urbanSTL

Glad to hear there is still interest in this project. It would be great to get this one rolling again.

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... ory10.html



Dominium plans $23 million rehab for Leather Trades Lofts

St. Louis Business Journal - by Lisa R. Brown



Dominium Development and Acquisition of Minneapolis is adding to its portfolio of former Pyramid Cos. properties with the acquisition of the Leather Trades Lofts building downtown. Dominium is planning a $23.2 million conversion of the building into apartments.



Dominium has the vacant eight-story building at 1604 Locust Ave. under contract for an undisclosed amount from Workers Realty Trust, which provided Pyramid a mezzanine loan for $2.5 million in 2006 to acquire the building.



Dominium Project Partner Jeffrey Hugget said the company will move forward with the Leather Trades Lofts development if it is successful in obtaining tax credits. Dominium plans to close on the deal this fall and has applied for low income housing tax credits through the Missouri Housing Development Commission. It also will seek state and federal historic tax credits.



Hugget said the developer is looking for other available properties in the St. Louis market.

I'm pretty excited about this. I wonder if Dominium will be bidding on the Jefferson Arms when it goes up for auction.

You mean so they can get in too deep just like Pyramid. That worked out well.

I don't think it's a money issue at all. I think Pyramid tried too much too fast and was competing with itself and couldn't keep everything going with their limited resources.



I hope whoever buys these projects will time them appropriately for the market and their abilities.

You can also argue the Pyramid bought too many properties at the same time for a premium and was able to do it because his lenders/investors didn't do their homework. In other words, someone paying a premium for a house with a no down interest only loan at the height of the housing bubble. I very much doubt you will see anywhere near $19 million for Jefferson Arm when it comes time to auction it off on the court house steps.

BL211 wrote:I don't think it's a money issue at all. I think Pyramid tried too much too fast and was competing with itself and couldn't keep everything going with their limited resources.

With their main "limited resource" being money. They didn't have it and they couldn't borrow it at anything less than onerous rates.

havent been keeping tabs on this thread. but there is a bum living the baller lifestyle in there. he lives in the model unit with running water/power. awesome.

Wish I would have thought of that.

The Central Scrutinizer wrote:

Dredger wrote:You can also argue the Pyramid bought too many properties at the same time for a premium and was able to do it because his lenders/investors didn't do their homework. In other words, someone paying a premium for a house with a no down interest only loan at the height of the housing bubble. I very much doubt you will see anywhere near $19 million for Jefferson Arm when it comes time to auction it off on the court house steps.

They were basically buying properties just so others couldn't and then spent their time trying to keep all the balls in the air.

That's my point. They should have held off on developing some of their buildings because they didn't have the money or the manpower to manage them.

The Downtown St. Louis Residents Association (DSLRA) would like to invite all downtown residents and other interested parties to a Town Hall Meeting to be held on August 20, 2009. The meeting will provide residents with the latest updates on two exciting new development projects coming to downtown St. Louis soon. Come out to meet Amos Harris the developer of the Laurel Project (Dillard's building at 7th and Washington Ave.) and Desiree Knapp representing Dominium Development of the Leather Trade Lofts Project (Leather Trades building at 16th and Locust St.) both developers will explain their projects and answer questions. It is important that you take this opportunity to become more knowledgeable about the progress of these new projects and how they will affect the way we live, work and play in downtown St. Louis.



Place: Left Bank Books - Downtown St. Louis 321 N. 10th Street Time: 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Here is the write up in the paper an the Leather Trades. Sounds interesting so I hope they can puul it off. I also saw some activity going on this week.



http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/buildi ... e-revived/

Steve Patterson reports that construction will begin in September.

walk by the leather trades building the other day.one of the front doors is wide open.so you can stop in and say hello to the bum he likes company.

I saw some people with hard hats coming in and out of the building today. Hopefully work starts soon.

Some boards in the windows.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... ,,0,-15.16

Found this blog post from July about it.
http://downtownstlbiz.blogspot.com/2010 ... k-for.html

Anybody noticed any changes at the building lately?

Not yet. The article I read said work was to start in Sept but nothing yet. People with hard hats on have been seen entering the building but still nothing. Hopefully soon.

End of September was the proposed start date but old vs. new paperwork snagged that idea. The ball should start rolling mid-December/early-January.

Do you work for the developer?

No but I just recently talked to someone about it at the zoning hearing