Greg Johnson tweeted earlier that a $600,000 building permit has been applied for 900 South 4th. This is the abandoned building next to Imo's. It will be developed by Midtown Locust Development and be mixed use. Hopefully it will be a tasteful renovation of the building considering that it Is one of the few buildings left on 4th Street.

Greg Johnson's Tweet: https://twitter.com/PresbyterianStl/status/1026612067284017154

Nice. Actually reached out to Midtown Locust Properties who owns, or at least owned it, back in February.

900 S 4th

We have plans for complete renovation. First Floor commercial, 2nd and 3rd residential

We are very close to having the financing in place. Hope to begin the project 2nd quarter 2018

That's about all I know. Awesome building though! I hope someone has a plan in place for the rest of 4th street and Chouteau's Landing though. The sparse population down there among other things would keep me from living near there. Really need to fit the sea of parking and rebuild the street wall at least on the east side of 4th. And on what planet does White Castle need so many spaces? Even the busy ones have smaller lots than that.

This is the area that would benefit the most from a high tax on surface parking lots. 4th Street and Broadway could easily turn into a neat "Beale Street" type of area, especially if surrounded by 3-6 story apartment buildings. It would be so great to see the gap between Soulard and Downtown bridged. Will never happen while surface parking is so profitable.

New doors and old windows have been uncovered at street level. Work is continuing at a steady pace. All windows could be in by the Spring.

That's looking nice! Glad to see it.

Progress as of today. It is so cool to see the small old building come back to life. The new windows do wonders for it.

Looking great! Lovely shots. Thanks for that.

All windows have been put in except for the two corner windows at 4th and Lombard. I am wondering if they will be curved. The cornice was also painted green. No picture but I peeked into the first-floor windows and drywall is going in. There is also drywall going into the second and third floors. I am going to take a tour of this soon so stay tuned.

Besides this project, others are planned in the neighborhood. I was tipped off that St. Mary of Victoires church is working with potential developers to create a mixed-use neighborhood with the church being a major anchor. Think office space, condos, apartments and retail. I'm trying to get more info but this isn't related to my idea story from a few days ago.

Any chance that they'll re-create what once must have been a peaked roof over the corner turret? For example:

framer wrote: ↑

Mar 22, 2019

Any chance that they'll re-create what once must have been a peaked roof over the corner turret? For example:

I'm not sure if there ever was a turret. Would be neat if so but I can't find an old photo of this area. If they had intentions to, we probably would've seen it being framed.

With or without a cone this is turning into a heck of a lovely little building and it shows the potential for the area in general. Given that they've gone to the trouble of putting curved heads into the top lights of the upper story windows I bet you're right and they're going the distance. Had a small part in a project in CoMO where the client put square flat windows into a lovely little projecting turret and it was sad-making stuff. It beats no windows, of course, and it helps keep a historic old building occupied, but . . . made me cry a little. Glad to see the efforts they're taking on this one.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Mar 22, 2019

With or without a cone this is turning into a heck of a lovely little building and it shows the potential for the area in general. Given that they've gone to the trouble of putting curved heads into the top lights of the upper story windows I bet you're right and they're going the distance. Had a small part in a project in CoMO where the client put square flat windows into a lovely little projecting turret and it was sad-making stuff. It beats no windows, of course, and it helps keep a historic old building occupied, but . . . made me cry a little. Glad to see the efforts they're taking on this one.

I wonder what building it was in CoMO. Anyway, yes, this little building shows the potential for this area. I also failed to post these photos from early September showing the building prior to renovation. It was pretty sad looking (for those who don't remember or know). Better late than never! The back portion also looks better so I'll have to snap a photo of that.

chriss752 wrote: ↑

Mar 22, 2019

I wonder what building it was in CoMO.

I'll PM you. The truth is the building desperately needed the new windows and I'm sympathetic to the current owners, so even though it was sad making stuff, I'm glad they were able to do it and stay in their building. It's a heck of a neat old building and too many such have forever vanished from Columbia over the last twenty years. (You wouldn't realize the scale of loss from all the construction, but there were gorgeous old mansions, historic brick dorms, storefronts, apartments, century old warehouses, thoughtful midcentury modernism, all manner of things. And they've been torn down and replaced generally with much less durable structures frequently of much less artistic merit, and sometimes even less density. (Particularly in the case of UMC's dorms.) Some lost structures were quite old and historic, but Columbia has no preservation ordinance at all, at least as of 2015 when I moved out.

But I'm off topic. Kudos to imran's friends. Chris's pictures really do illustrate what can be done well.

Backside view. It appears the roof of the short section will be a patio for whatever apartment that one will be.

Photo gone

Was the ground floor of this going to be commercial? Curious to see what they do with the street front. Definitely some interesting potential. Gorgeous work!

Construction has slowed some. Corner windows still haven’t been installed and no drywall has gone in on the 2nd and 3rd Floors. Retail space is coming along though.

^It looks like they must have a pretty good idea who their retail tenant will be.  Or maybe it will be owner-operated.  No permit application clues on the windows?

urbanitas wrote: ^It looks like they must have a pretty good idea who their retail tenant will be.  Or maybe it will be owner-operated.  No permit application clues on the windows?

Building permits specify something as "Barry's Real Estate & Conference Room". Barry is the owner of Midtown Locust, so maybe the space will be used by his company. No window applications that I can see. Lately, two new permits have been applied for (5/23 and 5/24). Both total a value of $12,000 combined and the 5/23 permit was issued on May 29th and that is for electrical use and "ST". The 5/24 permit is specified as building permit for "OFFICE".

I still think the plans call for 1st-floor commercial and then topped by apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors. No word on how many but my guess is 2. Rent shouldn't be that much there either since there isn't much around there, yet, and you are by the highway and railroad. I would live here knowing what is going to take place 2 blocks East in the coming years in addition to interesting skyline views.

imran wrote:From what I know, there will be a commercial space on the street level and then a multi-level residence (with an elevator) for the rest of the building.

And about those curved glass windows. One of the first quotes they got back was $8000 for each window
They are looking for more vendors. Actually, if any of you know of a more reasonable window company that can do these, please let me know here or PM and I will pass if along.

That sounds interesting. So I wonder if it will be a “sellable” house. Will be truly unique if so. I was hoping for 2 apartments so I could move in but it is what it is.

$8000 for curved glass is expensive but curved glass is expensive but I didn’t know that much. $16,000 for curved glass is a premium. I don’t know any vendors but I could ask around with my developer friends and architecture friends and see what they can come up with.

^Replacing large front windows in Shaw with no curve are quoting at $5K. There's no inflation