ST. LOUIS — Development has boomed in the Central West End.
The historic neighborhood, just east and north of Forest Park and adjacent to some of the region's largest employers, such as the Washington University Medical Campus, has led all city of St. Louis neighborhoods for commercial and residential building activity in the past decade, with nearly $1.5 billion in investment.
But a key property, a surface parking lot at the busy intersection of Lindell and North Kingshighway boulevards, was left out.
Now, the owner of the lot, at 4974 Lindell, just south of the Chase Park Plaza hotel, plans a 30-story luxury apartment tower there, with 293 units. It's a $134 million project, dubbed Albion West End, that developer Sam Koplar of Koplar Properties thinks will stand the test of time. His partner on the project is Albion Residential of Chicago, and it could be completed by 2025.
"Hopefully 100 years from now when they want to change the building and the future (preservation authorities are) giving the owner problems, it means I did a good job," he said.
Its transition from parking lot to a rounded glass tower would serve as the culmination of a 50-year quest — a journey that included overcoming a deadly fire, fickle economies and skeptical investors — to build a monument to the Koplar family's legacy and to St. Louis' place in the world.
But this project also isn't without obstacles, including one potential big one: resistance from city leaders towards the type of tax abatement previously given to projects of this type.
Read the full report on the St. Louis Business Journal website, including a history of the tower site and the turning point in the project.
