190 homes to be built in the city
St. Louis Business Journal - by Margaret Jackson
Bohemian Hill Redevelopment Ltd. plans to spend about $15 million on a residential development that will include more single-family houses than were built in the entire city last year.
The Bohemian Hill subdivision, across from the Darst-Webbe public housing complex, will include up to 190 new and renovated houses for moderate- to middle-income families. Last year, the city issued 134 permits to build single-family homes.
Bohemian Hill Redevelopment, a partnership among Jay Jarvis, Max Barken and Bob Brandhorst, has slated about 30 of the homes already on the property for renovation. The project is the first the three men have worked on together.
"If we could get a Schnucks and another city school, that would be all we need," Jarvis said.
The developers' goal is to bring young professionals back to the city to live.
"If the inner city dies, the entire city dies," said Barken, who renovated and built more than 100 single-family homes and apartment units in the Soulard area since 1980.
The Bohemian property, across from the old City Hospital and the Darst-Webbe public housing complex, is bounded by Tucker to the east, Lafayette to the north, an Interstate 44 exit ramp to the west and an Interstate 55 cloverleaf to the south.
The developers have controlled roughly half the ground for 20 years but have been waiting for the city to take action on Darst-Webbe before starting their own project.
Darst-Webbe is being demolished to make way for a $160 million, mixed-income development. It will include about 500 houses and apartments for middle- and moderate-income residents and 205 new public housing units. A builder has not been selected.
The next-largest residential development in the city is in the Gate District, bounded by Jefferson to the east, Chouteau to the north, Lafayette to the south and Grand to the west. About 260 homes are on the drawing board in that area. The Charles F. Vatterott Family of Cos., Pyramid Builders Inc. and SLACO are building in the Gate District.
Bohemian Hill Redevelopment has hired Don Royse and Joe Noero, both professors of architecture at Washington University, to design the houses for its project. Each house will have three or four bedrooms; 2 1/2 baths; a detached garage; and a private courtyard. Some of the units will be accessible to people with disabilities, and all will be energy-efficient. Prices will start at $125,000.
Bohemian Hill Redevelopment is working with Mercantile Community Development Corp. to finance the project.
"We're not at the commitment phase yet, but we're working toward it," said Kathy Bader, president of Mercantile Community Development Corp.
Jarvis also is talking with NationsBank Mortgage Co. about providing financing to home buyers. If the property is in a tract the Census Bureau considers low- to moderate-income level, NationsBank has a program that potentially can provide 100 percent financing below the market interest rate, said Bob Link, assistant vice president at NationsBanc Mortgage.
"We also have a 97 percent loan for people who have had credit problems in the past," Link said. "It's a really aggressive program."
Although a deal with a general contractor has not been completed, construction of the first two houses is scheduled to start within the next 30 to 45 days on property already controlled by Bohemian Hill Redevelopment. The first two houses will be financed with two state grants totaling $150,000.
The partnership is working with the city to gain control of property east of 13th Street at Lafayette, where a senior citizens housing complex is planned to replace the Darst-Webbe seniors building.
For that to happen, the senior complex would have to be relocated. However, senior citizens who live in the Darst-Webbe building were promised the new complex would be on the same site it is now, 7th Ward Alderman Phyllis Young said.
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen will consider a redevelopment plan for the Darst-Webbe and Bohemian Hill areas at their April meeting, Young said.
"After that, the city will be advertising for developers (of the Bohemian Hill site)," she said. "I think I prefer to see (Bohemian Hill) as a residential site for home ownership. It's just a matter of whether we let one developer control the whole site."
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