On a steamy St. Louis summer afternoon, having an apartment in a vacant ice plant in Soulard seems like a cool treat.
The ice is long gone, but still standing is the sturdy brick building that a developer plans to redo as 43 market-rate apartments. Officials said work could begin this fall at the Polar Wave building, 2400 South Ninth Street.
One of the project’s investors, Victor Alston, said Thursday that the building would have a rooftop deck from which residents would have views of the Arch and the downtown skyline.
“I think it’s going to be neat,†he said. “We hope to attract a good professional crowd to that part of Soulard.â€
Alston, who lives in the Los Angeles area, said he was among “multiple West Coast investors†behind the Polar Wave project. He said he also was an owner of Asprient Properties, a St. Louis apartment management firm that operates several buildings in the Central West End.
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The $6.2 million Polar Wave project is in line for 10-year tax abatement from the city. Because the building is within the federal Soulard Neighborhood Histrict District, the project is eligible for state and federal historic preservation tax credits.
Unused for years, the Polar Wave building — which city records show was constructed in 1924 — has large holes in part of the roof. Rainwater from recent thunderstorms remains pooled on the floor.The wooden framework that once held insulation in the ice storage area is in ruins. In another section of the building, the hull of a sailboat sits on blocks. Small trees and other vegetation have sprouted from cracks in an old loading dock.
Alston said that what is left of the building’s interior would be gutted. Polar Wave’s apartments will have wooden floors, granite countertops and other amenities, he said.
Some apartments are designed to have glass walls, said Joe Klitzing, whose Klitzing Welsch & Associates is the project’s architect. To get the historic tax credits, the developers are prohibited from dramatically altering the building’s exterior, which is largely devoid of windows.
To compensate, the roof of the builder’s taller “ice house†portion will get skylights and an atrium to admit light, Klitzing said. Two-level apartments facing the atrium will have glass walls that will allow light to spread through the interior. The final design is being tweaked to satisfy historic preservation requirements, but exterior windows will probably be installed on the lower part of a “non-significant elevation,†he said.
Plans call for three three-bedroom apartments, six two-bedroom apartments and the remainder as one-bedroom units.
The concrete loading dock at a corner of the L-shaped building will be removed to provide residents’ parking in what will be reworked as a courtyard, Alston and Klitzing said.
Financing for the project is “just about there,†said Klitzing, adding that construction could begin in late October and take about nine months to complete.
Alston said he and his fellow investors had long had an interest in St. Louis residential property, adding that he believed Soulard was ready for a larger apartment project such as Polar Wave.
He said the developers had yet to pick a contractor. Among those hoping to get some of the work is Rod Johnson, president of Johnson Cement, of St. Louis. He walked around the empty building Thursday as part of his effort to put together a bid to salvage a spiral staircase and demo part of the interior, plus the loading dock.
“All of this has to come out,†said Johnson, waving his arm over the old concrete.