ST. LOUIS - Years of planning and a vision of thriving businesses serving area residents becomes reality as Habitat for Neighborhood Business and Saint Louis University break ground on their first free standing retail and service center at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 13.



Business, community and religious leaders will join 4th Ward Alderman Sam Moore and members of Habitat for Neighborhood Business and the University's Smurfit-Stone Center for Entrepreneurship to kick off the new project. Members of the Sumner High School Marching Band and ROTC also will participate in the ceremony.



Located at the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Whitter Avenue in the historic Ville neighborhood, the site is part of an effort to develop urban retail and service business centers that are designed to spark economic development and job growth in urban neighborhoods, increase the number of business role models within the community, stabilize neighborhood economies and bring business ownership back to the local community.



Kevin Schulte, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at SLU's John Cook School of Business, says the Habitat for Neighborhood Business vision has come a long way since the first meeting with Habitat board chair, Doug Brown, a retired executive from Enterprise Rent-a-Car Company, and Ellen Harshman, dean of the Cook School.



"We are thrilled that the months of collaboration with our advisors and the community have come together," Schulte said.