1711 Locust

irocktheparty2000 · PostDec 22, 2007#12007-12-22T15:45+00:00

From the Business Journal:

West downtown's burgeoning restaurant scene has attracted Koplar Properties. The company bought the 7,500 square foot vacant building at 1711 Locust for $385,000.

Joe Niedner of McKelvey properties represented Koplar properties and the building's previous owner, attorney Roger Wallach, in the sale.

Sam Koplar said a restaurant tops the short list of options for the building, but final use has not been determined. Koplar's building is within blocks of several businesses that have opened recently. "That area of Locust is becoming one of the new entertainment and dining corridors downtown," Niedner said.

The article went on to say, Despite the cooling housing market, condo sales downtown this year will outpace the number sold in 2006. There were 382 condos sold through the end of November, 2007, according to the St. Louis Assessor's Office, which sets a new record for condo sales in the downtown market. Last year, there were 336 condos sold for the entire year.

blzhrpmd2 · PostMay 30, 2008#22008-05-30T01:52+00:00

Any ideas on if they are any closer to determining a use for the space?

quincunx · PostMar 15, 2022#32022-03-15T02:12+00:00

15 years later ...

symphonicpoet · PostMar 15, 2022#42022-03-15T04:44+00:00

I really love that building. I wish to whatever its worth wishing on someone would do something with it. Hey, here's an idea: Move Trigen into that and convert Ashley into an anchor for a new destination distcit. Everyone wins. Trigen seems pretty quiet. They'd be thoroughly away from flooding there and more central to the steam loop they're supplying. And a converted Ashley could help to activate an area that really needs the help and drag Laclede's Landing back north again.

chris fuller · PostMar 15, 2022#52022-03-15T13:33+00:00

Curious, what was the building originally?

RockChalkSTL · PostMar 15, 2022#62022-03-15T13:38+00:00

I love that building, but hasn't most of the roof fallen in?

Is this building in any kind of legitimate danger of becoming a parking lot?

quincunx · PostMar 15, 2022#72022-03-15T13:58+00:00

It was a streetcar power house.

Yes most of the roof has fallen in.

RockChalkSTL · PostMar 15, 2022#82022-03-15T14:27+00:00

Are we likely to see the building demoed?

GoHarvOrGoHome · PostMar 15, 2022#92022-03-15T14:39+00:00

I don't think so based on the fact that I've seen people doing some basic brick maintenance on it within the past year. That is of course a mute point should there eventually be a larger collapse

debaliviere · PostMar 15, 2022#102022-03-15T16:32+00:00

IIRC, the building is basically a shell - four walls and (part of) a roof, similar to Cannon Design's HQ at 11th and Clark, which was an old powerhouse. They essentially built a new structure within the four exterior walls.

EDIT: I stand corrected. Looks like the building has multiple floors: https://campbellhousemuseum.wordpress.c ... 11-locust/

symphonicpoet · PostMar 17, 2022#112022-03-17T03:55+00:00

^I'd still say it's basically a shell. Maybe it was boilers on one floor and engines/generators on another. (To keep them isolated from the damaging ash and soot, I think.) Also not unusual to have ash pits in a basement below the boiler room.

STLEnginerd · PostMar 31, 2022#122022-03-31T21:10+00:00

Fascinated with this building. Apparently for sale for 100K. I remember they wanted 235k a few years back. The proximity to the new development in downtown west makes me think its value should have gone up so maybe we are getting to a convergence of asking price versus actual value. That or the the condition has deteriorated significantly in the last 5 years when i first took an interest in the building. I realize its a shell but if you cleaned out the debris and installed a new roof is it a structural sound shell.

Seems like a lot could be done with the place, I always liked the idea of a Pool hall & Bar. The conceptual possibilities for it are pretty broad because my understanding it is its basically a big open room. 50 ft by 150 with 35 ft ceilings.

Major concerns would be structural/foundation issues, toxic chemicals, basement flood damage.

dbInSouthCity · PostMar 31, 2022#132022-03-31T21:36+00:00

STLEnginerd wrote: ↑
Mar 31, 2022
Fascinated with this building. Apparently for sale for 100K. I remember they wanted 235k a few years back. The proximity to the new development in downtown west makes me think its value should have gone up so maybe we are getting to a convergence of asking price versus actual value. That or the the condition has deteriorated significantly in the last 5 years when i first took an interest in the building. I realize its a shell but if you cleaned out the debris and installed a new roof is it a structural sound shell.

Seems like a lot could be done with the place, I always liked the idea of a Pool hall & Bar. The conceptual possibilities for it are pretty broad because my understanding it is its basically a big open room. 50 ft by 150 with 35 ft ceilings.

Major concerns would be structural/foundation issues, toxic chemicals, basement flood damage.

The thing is it will take many millions to bring it to a useable space and at that point the options to get a return aren’t many. Like you aren’t gonna to spend 3-5m and sell $8.99 burgers and bucket of beers for $15 and make money

chris fuller · PostMar 31, 2022#142022-03-31T21:39+00:00

what of this building basically on the opposite south side of Butler
What could it be? Or could it be gone?

STLrainbow · PostMar 31, 2022#152022-03-31T22:37+00:00

^ Henschel Hats was still manufacturing until recently but they put the building up for sale and it looks like they indeed moved out to St. Charles County during the pandemic. Looks like they still own it and not sure if it's being actively marketed. Would be great for another residential conversion; also the vacant lot next door at the old 7-11 I think is up for sale. Some interesting opportunities.

STLEnginerd · PostMar 31, 2022#162022-03-31T22:47+00:00

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑
Mar 31, 2022
The thing is it will take many millions to bring it to a useable space and at that point the options to get a return aren’t many. Like you aren’t gonna to spend 3-5m and sell
$8.99 burgers and bucket of beers for $15 and make money

In my head i think well its needs a roof. SO there goes 200K a solid cleaning kind of depends on if its abatement or just serious power washing all told it is probably 200K. Electric plumbing and HVAC for a building this big ain't cheap either. Pure guess 300k for the three. For a service establishment you need bathrooms so maybe 200K there. SO with purchase you are approaching around a million just to get a functional shell. Then you gotta furnish it so that's another chunk. I could definitely see 1.5M with no big surprises. A big structural issue could grow that number very fast.

Just spitballing so i might be way off. But realistically what business doesn't cost a million to setup these days. Even food trucks can set you back a half million fully outfitted. Maybe there is no money it bucket beer anymore, two decades ago i would have said that's how you make money. Plus i would assume you could get abatement and historic or brown field credits to salve this thing so that would help.

Of course Koplar played with the reuse idea for a decade and a half and never pulled the trigger. You gotta think at some point in the last 15yrs there was a business case to be made to at least fix the roof and clean out the crud to make it more marketable. Now its asking price 285k less than where it was then.

dbInSouthCity · PostMar 31, 2022#172022-03-31T22:48+00:00

STLrainbow wrote: ↑
Mar 31, 2022
^ Henschel Hats was still manufacturing until recently but they put the building up for sale and it looks like they indeed moved out to St. Charles County during the pandemic. Looks like they still own it and not sure if it's being actively marketed. Would be great for another residential conversion; also the vacant lot next door at the old 7-11 I think is up for sale. Some interesting opportunities.

Their HQ is in an office building in New Town but the hats are made in a facility about 90 miles south of here

PostMar 31, 2022#182022-03-31T22:49+00:00

I’ve passed it on to someone who can do it, he said he’ll look into

Tim · PostApr 11, 2022#192022-04-11T20:59+00:00

The LoopNet listing (which includes multiple, sad pictures of the roof), shows the property as "under contract". Hopefully that's a good sign.

quincunx · PostMay 25, 2022#202022-05-25T11:56+00:00

NextSTL - 1711 Locust has a new owner

https://nextstl.com/2022/05/1711-locust ... new-owner/

RockChalkSTL · PostMay 25, 2022#212022-05-25T13:37+00:00

I hope it means a renovation of the building.

Has there ever been a building on that surface lot between it and 1729 Locust? Could we potentially see one in the future?

STLEnginerd · PostMay 25, 2022#222022-05-25T17:02+00:00

I am pretty hopeful for this building. The list of possible uses is pretty long and the economics of the area keep getting better given the renovation of Butler Bros, Fields Foods, MLS Stadium, Police HQ, etc. I am curious if it really went for 100k which just seemed like a fire sale price given the development around it. I drove/walked around it and from the outside the brick amazingly looked to be in decent shape. Obviously the roof is shot and the sub-basement is probably full of water.

Some possible uses...
-beer hall
-gym
-music venue
-pool hall
-event space (Wedding receptions etc.)
- restaurant (yawn)
-unique retail for downtown (furniture, antiques, etc.)
-self storage (ugh but could make economic sense)
-art gallery (not my favorite use)

I would re-roof ASAP omitting all the roof windows and the windows in the cupola to save cost and get it under cover and pump any water out of the structure. It would be a huge red flag to me if they decided to wait on brownfield or historic credits to get that part done. After that i assume there will be a wait until whatever tax credits they are requesting are approved, so i wouldn't expect them to break ground on a renovation for a while.

I'd recommend branding it as "The Powerhouse" (yes a little cheesy) as a throwback to it origins as a Power station for streetcars and feature it prominently on the west facing wall of a rebuilt cupola which would serve as a pretty good billboard for anyone driving east on Locust or north on 18th.

The lot next door is owned by the MER Goodwill property so any infill would be dependent on them. SO probably not anytime soon.

RockChalkSTL · PostMay 25, 2022#232022-05-25T17:37+00:00

When I look at this building, I envision at least a portion of it being used as a small food hall that could be popular with MLS fans and the emerging residential base that is coming to the area.

The food hall doesn't need to be the size of City Foundry and it certainly wouldn't need to compete. I'm thinking about something more similar to Urban Eats or the shuttered food hall that was inside of Metropolitan Square.

pattimagee · PostMay 25, 2022#242022-05-25T17:42+00:00

With the crazy ceiling height, I feel like you could do a few mezzanines around the sides with seating to increase the square footage... (if you didn't plan on multiple floors obviously)

(Edit: After seeing those photos below, looks like there is already 2 floors)

prophett · PostMay 25, 2022#252022-05-25T18:59+00:00

Having been in this building hmmmmmmmm multiple times for a little urban exploration. I am sure others in the forum have been inside it. It might be a cool subthread to talk about old school urban exploration, which was popular at the time. Anywho back to the topic, the door of the building was wide open in the mid-2000s for at least three years. The interior of the building at the time was very much in shambles. The roof had multiple large holes, and the main floor also had large holes you could easily fall through. The smart thing about the basement was the multiple subbasements which were laid out like a massive maze over multiple floors. I swear there were areas of the subbasements that looked like they were straight out of the temple of doom with walls moving around with bugs and other critters living down in them. I think I have some old Myspace pictures of the sub-basements, but I suspect the condition of the building has deteriorated more over the last 15 years. It will be interesting to hear if others have been in this building since then as well?

1711 Locust

1711 Locust

1711 Locust

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