Redevelopment may combine lofts and a brewery
The far southern reaches of St. Louis have been largely left out of many urban development plans in recent years. But a planned $25 million redevelopment of an industrial building near the Carondelet neighborhood will bring 77 new lofts and, possibly, the future home of the Lemp Brewing Co.
The development — planned for a former Coca-Cola syrup plant at 8125 Michigan Avenue in the Patch neighborhood — is a joint venture project between Steins Broadway Inc. and Rothschild Development. Construction is scheduled to begin in June, which should allow the owners to begin leasing about 13 months later, said Ben Simms, president of Steins Broadway.
The four-story building’s first level is a 27,000-square-foot space that Lemp has loosely agreed to use, said Steve DeBellis, the company’s president. Lemp is contracting another manufacturer to brew and ship its beer, but DeBellis’ goal is to grow the company enough to move those operations to the old Coke syrup plant, which happens to be near his Carondelet home.
"The thing with having a brewery versus using another plant is people like to tour breweries and see the
process," DeBellis said. He added that a local operation could include a beer garden or museum of the Lemp brand’s 171-year history.
Lemp Brewing Co. was the first national shipping brewery before prohibition shuttered it. The Lemp brand name has come and gone twice, changing hands in the process, but was bought by DeBellis in 1987, who resumed Lemp’s brewing as a craft lager in 2004 after a 42-year hiatus.
Simms said the brewery will thrive at the location because the neighborhood has recently added more people who could support it. While downtown has gained more attention for adding high-end rentals, he said the number of high quality condos and apartments have been quietly growing in Patch and Carondelet recently, usually at a lower cost than in trendier spots.
Simms’ 5-year-old firm is responsible for adding a bit of that density, having already developed about 85 rental units in the neighborhood no teletrack payday loans. With him is Rothschild, who has been redeveloping historic buildings in St. Louis for about 40 years. Rothschild is best known for helping restore properties in the Central West End, Soulard and Benton Park neighborhoods, and he is now working on development in both Carondelet and Maplewood.
Nearly $12 million of the project’s funding came through a loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A condition of the loan mandates that all of the building’s units be leased at a fair market rate.
Four private investors pitched in about an additional $1 million, but both Simms and Rothschild say the project would have been impossible without $12 million in federal and state tax credits and local tax-increment financing it also received.
The former syrup plant was built in stages between 1919 and 1939, so the developers benefited from tax credits for redeveloping a historic property and brownfield credits for eliminating the presence of asbestos and lead-based paint from the building.
Though Simms acknowledged the neighborhood is still relatively sleepy, he said he believes this project could be a key energizer for other neighborhood developments, particularly if the promise of a new Lemp brewery comes true.
Nationally, breweries and brew pubs have often helped invigorate otherwise slow developing neighborhoods, said Julia Herz, craft beer program director for the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association. She said a classic example is Denver’s lower downtown. The once-blighted area was revitalized with the help a brewery that was run by an entrepreneur who is now the city’s mayor.
"Small breweries are not going to have a lot of resources to them, so they’re going to have to go for locations that have the space that allow them to produce — which aren’t necessarily in higher rent districts," Herz said.
Filed under: business by Wolf