urbanSTL

Have they raised all the money?

^ I haven't seen any announcements since the September release sharing the general 14 story tower vision and 2027 target date for completion. It said more would be announced in the coming months so I wouldn't doubt we hear something early this year. 

(This in regards to the new Cardinal Glennon plans for those not wanting to go back a page.)

HBA December report with totals for the year. Things have slowed down. Note the bar to qualify as a rehab is low.

https://stlhba.com/Common/Uploaded%20fi ... Report.pdf

I am sorry if this is not the correct place but my question is regarding a residential permit.

I live in a historic district in the city which means we need permit to replace doors and windows. I can see building permit history for my place on the city's web site which includes the estimated costs, description all submitted by the previous owner. 

I have a couple of questions:

1. As a current owner of the place, am I able to view the drawings that were submitted as part of the original permit application?
2. Permit description said 2 windows and 2 doors but is it possible that the owner could have only replaced windows and not the doors? I am assuming that is totally possible.
3. Also, can someone tell me what "CRO only" stands for in the permit jargon?

Thank you!

CRO only probably means that the only the Cultural Resources Office needs to review it for compliance with the historic district code and not any other department.

quincunx wrote:CRO only probably means that the only the Cultural Resources Office needs to review it for compliance with the historic district code and not any other department.

Correct. For instance: repointing >25% of a wall not in a historic district needs no permit, so in a (most) historic district(s) it requires a permit that is “CRO-only”.

After a marked slowdown last year we are seeing an increase through the first quarter - while last year was bad - it was slightly better than 11 and 10 - So far permits for 20-24 are tracking well above 10-14

Very slow month. Only $21M in building permits issued in July.

quincunx wrote: ↑

Aug 01, 2024

Very slow month. Only $21M in building permits issued in July.

I'm curious how much of that is because applications are slow vs the Building Division basically having one plan examiner to review every single project. Maybe both?

They’re down to 1? It’s suppose to be 4. Usually each focusing on a specialty. When I was there (2011-2013) the 4 were old timers there since the 80s and I think most were still there going into covid

This is a trend happening in many cities. I don’t think developers see a reason to build right now. Someone pointed out on Twitter that DC is on pace for fewer than 1,000 new residential units this year.

I work in the banking industry and I can say with extreme certainty that commercial departments are playing it very conservative right now.

The evident slowdown in housing construction boggles my mind.   Yes, I get the whole interest rates are to high but once upon time mortgages use to be based on double digit interest rates & a big reason behind the 30 year fixed.    What I can't get there so much demand and not enough supply across the board and in so many places.   I also believe housing inflation, whether buying or renting, is still stubbornly higher then everything else.  In my mind housing construction building should still be going strong.   Maybe some pull back on multi units but at least single residential.   

What comes to my mind is we have made it way to hard to permit, to costly to build and way way to many middlemen between the buyer and seller.   I can picture someone with some capital and or private equity literally do a vertical offering where they establish a company where they are the builder, seller, bank and closer.   I also see plenty of state laws putting up the roadblocks though.   Too many players.    

Indicators are pointing towards a mild recession in the next 6 months though indicators are never certain.

matguy70 wrote: ↑

Aug 03, 2024

Yes... we are down to one permit inspector.  It use to be 4 or more.
You can thank Tishara for that. She is refusing to increase and also pushes any development in north city first.
This is *not* fake news.  100 percent true.  She has got to go!

The mayor has nothing to do with zoning dept hiring. All of the positions are posted.

matguy70 wrote: ↑

Aug 03, 2024

Yes... we are down to one permit inspector.  It use to be 4 or more.
You can thank Tishara for that. She is refusing to increase and also pushes any development in north city first.
This is *not* fake news.  100 percent true.  She has got to go!

This is definitely fake news

Can confirm we are down to 1 plan reviewer. City needs highlight this role and market it. 

Building permits issued just a little higher than 2023. A lot fewer small ones.
2025 is looking better with $400M Cardinal Glennon coming. Hope some stalled projects become unstuck.

So are issued building permits not getting posted or is there nobody down at the office?

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/data/dashboa ... /years.cfm

I believe it's been stuck at 383 permits issued for 2025 for a week or more now.

STLrainbow wrote: ↑

Feb 27, 2025

So are issued building permits not getting posted or is there nobody down at the office?

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/data/dashboa ... /years.cfm

I believe it's been stuck at 383 permits issued for 2025 for a week or more now.

The office is oftentimes empty when I stop down.  Chronically understaffed.  That is a fact not me complaining about the city.  

Permitting office being as slow as it is (because of not enough staffing) when we need as many projects getting off the ground as we can get has been a huge disappointment under the current admin for me. It’s really bad and holding our city back

Time is money to developers

And now with the market uncertainty, tariffs and construction inflation, we may be costing ourselves projects because we can’t get permits processed faster than 90 days

LRA demo about the only thing that moves fast lately

New construction permits are taking 150 days to approve.

That sounds like a big problem. What is being done about it?