ST. LOUIS — There’s the grocery store at a former manufacturing site. Medical buildings in Oklahoma City. And now the gospel hall of fame in an abandoned church at St. Louis’ renowned “Holy Corners.â€
Last week, developer Steve Smith opened the long-awaited Food Hall at his City Foundry redevelopment.
Now he’s turning his attention to other projects, too. All that work, he said, “keeps me healthy and fresh.â€
Smith, CEO of the Lawrence Group architects and co-founder of the New + Found development firm, said the Foundry, a redo of the old Federal-Mogul site in Midtown, is his most ambitious project to date.
But the same day the Food Hall opened, Smith also announced his partnership with local producer Monica Butler to redevelop the historic Second Baptist Church in the Central West End into a gospel music hall of fame.
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Smith said he and Butler each have a financial stake in the redevelopment. Butler has launched a capital campaign to help fund the $22 million project.
“I believe strongly that part of St. Louis’ distinction, if you will, is our legacy architecture,†Smith said. “It does set us aside from the Nashvilles and the Austin, Texases, of the world. They have nothing like what we have.â€
Monica Butler has launched a capital campaign to help fund her vision for the historic property.Â
The property seems to be structurally sound, Smith said, with “rough aesthetics†— stripped woodwork, chipping paint and missing copper — but nothing that can’t be fixed.
The architect-turned-developer has seen worse.
Nearly a decade ago, the Lawrence Group renovated the distressed Sun Theater in Grand Center. At City Foundry, Smith and the Lawrence Group turned a mucky industrial site into a more than $300 million development with office space, retail and the Food Hall.
Soon to come to the Foundry is Fresh Thyme, which is set to open there later this year, and movie theater Alamo Drafthouse, which is expected to start construction within a few weeks. Even more yet-to-be announced tenants are in the lineup, Smith said.
He’s embarking on the next phase of City Foundry, which will have apartments and more office space, with New + Found that he launched in 2019 with his son Will. The nascent firm employs around a dozen people. It recently broke ground on new medical buildings for SSM in Oklahoma City, its first project outside of St. Louis.
“I’m an adventurer by nature,†Smith said. “Even the Holy Corners is the beginning of another adventure.â€