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ST. LOUIS — On the morning of July 18, Fred Lewis got a call from a friend who happened to be near Lewis’ building on Martin Luther King Drive. Someone was breaking in.

For more than 20 years, Lewis has owned the former J.C. Penney store near the city’s border with Wellston. The previous owners all but gave it to him, weary from maintaining a building designed for a tenant that had departed as the neighborhood declined.

The three-story concrete building, in the International Style and on the National Register of Historic Places, is a testament to long-ago days when the Wellston Loop was a bustling streetcar hub and a major regional shopping center.

Though it’s now in one of the city’s roughest neighborhoods, Lewis insists no one had ever broken in — until this year. And the intruder wasn’t a scrapper or an addict. It was a contractor working for the city.

“I’ve been here 22 years,” Lewis said from the sidewalk that afternoon as he sized up the damage to his door. “I’ve never had an incident. Ever. Until the city came in.”

Now, the city has a tax lien recorded against his building for a repair contract that had been estimated at $163,000, even though repair work hasn’t even started.

Lewis’ building is one of some 50 privately owned buildings where the city has hired contractors to do repairs and then billed the owners for the work, part of a program rolled out last year called Stable Communities STL. Another 20 or so are in the process of having the repair work bid out. Over 100 properties have been included in the program. More are being added as the city spends down the remaining $4 million of the $13 million originally set aside for the program.

The city’s actions sometimes spur the owners to do repairs themselves. But mostly, the city does the work, and the bills turn into debts recorded against the property.

Since April, special city tax liens have been recorded against at least 15 buildings, including Lewis’ old J.C. Penney and three other large commercial buildings nearby on Martin Luther King Drive.

Those liens — more will be recorded because no owners have repaid the city for the work to stabilize their buildings — could lead to a sale of some of the properties at a special tax auction. And because the liens are for amounts that often exceed the value of the buildings, the properties may not draw bidders, meaning the city would end up putting them into its land bank, the Land Reutilization Authority.

Some building owners and neighborhood groups are grateful for the city’s effort to address crumbling properties, and to front the money in areas where property values have tumbled and mortgages to fund repairs are all but impossible to obtain. Also, the city says that it tries to be patient with property owners.

But questions remain about whether owners can reimburse the city, and whether repayment plans or outright debt forgiveness will be extended to those owners.

For Lewis, it’s a distressing situation, while neighbors say he means well even if he lacks the money to redevelop his property.

Sending a message

Stable Communities was launched without much fanfare. Mayor Tishaura O. Jones in January 2023 signed the executive order creating the program. The Post-Dispatch obtained a copy after submitting an open records request.

Six months later, Jones , STL TV, from a dilapidated Hyde Park home, among the first properties city contractors repaired under the program.

“Stable Communities STL is a pilot program that we are stabilizing privately owned properties so they can then be renovated and become, instead of neighborhood sores, neighborhood gems,” the mayor said.

Since then, the program has expanded to encompass 19 city neighborhoods, including the stretch along Martin Luther King Drive where Lewis’ building stands. Inspectors have cited the properties with a raft of code violations and begun hiring contractors to do repairs.

The city has always had the authority to conduct emergency repairs on buildings that pose a threat or nuisance. However, the building division lacked the funds to cover the costs of repairs upfront.

Then, in 2022, flush with federal pandemic aid, the city set aside the initial $13 million to launch the program. And it began developing guidelines to prioritize buildings from the roughly 5,000 vacant and deteriorating structures in the city, some of which neighbors had long considered nuisances.

“It’s a huge deal if you’re living next to one of these properties to see somebody finally take care of them,” said Nate Lindsey, who works on vacancy issues for Dutchtown Main Streets in South St. Louis.

The program ties into the city’s broader work on vacancy. It’s continuing to stabilize its own LRA properties and prepping them for sale, going after problematic owners such as Dara Daugherty and Paul McKee, and threatening to take over high-profile vacant buildings such as the Railway Exchange downtown.

“I don’t think the city has ever devoted as much time and attention to dealing with this issue, not just with regard to private property owners, but with regard to public property and making sure that investments are made intentionally in these areas,” said Jared Boyd, the mayor’s chief of staff.

About 20% of the private owners who receive notification that Stable Communities is planning to repair their buildings are spurred to address the code violations, Boyd said, costing the city little more than the price of postage. More broadly, the program has sent “a message to bad property owners that the city is not going to tolerate their behavior,” he said.

But some owners have fought back. On Martin Luther King Drive, former Alderman Jeffrey Boyd owns a commercial building that the city has targeted under the program and on which the city has recorded a lien. Boyd has threatened to sue but pulled a permit to repair the roof, so the city is not moving forward with its contractors for now.

McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration, whose north St. Louis real estate holdings have stirred controversy for 20 years, appealed but lost when the city targeted one of its St. Louis Place properties on North Market. The city repaired a collapsing back wall and built a new multi-story back porch.

“Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of private money to come up to the north side and take these on,” said Virginia Druhe of the St. Louis Place Community Association. “We can’t just let these buildings keep falling down.”

In Fountain Park, the long-vacant, turreted building on the east end of the park is boarded up and secured now, but not before the owner hired a lawyer and held off the city with a restraining order for six months last year. Mitchell Jacobs, the owner’s attorney, said he admires the city’s attempt to clean up neighborhoods but warned that the process can hurt owners trying to comply. Legally, however, it’s not much different than the city demolishing a condemned building, “which they have been doing for a long time.”

“The question is really why isn’t the city working more with the property owners to help them get this done,” Jacobs said. “I think it might be a little bit overzealous in some ways, but the city does have a responsibility to take care of these properties. If they feel that there’s a homeowner who’s not cooperating, I don’t know what other choices they have.”

At the intersection of Hodiamont Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive, city contractors are shoring up the old Kresge building, a former department store that has a caved-in roof and was a haven for the homeless. Its owner, Russell Johnson, said he welcomed the work and plans to continue the project after the city finishes, hopefully finding tenants so he can pay back an estimated $270,000 in repairs. The city has already recorded a lien against his building.

“To me, it’s kind of like a jump start,” Johnson said.

Further east, Maurice Green owns the building at the northwest corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Goodfellow Boulevard. City contractors were busy this month shoring up the portion of the building that fronts MLK. But the property’s Goodfellow Boulevard portion contains popular eatery Mom’s Soul Food Kitchen.

“I appreciate what they’re trying to do for Martin Luther King,” said Green, whose mother started the restaurant. “It’s long overdue.”

But Green said he has struggled to get answers from the city on what comes next or whether he will get some help repaying the estimated $200,000 of work on the property. He figures the city wouldn’t want to foreclose on a building that contains one of the few locally owned restaurants in the struggling neighborhood. If he’s going to repay the city, he will need some sort of grant or low-interest loan to finish rehabbing the building in order to rent it to new tenants, he said.

“I appreciate the start,” Green said. “They need to help me finish now.”

Boyd, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the city has “shown some grace and flexibility” working with owners and would look into Green’s situation.

In the trenches

Lewis first found out the city had cited him for code violations in late December, when a letter from the building division arrived. He thought it was a mistake.

The first letter, a condemnation of the building, arrived in late December. By the time he received it, the city had already drafted a letter to begin emergency stabilization, before Lewis even had a chance to appeal the condemnation.

He called his alderwoman, Pam Boyd, who arranged an April meeting with officials from the St. Louis Development Corporation and building division. Also on the call was Boyd’s daughter, Toni Cousins, the president of the St. Louis Board of Education who was recently hired as the CEO of nonprofit development group North Star Community Partners. The group hopes to help revitalize MLK and last year won from the James S. McDonnell Foundation.

During the meeting, SLDC President and CEO Neal Richardson told Lewis he would talk with the mayor’s office, and he asked Deputy Building Commissioner Dylan Mosier to pause work on the building.

Lewis thought it had been resolved. But by July 10, the city recorded the lien on his property. A contractor the city hired showed up a week later and tried to get in, explaining the city told him to get an estimate for the remediation work.

The J.C. Penney building has seen better days. There are a few front windows missing. The front security cage was damaged by a reckless driver. But Lewis insists the building is solid. And it appears, at least from the outside, to be in better shape than many of the buildings in the area.

He doesn’t understand how the city determined some of the violations, particularly the ones where an inspector would have had to be inside. Among the violations listed in a building division letter: “interior structural members are rotten,” “interior of building is littered with debris,” and “rodent/insect infested.”

Other violations include missing windows on the east and west. Lewis points out he has no windows on the east and west. The city inspectors claim it’s “open to unauthorized entry” and a “harbor for vagrants and criminals.” Lewis said his building has always been secure. He has dogs guarding the inside. There’s never been a call to the Citizens Service Bureau about the building being unsecured, according to city data.

But inspectors say Lewis has not moved to begin making repairs or improvements to his building. In the April meeting, Mosier, the deputy building commissioner, stood by his inspectors’ assessment of the code violations.

“The scope of work that was put together didn’t require any of the building condition staff to enter the building,” he said, according to a recording of the meeting Lewis shared. “I really want to emphasize that here.”

Lewis is no developer. He’s a track coach. But he and others in the neighborhood say he’s one of the few property owners on the street who isn’t absentee. He mows the LRA lots to the west of his building and planted trees there. His mother taught for years at the now closed Hempstead Elementary nearby.

“Who’s here on a daily basis?” Lewis said. “Who’s here in the trenches?”

Boyd, the alderwoman, said she is sympathetic to Lewis’ plight and tried to help him. But she said he has owned it for 20 years and it’s time to get something done there.

“Those are beautiful commercial buildings,” she said. “Mr. Lewis has taken good care, but move forward. Don’t let that just sit there.”

The mayor’s chief of staff says the city is trying to spur new investment on Martin Luther King Drive.

“There may be some well-intentioned people who are not great property owners, and who, despite their intentions, are holding back the ability to activate those neighborhoods,” Jared Boyd said. “And I think we’re open to having conversations about providing off ramps for people like that, if they’re interested, or potential partnerships with other developers.”

Though the city insists it has no interest in using the program to acquire private property, Lewis fears that will be what happens after years of paying property taxes while dealing with trash, crime, homelessness, drug use and prostitution.

“All for what?” Lewis fumed. “To come in and say we’re gonna take your stuff now?”

But Lewis admits he would need some help to redevelop his building. As would just about every other private property owner nearby.

“Who isn’t in over their head in this neighborhood?” Lewis asked. “Everybody in north St. Louis is in over their head.”

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