My name is Kyle Howerton and I'm one of the partners of AHM Group. After reading this discussion, and receiving a gentle nudge to post, here we go. (warning: this is long)
...where to start...
Who We Are & Why We’re Here:
AHM Group is a locally owned and operated real estate development shop that’s focused on making a materially positive impact within the City of St. Louis. To date, we’ve not done a single project outside of the City of St. Louis and that’s the way we hope it continues to go. The majority of us are City residents (I'm a city resident). We are in love with Tower Grove South. The entire reason we took the risk of building MOFO (first project south of 44 in decades) was because of our passion and optimism (in every sense of the word) about the neighborhood. That's why we're now hoping to accomplish our third ground-up project in the neighborhood. That's also why, with Y|O, we saved the historic structure, which – due to high costs to achieve our goal of saving the building that ultimately delayed the construction start by two years and added substantial construction time - went against advice from the engineers, architects, and construction team. It made the project nearly $750,000 more costly as well as reduced the size of the apartments and commercial space. We are preservationists. Last year we received three Landmarks awards for 2206 Locust, Bavarian Inn (Arsenal/Minnesota), and The Nicholas (Park/Grand). Note regarding incentives: the sole reason the historic Y|O structure could be saved was because of the use of incentives. We are not seeking incentives for 3150 so that we can provide additional funding to SLPS, SLMPD, STLFD, and other City services. The City continues to lose population and we hope to be a stabilizing force to assist in attracting and retaining people from all backgrounds to ensure our City thrives in every way possible.
Design Intent & Community Engagement:
What makes us excited about this project is that it continues the progress made in Tower Grove South to make it the neighborhood it is today and, in its current design, does not require incentives of any kind (hell yeah!). It'll support the businesses that occupy commercial spaces of our existing properties (Black Sheep, Three Little Monkeys, Freeman Pilates, Road Crew, and Homegrown Hair). Owning/operating a business is incredibly difficult in today’s environment and we need as many people as possible on the MoFo strip to support the businesses/employees. We have received letters of support from most Morgan Ford business owners, employees of businesses, neighborhood residents, Alder Velazquez, the Tower Grove South Neighborhood Association, etc.
The project’s current design is a result of the nine-month-plus long neighborhood engagement process. We are open to adding a small retail bay, but the neighborhood stakeholders voted in favor of additional parking rather than retail. Note that we can certainly add retail inside the parking structure when cars are no longer necessary to thrive in St. Louis City (the City is not alone in its reliance on cars). In addition to going against the wishes of the community, we would also then need to seek a variance to reduce parking to be less than one space per apartment unit. Yes, there are many TGS residents that don't mind having fewer parking spaces in this project, but the majority wins and the majority voted in favor of 1:1 parking. Therefore, we wouldn't receive the amount of support necessary to obtain the required variances to move the project forward. The minute our society doesn’t require 1:1 parking, we will add retail. That just isn't an option today. (A quick aside, we also have learned firsthand that secure garage parking is necessary to attract and retain residential tenants that make projects viable...we're currently struggling with occupancy in DTW due to this exact issue. It's an unfortunate reality/fact that we wish wasn't true. This is also why AHM Group is so excited for the Jefferson Ave Metro expansion project)
When the PRB presentation goes public, the submission will look exactly the same as it did last year. That's because when we went back to the neighborhood after the last PRB hearing, it was confirmed that parking remained more important than additional retail. This time, we will have even more support than the amount of support presented to the Board last year, including many people who are volunteering to appear in person to advocate for this project.
Why Keeping the Structures Isn’t an Option:
As learned with Y|O, we’ll need to receive 90%+ RE tax abatement plus a materials sales tax exemption in order to integrate one of the existing structures into the project, and even then it doesn’t work. The math just doesn’t work. It’s all or nothing – from a design and economic perspective we’ve looked at this a dozen ways. Plus, the structures are functionally obsolete, not historically/architecturally significant, and economically infeasible to renovate and re-tenant at lease rates that support the project cost.
Frequently Asked Questions/Frequent Statements by the Public:
The Buildings are Vacant Because of the Developer: No, the buildings are not vacant because of AHM Group. 3150 was vacant when we bought it and it's been vacant for ~20 years. 3148 was occupied by Home Grown Hair, which has now doubled its space in the commercial space at Y|O (and is thriving!). HGH was going to vacate the space due to the structure’s state of disrepair when we bought it, lack of space, energy inefficiency and inability to keep the space a comfortable temperature during the winter/summer without spending a tremendous amount of money on heating/cooling bills, adding a second HVAC system, etc. The basement requires waterproofing and structural repairs to keep out mold-causing moisture. Upstairs, 3148 is in an even worse-off condition. The space was occupied by the owner of HGH when we acquired the building and she vacated shortly thereafter to another location within the neighborhood due to building issues. We would’ve needed to quadruple her rent to afford the loan payments to fund the requisite repairs (including gutting the entire building to properly fix the issues including floor joist issues, roof issues, basement issues, plumbing/electrical/drywall/HVAC issues). Today, the ground floor space is being leased (for free) on a temporary basis by one of our employees who started a retail shop. We hope he can prove out his business model/concept and then we can relocate him to another one of our City properties for long-term occupancy once he knows he'll be successful. 3146 is occupied by another one of our employees; he's currently purchasing a home in the country and will vacate the house soon.
They Should Build on a Vacant or Underutilized Lot Instead of Here: There are
three dwelling units on land that will be redeveloped into
36 apartment units. Doesn’t that prove that these parcels are underutilized??? Furthermore, we
own these three parcels. We don’t own other land and other land/parcels are not for sale.
Buy & Build on 7-Eleven: Do you know the 7-Eleven traded for $1.44MM in 2020? We’d need to put 100 apartment units on the site in order for it to be economically feasible. We were in discussions with 7-Eleven to occupy MOFO in 2019 before they renewed their lease for another
30 years in 2020! That was the only way to make the redevelopment happen there, we tried, and it failed.
Why Can’t the Developer Include Affordable Housing: It would be nice if we could, but we’d need to utilize incentives and no one seems to believe the “but-for” test with affordable housing and incentives. We’ve learned we can’t be “everything to everyone” and we need to have small wins rather than cutting our nose off to spite our face.
Why the Cheap Box Design: We’re utilizing limestone, steel, and glass as the exterior materials for all primary facades (fiber-cement siding will be utilized on the alleyway facade). Our goal is for the design to be as timeless as possible (it’s impossible to know whether the design will be timeless until 100 years from now). We utilized brick for Y|O and got pushback against even that. Frankly, we’ll never win and that’s a bummer, but it is what it is and my partners/I have accepted that fact. This will be the best-designed project with the highest-grade materials we’ve used to date and that lets us sleep at night. If stone, steel, and glass are not satisfactory, then we don’t know what to do.
Email me at
kyle@ahmre.com to voice any frustrations/concerns, or even just to ask a question about this project or any other topic. Maybe I’ll even receive a positive vibe! With the Prime rate at 8.50%, the team needs a positive vibe!
Also, if you'd like to support or kill the project, reach out to Bennett Anderson at
andersonb@stlouis-mo.gov. Or, reach out to me and I'm happy to connect you with Bennett.
