ST. LOUIS — A consortium of private developers and nonprofits, including the region’s new business group, Greater St. Louis Inc., are partnering on a $40 million scattered-site apartment project in the city’s Forest Park Southeast neighborhood, south of the popular Grove entertainment district.
Led by developer Green Street St. Louis, the group says half of the 160 units in six buildings will feature “attainable rents†targeting health care workers who want to live near the job-heavy Barnes-Jewish hospital and Washington University medical school complex to the north.
The project is part of a strategy to retain at least some below-market rents in an area that has rapidly transformed from a lower-income neighborhood to a trendy entertainment and residential destination. Four years ago, the Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. worked with a private developer and nonprofit to develop some 150 units of market rate and low-income housing in the area.
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Private developers have already built plenty of high-quality market-rate units, said Hank Webber, Washington University’s executive vice chancellor and chair of the redevelopment corporation’s board. And the university has helped build low-income housing in the neighborhood.
“This project fills in the missing middle,†he said. “Those who earn too much to qualify for subsidized housing and too little to afford market housing.â€
Rents in the highly desirable area are above other areas of the city, where, for instance, an average two-bedroom downtown rented for $1,030 in 2019. At the new project, units with “attainable rents†start at $1,100 a month for a studio and rises to $1,490 a month for a two-bedroom. Project developers say the figures are based on the state’s low-income housing rental requirement formula for renters who make 80% of the area’s median income.
Green Street announced the scattered-site apartments more than a year ago, part of a larger proposal that included a 300-unit apartment complex on Swan Avenue. The company said earlier this month it closed on financing for that project.
The development is also another example of the new Greater St. Louis Inc., formed by a merger of Civic Progress and the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Downtown STL, financing projects that align with its emphasis on revitalizing the urban core. Its Arch to Park Equity Fund made a “patient capital†investment to help finance the project, according to an announcement.
“By developing housing with attainable rents in a location that helps connect people with jobs and career opportunities, we are showing what transformative, inclusive growth can look like,†said Valerie E. Patton, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer for and president of the Greater St. Louis Foundation.
