Coming Soon to Crown Square…

Several commercial spaces along the 2600 and 2700 N. 14th Street at Crown Square will soon be filled with new commercial tenants, including:

2703 N. 14th Street: the space next door to Poor Souls Society Art Gallery and across the street from Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s office will soon be bustling with activity from St. Louis ArtWorks‘ youth apprenticeship program.  Interior buildout of the space is now underway, with a plan to open later this month.  For more information on St. Louis ArtWorks, visit their website by clicking HERE.

Meanwhile, down on the 2600 block, two other spaces are being prepared at:

2601 N. 14th Street for Sole Kandy Shoe Boutique, a women’s shoe store; and

2608 N. 14th Street for Dr. Annessa Blackmun’s podiatry office, to be called Blackmun Footcare.

Since a few of the remaining spaces are large enough to accommodate restaurant uses, let us know if you have any good suggestions for restaurants we should pursue, especially if you’ve got any connections with the owners.  What would be the ideal fit at Crown Square?  A Mexican restaurant? A barbecue place? A microbrewery?

For more information about what’s still available at Crown Square, contact Susan Sauer of Duffe-Nuernberger Realty at 314-571-7654.

To check out the existing businesses, take a peek at the progress with the “coming soon” spaces, and to get a better look at what’s still available, come on out to the North City Farmers’ Market every Saturday.

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Scenes from Old North Home Grown Festival & House Tour -Part 2

The wet and chilly weather may have kept some people away, but the Old North Home Grown Festival & House Tour still was a great success in many other ways that can’t be measured by attendance figures alone.

Some of the community’s strong supporters who haven’t been back to the neighborhood in a while enjoyed the opportunity to see all of the changes, including some that have taken place just within the past couple weeks, including a bright, new look for the Old North Grocery Co-op.

Although we don't normally recommend painting on brick, the building that houses the Old North Grocery Co-op was classified as "non-contributing" at the time the neighborhood was approved as a National Register Historic District, in part because of the newer, non-historic brick on the exterior of the later addition as well as the historic portions of the former horseradish factory.

The event was successful in serving as a platform for establishing new connections, including with one individual who was so impressed that he made plans to hold a wedding reception at Crown Square, and in demonstrating the vibrancy of the community.  A few prospective commercial tenants came out to get a feel for the area and to look at look at commercial spaces that are available for lease.

The Home Grown Festival represented an opportunity to shine the spotlight on artistic talent within and nearby Old North.

Juan William Chavez had an exhibit that shared the story of Team Cookbook, inspired by the Old North Cookbook.

The space at 2607 N. 14th was the site of an installation created by Chinyere E. Oteh, Dail Chambers, and Simiya Sudduth representing the Ye Yo Arts Collective.

Visitors got a chance to try out new neighborhood businesses, such as La Mancha Coffeehouse.

The gallery at the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s office hosted a range of spoken word performances and the re-dedication of Wingmann Park (more about that in a later post), while the Parks Building was the site for a variety of craft vendors.

As always, the house tour showed off the beauty and unique character of homes in Old North…

… on the inside:

…and outside:

Although redevelopment of this cottage house on Palm isn't visible yet, the property still drew a lot of interest. The owners posted a display of architectural plans for the rehab, along with interesting bits about the building's history and its former occupants.

As the photo of the cottage on Palm demonstrates, Old North’s house tour is unlike many other house tours in other neighborhoods.  We don’t limit our tour to the homes that are in pristine condition or likely to show up on the cover of glossy home magazines.  Old North’s tour shows off the diversity of the community, including the range of housing styles and conditions.  There are many homes that have been beautifully restored to reflect their original, Victorian design.  There also are many homes that are at early stages of rehab work, and many that put more contemporary interiors into the shells of their historic homes.

The rain forced many of the street festival activities indoors, including the performances that had been scheduled for the main stage at Crown Square.

Students from Grand Center Arts Academy's Front & Center Show Choir were among the performers.

Young performers from Club CHIPS shared songs with positive messages about healthy living.

David Foote invited audience members to participate in a Zumba dance demonstration.

Meanwhile, out on the street, many of our sponsors and other neighborhood service providers braved the weather to staff information tables.

Kohner Properties staff shared information about apartments available in the neighborhood, including at Crown Square Apartments.

Grace Hill representatives distributed information about the upcoming Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing event scheduled for next weekend.

Trailnet representatives and friends gathered at the corner plaza while waiting for start of the environmental justice bike ride.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture, one of our sponsors, was on hand to recruit more gardens for their 10,000 Garden Challenge.

The Old North St. Louis Restoration Group thanks all sponsors, volunteers, homeowners, and visitors for making the day such a wonderful experience!

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Scenes from Crown Square Ribbon-Cutting / Street Fest

Since we invited all of our board members, staff, and residents to participate in the ribbon-cutting, we didn't get any photos of our own from the other side of the ribbon. This shot was taken by the St. Louis Beacon's photographer and used in their coverage of the event. Click below to read the Beacon's article.

We received a lot of good attention from various local media, including coverage on the day of the event in the Post-Dispatch and on St. Louis Public Radio (and we provided links to those stories in our July 29th post), on Channel 4 earlier in the week (click here for KMOV’s Good News 4 a Change segment with Larry Conners, even though they keep referring to “Crown Plaza” instead of Crown Square), and the St. Louis Beacon (and you can read their article by clicking HERE).

Mayor Slay was one of the speakers. He noted that his mother grew up nearby and expressed her amazement of how much the area has improved recently.

Fifth Ward Alderwoman April Ford Griffin also took the occasion to describe how this project wouldn’t have happened without an engaged community.

The presence of State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (between Mayor Slay and ONSLRG Board President Tino Ochoa in the photo above) was a demonstration of the importance of state support, including investments from the Missouri Housing Development Commission and state historic preservation tax credits.

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Join Us for the Big Day at Crown Square Today

After years of talk, planning, re-planning, exploring resources, community meetings, more planning, acquiring properties, conducting feasibility studies, holding more community meetings, more planning, construction work, enduring countless questions about when is it ever going to be finished, and a lot of other hard work that defies categorization….

Crown Square is finally ready to host a really big party!

To help set the stage for today’s ribbon-cutting celebration (starting at 4 p.m.) and the street party that will follow, St. Louis Public Radio aired a good report by Matt Sepic about the redevelopment and posted some great photos on their website.  You can listen to the story - or read it if you prefer - by clicking HERE.

And the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a good front-page story by Diane Keaggy about the efforts to cultivate a thriving arts-friendly atmosphere in Old North.  You can read that story online - and also see some good photos of the fresh pavement in the street - by clicking HERE.

As noted in the Post-Dispatch article, among the activities at this evening’s street festival will be a snow cone performance by artist Juan William Chavez.  We’re not quite sure what that means - so you’ll have to come out and see for yourselves - but it sounds refreshing on a hot day.

Thank you again to all who made this day possible, and please join Old North St. Louis Restoration Group and Regional Housing & Community Development Alliance in thanking all of them in person at the ribbon-cutting and street party this afternoon at 4 p.m.

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Previews of What Will Be Celebrated at Thursday’s Crown Square Ribbon-Cutting

As noted in Friday’s post about the Crown Square ribbon-cutting, we’re planning a big celebration this Thursday, July 29, to mark the completion of the $35 million, 27-building redevelopment of the former 14th Street Pedestrian Mall.  To get in the mood for the big day, we’re offering a few previews and a look back at how some of these buildings have changed over the years.

The Crown Square redevelopment includes new landscaping between buildings and in public spaces.

The pathway shown above leads to the buildings at 2607 and 2611 N. 14th, which have come a long way over the past few decades.

Above: the buildings at 2607 through 2611 N. 14th have benefited from full historic rehabilitation after years of abandonment and deterioration.

2607 through 2611 N. 14th in 2006.

2607 through 2611 N. 14th in 2008.

Join us on Thursday at 4 p.m. as we celebrate positive changes that have taken place at all 27 buildings and throughout the whole Crown Square redevelopment area.

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Crown Square Ribbon-Cutting & Street Festival: Thurs., July 29

Now that we’ve recovered from last weekend’s ribbon-cutting for the Old North Grocery Co-op, we’re gearing up for an even bigger celebration on Thursday, July 29.  On that day, we will mark the completion of the $35 million Crown Square redevelopment of the former 14th Street Pedestrian Mall.  So, START SPREADING THE NEWS…

All 27 buildings have been historically rehabbed; new sidewalks are in; street trees have been planted, and the pavement on the street WILL be here any day now.  Join us for the street party several years in the making on Thursday, July 29th from 4-8 p.m. Click HERE to download your own PDF of the invitation to this exciting event, and send it on to everybody you know who might be interested and anyone who cares about historic preservation, sustainable development, and transformative, community-based neighborhood revitalization.

We’ve said it here many times before, but it bears repeating now that the redevelopment is just about complete:  Crown Square offers one-of-a-kind, historically rehabbed commercial and residential spaces in the heart of a dynamic community in the midst of a dramatic transformation.  The street festival on July 29th would be a great opportunity to get a first-hand glimpse of the remarkable spaces and the overall spirit of the community.  If you’d like to learn more about what’s available before then, click HERE for a downloadable flyer about the commercial spaces (and contact information for the commercial brokers at Duffe-Nuernberger) or click HERE for a downloadable flyer about the residential spaces (and contact information for the leasing agents at Cohen-Esrey).  We look forward to seeing you on Thursday, July 29th!

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Scenes from the Preservation Fundraiser at the Coolest New Venue in Town

Last night the new Gallery at the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group’s office played host to a fundraiser for the historic preservation group, Friends of the San Luis.  As the following photos show, the event attracted a good crowd of visitors, many of whom enjoyed their first glimpse of the revitalization under way at Crown Square, in the heart of Old North.

When the street and sidewalk are finished, this will be the front door to the gallery.

The gallery space will be available for rent for other events.  Call the ONSLRG office (314-241-5031) or send an email to info@onsl.org for details.

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Open House for Crown Square Apartments

It’s short notice, but if you’ve been waiting for the Crown Square Apartments to become available, now is the time.  On Saturday from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m., Crown Square Apartments will have an Open House for prospective tenants. 

As the flyer above notes, Crown Square offers a mix of unit sizes and types, from the more traditional to some that have more of a loft style.  So, if you’re in the market for a 1, 2, or 3-bedroom apartment in a phenomenal setting, come on out Saturday or give the leasing agents from Cohen-Esrey a call at 314-588-7267.  Please note that the starting point for the open house is at the Cohen-Esrey leasing office, 2323 N. 14th (at North Market), 2 blocks south of the former 14th Street Mall.

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