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ST. LOUIS — A school building that has sat vacant for two decades is poised to again become a building block of a north St. Louis neighborhood.

The , which buys and rehabs old homes in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood, is spending $1.2 million to turn the former Farragut Elementary Branch, at 3000 East Prairie Avenue, into a community resources center it is calling “The Hub.�

A major social service agency and a hospital are joining in: Health system Mercy plans to open by this spring a community clinic focused on family and women’s health. And Catholic Charities will operate a family services office in the new building.

Andre Alexander, pastor of The Tabernacle Church nearby and president of the neighborhood-focused Tabernacle development corporation, has for six years acquired and rehabbed vacant properties in this neighborhood just south of Fairground Park. The work was entirely funded by the church and private donors until October, when the city awarded Tabernacle a federal community development grant.

Now Alexander is on the verge of winning a second redevelopment designation from city aldermen, which will keep property tax increases in check for residents and help Tabernacle in its mission to rebuild the housing stock in a neighborhood devastated by vacancy and population decline.

“Andre’s vision is one that can be a game-changer for our city,� said Brian Thouvenot, chief development officer for Catholic Charities of St. Louis.

Tabernacle is the latest example of efforts to build capacity among groups in north St. Louis neighborhoods. Residents in the O’Fallon and Penrose neighborhoods, for example, will vote in April on a special taxing district covering the entire 21st Ward, which would levy a property tax to clean up alleys, repave streets, fix sidewalks and save turn-of-the-century brick homes.

Jeff-Vander-Lou, roughly bounded by Delmar Boulevard and Natural Bridge, Jefferson and Vandeventer avenues, was once one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the city. It had big employers, such as Carter Carburetor and Coca-Cola, and major anchors, including ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵman’s Park, home of the Browns and Cardinals. It was home to about 40,000 residents in 1950, the year the city’s population peaked.

But the neighborhood’s population has since fallen further than any in the city, to about 5,500 people last year.

Alexander is trying to reverse its course.

“He’s doing just some fantastic work in Jeff-Vander-Lou,� Doug Rasmussen, president of development consulting firm Steadfast City, told the city’s Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority in November. Rasmussen was working with Alexander to win approval of the redeveloper designation.

Tabernacle has rehabbed 10 houses since it began working, and it has three under construction now. It owns about 42 properties in the neighborhood, Alexander said, and has about 34 livable units that it helps families move into.

In November, the city’s development arm gave Tabernacle its blessing for a large redevelopment area covering the neighborhood south of Fairground Park. The designation will allow for tax abatement that can keep property taxes in check for homeowners if their values begin to increase, Alexander said, noting that the western headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is under construction less than a mile away.

Aldermen are the north side of Fairground Park as a redevelopment area, too. Alexander said Tabernacle aims to build, eventually, 91 homes on both sides of the park.

Soon, Catholic Charities and offshoot St. Francis Community Services will move their program into The Hub.

The program, which pairs a case manager with a family that is expected to commit to the program for two to four years, opened its first office in 2016 in Bellefontaine Neighbors and now has about 60 families enrolled.

It already has hired case managers to begin working in Jeff-Vander-Lou and has enrolled some families referred through Tabernacle’s housing assistance programs.

The hope is that Pathways can handle the social services aspect of neighborhood building, while Alexander’s Tabernacle focuses on the built environment.

“They put their resources where it’s needed most, which is the housing,� Catholic Charities’ Thouvenot said.

Alexander said Tabernacle is only limited by funding and resources. He’d like more help from the private sector.

�I would like to see banks get in the forefront and not wait until after the fact,� Alexander said. “It takes capital to do this work, and without capital, it doesn’t happen.�