Rehabbing brings turnaround to neighborhood
Jim Merkel
Of the Suburban Journals
South City Journal
Along with the typical debris from a derelict house, workmen going through a home being rehabbed in the 4000 block of Shenandoah Avenue found a bread bag filled with small bags of a white rock-like substance.
In one sign of the "before" picture on the block, a police officer said it was drugs with a street value of $1,000. Drugs were sold out of one house on the block.
In the "after," drugs, crime and gloom are hard to find on the block, following a major effort at restoration by an alderman and rehabbers.
Fully 10 homes have been rehabbed, six by Kraig Schnitzmeier of the restoration company Historic Homes.
"All of these were vacant, derelict and boarded up," said Alderman Stephen Conway, D-8th Ward. Where there once was only two homeowners on the block, there now are 10 homeowners, Conway said.
The most recent sale price was in the $270,000s, Schnitzmeier said.
When the transformation started taking place, Conway put in new sidewalks, curbs and trees between the sidewalks and curbs. "We had a radical change in appearance of the streetscape," Conway said.
"We concentrated a great deal of resources and effort to make it happen," Conway said. "That's what changed the whole block."
Schnitzmeier was the first rehabber willing to take the risk, Conway said.
"This was the last bad block in the heart of a good neighborhood," Schnitzmeier said. "I knew we could get momentum."
Schnitzmeier started by converting a four-family apartment into two townhouses and selling them both for about $125,000.
Schnitzmeier bought all the buildings from the city's Land Reutilization Authority. It's almost better to get a lot of vacant homes, he said.
"If you can get control of them, it allows you to control your own market," Schnitzmeier said.
Buyers of the homes are usually young couples, Schnitzmeier said. "I think there was only one single person that bought any of them," he said.
"It's people who are making long-term commitments to the neighborhood," Conway said. "It recognizes the demand for the Shaw neighborhood and the benefits people finally realize of living in the city."
Among the people who bought a home in the neighborhood rehabbed by Schnitzmeier were Josh Brown, 30, and his wife, Marantha Beatty-Brown, 29.
The couple moved last May from Alexandria, Va. to a 107-year-old former two-family house rehabbed according to historic housing standards.
After seeing 25 homes in 36 hours, they settled on this one, for $239,000.
"This house in Alexandria would have gone from between $800,000 and a million. So we were pleasantly surprised," Brown said.
Brown is a senior manager in a corporate information technology office. His wife is an attorney working in the career advisory office of Washington University Law School.
They liked the proximity to Tower Grove Park, the South Grand Boulevard business district and a nearby dog exercise park at Thurman and Cleveland Avenues.
They also liked the space, price and workmanship. They wanted to live in the city.
"We saw it and we just fell in love with it," Brown said. "We love the area and we love the house and we love St. Louis."
They also like the idea that there is talk of opening a coffeehouse on the block.
One other rehabber who has put all her effort into a single house in the 4000 block of Shenandoah Avenue is Kim Weaver. She paid $70,000 for a house and so far has put $130,000 into it.
The floors were rotting through and the sewer had been backing up in the basement for years.
"I had to completely gut it and start fresh," Weaver said. All the electric utilities and plumbing were replaced and she even put in a new basement floor.
To devote all her effort to the project, Weaver quit her job doing quality control and international moving coordination for a moving company.
She likes the old brick house she's working on.
"I like everything about it. I personally wouldn't mind living in it myself," Weaver said. But she plans to sell it for a profit.
Weaver considered other areas for a rehab project but settled on the house on Shenandoah because it was safer there.
"It looked like the neighborhood was prospering into a real nice area," she said.
Jim Merkel
Of the Suburban Journals
South City Journal
Along with the typical debris from a derelict house, workmen going through a home being rehabbed in the 4000 block of Shenandoah Avenue found a bread bag filled with small bags of a white rock-like substance.
In one sign of the "before" picture on the block, a police officer said it was drugs with a street value of $1,000. Drugs were sold out of one house on the block.
In the "after," drugs, crime and gloom are hard to find on the block, following a major effort at restoration by an alderman and rehabbers.
Fully 10 homes have been rehabbed, six by Kraig Schnitzmeier of the restoration company Historic Homes.
"All of these were vacant, derelict and boarded up," said Alderman Stephen Conway, D-8th Ward. Where there once was only two homeowners on the block, there now are 10 homeowners, Conway said.
The most recent sale price was in the $270,000s, Schnitzmeier said.
When the transformation started taking place, Conway put in new sidewalks, curbs and trees between the sidewalks and curbs. "We had a radical change in appearance of the streetscape," Conway said.
"We concentrated a great deal of resources and effort to make it happen," Conway said. "That's what changed the whole block."
Schnitzmeier was the first rehabber willing to take the risk, Conway said.
"This was the last bad block in the heart of a good neighborhood," Schnitzmeier said. "I knew we could get momentum."
Schnitzmeier started by converting a four-family apartment into two townhouses and selling them both for about $125,000.
Schnitzmeier bought all the buildings from the city's Land Reutilization Authority. It's almost better to get a lot of vacant homes, he said.
"If you can get control of them, it allows you to control your own market," Schnitzmeier said.
Buyers of the homes are usually young couples, Schnitzmeier said. "I think there was only one single person that bought any of them," he said.
"It's people who are making long-term commitments to the neighborhood," Conway said. "It recognizes the demand for the Shaw neighborhood and the benefits people finally realize of living in the city."
Among the people who bought a home in the neighborhood rehabbed by Schnitzmeier were Josh Brown, 30, and his wife, Marantha Beatty-Brown, 29.
The couple moved last May from Alexandria, Va. to a 107-year-old former two-family house rehabbed according to historic housing standards.
After seeing 25 homes in 36 hours, they settled on this one, for $239,000.
"This house in Alexandria would have gone from between $800,000 and a million. So we were pleasantly surprised," Brown said.
Brown is a senior manager in a corporate information technology office. His wife is an attorney working in the career advisory office of Washington University Law School.
They liked the proximity to Tower Grove Park, the South Grand Boulevard business district and a nearby dog exercise park at Thurman and Cleveland Avenues.
They also liked the space, price and workmanship. They wanted to live in the city.
"We saw it and we just fell in love with it," Brown said. "We love the area and we love the house and we love St. Louis."
They also like the idea that there is talk of opening a coffeehouse on the block.
One other rehabber who has put all her effort into a single house in the 4000 block of Shenandoah Avenue is Kim Weaver. She paid $70,000 for a house and so far has put $130,000 into it.
The floors were rotting through and the sewer had been backing up in the basement for years.
"I had to completely gut it and start fresh," Weaver said. All the electric utilities and plumbing were replaced and she even put in a new basement floor.
To devote all her effort to the project, Weaver quit her job doing quality control and international moving coordination for a moving company.
She likes the old brick house she's working on.
"I like everything about it. I personally wouldn't mind living in it myself," Weaver said. But she plans to sell it for a profit.
Weaver considered other areas for a rehab project but settled on the house on Shenandoah because it was safer there.
"It looked like the neighborhood was prospering into a real nice area," she said.
