For more than a decade, dozens of vacant lots have sat unused south of Manchester Avenue in The Grove (Forest Park Southeast neighborhood). The largest real estate holder is Forest West Properties, Inc. (AKA Washington University in St. Louis). Now, with the expansion of the medical center and adjacent Cortex, a market is emerging for the area. Developer UIC has found success a few blocks south and Forest West appears ready to begin chipping away at its inventory.
A proposal set to go in front of the Park Central Development Corporation would introduce an interesting residential form. Proposed are three buildings on a combined three lots at 4326-30 Vista Avenue. Two stand-alone homes, one behind the other, and a garage with second-story condo, would frame common space. Each owner would have one parking garage space. The proposal states the exterior material will be all wood.
From the project description: “Each owner will own 3ft of land around their individual homes. The rest of the site will be held in common and governed by a homeowners association. The open space consists of a shared courtyard and vegetable garden. There will also be a sitting area and flower garden accessible to both residents and the general public.”
Park Central will recommend the neighborhood development committee support the requested zoning variance and tax abatement on the condition that the Vista sidewalk be replaced, exterior materials be wood, and that a fence not be constructed along Vista. The developer is listed as Scott Siekert, a real estate agent at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices real estate brokerage network.
Forest West owns 85 properties south of Manchester in The Grove, by our count, and in effect controls another dozen or more with an option to purchase vacant parcels from the city’s Land Reutilization Authority. In February of this year, a Request for Information (RFI) was issued for the properties. It’s expected that several developers will be chosen from among the respondents.
In the meantime, individual parcels are being chipped away for various developments. In December of last year the Park Central Development Corporation endorsed a dozen development proposals from four different developers for vacant homes or lots across the neighborhood. Earlier that month, a proposal for a $500K custom home on Hunt Avenue that would repurpose an existing vacant home and occupy two vacant parcels, was given the green light.
{one of the approved infill projects for The Grove}
{custom home planned for Hunt Avenue}
