SLU May Pass on Pevely Site for New Medical Facility

According to a nextSTL.com source, St. Louis University is no longer planning to build a new ambulatory care facility at the largely demolished Pevely Dairy complex on South Grand. If you missed it, SLU went to the mattresses to demand that they be allowed to demolish the complex listed on the National Register of Historic Places, insisting time and time again that the only site suitable for the new facility was the southwest corner of of South Grand and Chouteau Avenue, adjacent to the existing medical campus. SLU President Fr. Lawrence Biondi went as far as to threaten moving the hosptial and medical school if the city denied demolition.

To be clear, the premise of the demolition was always that this site, and this site only would be suitable for the medical facility. The Associated Press, KSDK and others wrote headlines stating that the Preservation Board's denial of demolition was "a setback for a new $75 million surgical center for Saint Louis University". It was argued strongly here and elsewhere that plan presented a host of false choices. This demolition request, like many, was presented as an "either/or" - either SLU was going to be allowed to build their new medical facility or "preservationists" were going to stop them to save a vacant building. Few considered that once demolition occurred, that the facility would be built elsewhere.