor





I emailed them. I really hope this was just a bad cut/paste job. Glad to see that somebody is trying to do something with it, any way. Rather just see them bulldoze it and start over.

Capstone invests $3 million to revive Lehman Place





Capstone plans to complete the build-out on the 14 residential units and market them for sale and rent. Southern Commercial Bank is its lender on the project. Monthly rent for apartments will range between $1,000 and $2,195 and condos will be sold in the upper $170,000s, to $340,000, said Capstone’s project coordinator Jessie Miller. She said the plan is to sell all 14 units within three years.



About 7,400 square feet of retail or office space is available for lease on the ground floor. Schlafly Corp. is marketing the commercial space, which is listed at $15 per square foot.



Schlafly said the property’s location three blocks south of Forest Park will attract retailers. “We feel that retail at that location has been underutilized and overlooked, and it’s a landmark location in St. Louis.



http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... tory8.html

Well there is an update on Lehman Place. Some residents have begun to move into the condos. There has been activity in the retail portion of the building, but no idea whats really going on there.

dweebe wrote:

zun1026 wrote:Well there is an update on Lehman Place. Some residents have begun to move into the condos. There has been activity in the retail portion of the building, but no idea whats really going on there.

Looks like one of the residents had covered deck added to the back side of the building.

Once again: tear it down and start all over.

It is sort of an eye sore, but at least there are more and more people moving in. There is also some activity in the store fronts.

Short update: I was inside the Lehman building this week. I am told 12 of the 14 units are currently leased, (I did see tenets) and the remaining two (top floor) are unfinished and waiting to be built out for a buyer. The views from the top floor really are excellent. Rent starts at about $1,000/month

About half of the ground floor space is leased to a home health care company that expanded to this location from Chesterfield. The remaining space is still looking for a tenet.

Scott Ogilvie