North Sarah Development (Sarah / Finney)

[malbrite10]

An exciting new mixed-income community is rising in North City - the North Sarah development.

120 new mixed-income rental units
7,000 square feet of retail/commercial space
Designs to reflect the historic African American business district that was once there.

Read a project description here.

Read an article about minority inclusion on the construction contract here.

The first link contains two renderings of the commercial streetscape on Sarah Street.

[framer]

Looks good, as far as can be seen in the two tiny renderings.

[rbb]

There are larger versions of those renders on their Flickr page:

I *think* I see vinyl siding on the building next to the corner shop here - I do hope that's something more substantial on the side of the 2nd building behind the brick facade:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccormackb ... 580707639/

This looks terrific:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccormackb ... 580707639/

On the whole, this looks quite nice, and it's certainly far, far better than what's there now.

-RBB

[Roger Wyoming]

excellent project! btw, google maps shows the street just north of Enright (and a few blocks south of Finney) as Suburban Trak. Anyone know what the heck that might be about?

[Mark Groth]

excellent project! btw, google maps shows the street just north of Enright (and a few blocks south of Finney) as Suburban Trak. Anyone know what the heck that might be about?

I believe the name Suburban Track refers to the former street car line. But the ultimate source on STL street names: http://www.slpl.lib.mo.us/libsrc/s-street.htm only lists Suburban Avenue:

SUBURBAN AVENUE (E-W). In Phillip E. Green's subdivision of 1892, it was so named for its then suburban location. (Cabanne)

[Roger Wyoming]

^ thanks for sharing. Good reminder of our history!

[Roger Wyoming]

I guess the land went from nature to field to suburban division to urban neighborhood to urban decay to vacant brownfield to mixed-use/ mixed-income development.

[framer]

Drove by this the other day, and I gotta say it looks great; much larger project than I realized. Let's hope they can fill the commercial space.

[stldotage]

The word is that a grocery store has already been secured for one of the commercial buildings. Another space is for leasing. And most of the remaining commercial bays are live-work units.

I believe Phase II has already been funded and is substantially larger. It will add commercial buildings in similar style to Vandeventer and Whittier.

[Alex Ihnen]

I need to get up there and write something up - or better yet, find a contributor to do so!

[johndavis]

Two stories recently about this development.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 80b54.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/morn ... to-be.html

[onecity]

59 units are public housing? Of 120? That seems awfully high. I'd have aimed for 30-40 max, if the goal is to diffuse poverty.

[Alex Ihnen]

^ Just curious, how'd you come up with 30-40 max?

[stlhistory]

^Might have had difficulty filling more than 60 market rate units, and at least they're getting some income on the 60 public units. Maybe tax credits, too. Just a guess, though.

[Alex Ihnen]

^They're getting income from the public housing as well, of course.