This week’s real estate column in the WSJ written by Peter King focuses on energy costs. Where Utility Bills Are Low discusses three locations in the US with the lowest rates for kilowatt hours. Of the three locations mentioned, Fort Wayne, IN, Lincoln, NE, and St. Louis, MO, St. Louis ranks the most affordable at 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

The article featured the Mississippi Bluff Town Homes for its St. Louis example. Thanks to the information provided in the article it was interesting to compare taxes as well as energy costs. Taxes on a 500K home is Fort Wayne were approximately $8000 a year, for 200K home in Lincoln taxes were approximately $3000 annually. The Mississippi Bluffs Town Homes were estimated at 1% of the value, approximately $4000 a year making St. Louis real estate even more affordable. (Note: the developer of Mississippi Bluffs was just approved for 10 year tax abatement on the first 4 units, tax abatement on the remaining units is pending.)

Check this out. More national press on our downtown.

Above is a rendering of the former Dillard’s building which will now be known as the Laurel. Notice anything missing? For a hint, visit the website.

Also unveiled this week was the Mercantile Exchange.

I’ve always loved this small patch of St. Louis City. For those that are not familiar, it’s the neighborhood on the southeast corner of Forest Park, just south of the Barnes Jewish Medical Campus. It’s a perfect central location with a collection of beautiful homes that are still relatively affordable… and it’s the location of my first and last post-college rental apartment. I also can’t forget to mention it is home to one of St. Louis’ best bakeries, La Dolce Via.

Here are just a few homes currently available in the area: 4521 Gibson, 4517 Gibson, 4571 Arco.

The Neighborhood is still undergoing a major transformation as new developments enter the neighborhood.

Click here to read the Business Journal article about the speculated future of Forest Park Southeast (I still have a hard time calling it ‘The Grove’). Here’s a highlight:

“The Gills hope to use low lease rates to attract retailers such as small grocers or gift shops. Rents will range between $7 and $10 per square foot for commercial space. For its residential projects, rents will be below $1 per square foot, or between $650 and $850 per month. The first round will focus on one-bedroom apartment units to attract young professionals. By year five of the development, Amrit Gill said, the plan is to attract families with children and empty nesters. “

An interesting page detailing Restoration St. Louis involvement in the area:
http://www.restorationstlouis.com/?pg=neig&id=thegrove

Another good article on the neighborhood planning:
http://record.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/9410.html

With the coming I-64/40 shutdown those trips to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are going to be that much more cumbersome. Thankfully we will soon have a new alternative in the city at 3148 Morganford.

Local Harvest Grocery will have its grand opening on June 1 and is operating in conjunction with the folks who put on the Tower Grove Farmers Market. In addition to some prepared foods, they will stock locally grown produce, meats, chesses and grains and sustainably produced products from outside the region.

Delivery of 3140 Pennsylvania

See more images here.

EcoUrban Homes is a budding development group in St. Louis focusing on pre-fab and offering LEED certified options. Below is a short interview with Jay Swoboda.

What inspired you to go GREEN in STL?
We approached this project with the goal of rebuilding neighborhoods and decided that infill development could be most effectively addressed using some form of prefab building technology. However, the majority of our inspiration came each month when an issue of Dwell Magazine would arrive in our mailbox. We realized that the prefab process and the minimalism we aspired to through our modern design already put us on our way to building green. For us, there was just something innately green about the modern style and process we were using. We decided if we were going to do this then we wanted to have something we’d be proud of - not just something that would make us money. So we made the decision to start green, build green, and finish green with our homes.
Building green not only makes financial sense for us as a builder, it also makes a lot of sense for marketing and sales. Ultimately, everyone wins – the buyer, the builder, the community, and the environment. We’ll be the first LEED-certified homes in Missouri. There aren’t a lot of people – maybe not anyone – doing the things we’re doing all at once: green, modern, prefab – all at a price within reach. It’s exciting, and we hope that we’ll really be able to kick off something big in St. Louis.

What projects are you currently working on?
Right now we’re in the first phase of our product rollout building our first development in the Tower Grove East and Benton Park West neighborhoods. Our first home was delivered on April 30th to 3140 Pennsylvania Avenue in Benton Park West. It was pretty exciting. Our first tour group will be going through on May 12, with more to follow – just two weeks after the home was delivered.
What can we expect in the next year?
You can look forward to the rollout of EcoUrban homes to other neighborhoods in St. Louis. We’re also looking at expanding to other cities in the future (Denver, Kansas City, Chicago, Pittsburgh) focusing on urban areas.
What is your past development experience?
EcoUrban is a year-old company, and our parent company’s past experience has been in the downtown loft and commercial redevelopment. We also have experience in owning and operating low-income apartments and SROs.
Front Elevation of Finished Home.

Sage Homebuilders is building GREEN homes in the city. Check out this one on Childress or this one on Gustine.

Below is a quick interview with Jason Stone, one of the company’s partners.

What inspired you to go GREEN in STL?

I wish I could take credit, but the idea to go green was Rick Hunter’s. You would think that one of the leading green builders in St. Louis would have been the inspiration of some hyper-environmentally conscious group, but that just wasn’t the case. Rick and Mike Greene (along with Realtor Sebastian Bautz) saw that there was a shortage of high quality new construction in St. Louis City. Green building simply proved to be an extension of better quality building. The more we learned about going green, the more it made sense to us. We didn’t fully grasp the importance of the environmental component until we had immersed ourselves in the building science and techniques. I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t even recycle until late last year, but now that I know what I know I feel guilty throwing away anything at all. Go listen to someone like Ed Mazria talk and it will really open your eyes.

Next month’s newsletter (get the newsletter by emailing to info@sagestl.com) will likely be about the environmental component of what we do. Oddly enough, it’s usually one of the last reasons mainstream buyers end up choosing to go green, but it’s the most important and the most rewarding.

What is your past development experience?

All of the partners in the company have historic renovation backgrounds. It’s how we all met and know one another. We cut our teeth on restoring old homes in the City. We grew our individual development businesses on the state historic tax credit programs, so the transition to the 3rd party certification process of green was like old hat to us.

How many current projects and where?

As of today, we have seven homes under development. Everything we’re doing has to be a certified green project, either through the HBA GBI or USGBC’s LEED. Projects include the two in Dogtown (one of which just made the news for being the first home in the City ever certified green under the HBA GBI guidelines, the other is under contract and going under roof next week), four in Tower Grove South (The Gustine Townhomes are quickly becoming known as the “Boulder Houses” among the neighbors for all the landscaping walls – all salvaged limestone and granite taken from the excavation of the site the homes now sit on – how’s that for a recycling effort?), and the show stopper, the Owens Corning sponsored NZEH (near zero energy home) in Creve Coeur. Rick and Mike did interviews for NBC Nightly News on the house when it was featured on the National Association of Homebuilders Green Building Conference Builder’s Tour. To get attention like that you know it has to be truly special home. It features all kinds of great green concepts and products including solar, geothermal, insulated concrete forms, and more. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a great looking house to boot – right out of a story book (thank you designer Jeff Day!).

The “Boulder Houses” on Gustine in Tower Grove South

What’s in store for next year?

I think people are excited about the idea that our houses don’t necessarily look green, but perform green (energy efficient, better for your health, lower maintenance, etc.). These days we’re getting a ton of inquires on our custom builds, so next year will probably have us focused on some exciting custom projects. We’re also looking at a number of smaller commercial projects. The St. Louis green commercial market is one of the best in the country (technically, it’s been listed as #7), so the hope is that we have something tangible underway within the next twelve months. If any of your readers are looking for green commercial space to lease, they should give us a call asap.

I’m not really sure what my fascination is but I have lately been preoccupied with these recent additions to the St Louis skyline. I think I like the idea of change and growth and the sense of industry and activity that surrounds these.

Which is why I’m still reeling from the “CAVE”man article in the Business Journal. I believe Steve Patterson had is right in his response when he coined Citizens Against Vulgar Environments. I don’t believe the city bloggers are up in arms against virtually everything nor do I think the blogoshphere is necessarily clandestine. Something else contradictory about the article: How can a group so supposedly “misinformed” act so “swiftly?”

Read the rest of this entry

True, it is an eye catching headline. Gilded Age to build $80 million Supervalu project. Read a little further and it sounds even more promising. “It will be an urban design concept store called City Market.” And there is the hint of experience, “Goodson said he partnered with Koman Properties…because of its experience with urban retail development.” But when I looked up other developments by Koman Properties all I saw were big box developments with acres of asphalt parking lots with the exception of the Wildwood Town Center.

The Gist

What: Georgian Square, a retail development with 12-15 stores including a grocery and WalGreens

Where: Directly across from the Georgian condominiums, the old city hospital

Who: Gilded Age and Koman Properties

Why: Needed Amenities

When: Coming Soon

The article is inspiring; the words are exactly what I want to hear, “the retail center will be designed to fit into the neighborhood…the developers will seek input from the neighborhood organizations about the design.” But that aerial rendering in the article leaves much to be desired. Is that really the highest and best use of the 6 acres across the street from the Georgian? A strip mall with a tree-lined parking lot?

Aren’t there already vacant boxes on Jefferson between Lafayette and Park with a parking lot? The rendering in the article doesn’t look much different from this. Just add a couple boxes and a row of trees in the center of the asphalt.

But wait, the Georgian Square retail project will have a masonry exterior! Lovely.

There will be a new apartment complex at 3949 Lindell Blvd. on the site of the old Salad Bowl Cafeteria which will include 197 residential units and 15,000 square feet of retail space.

Read the rest of this entry

Mayor Slay was asked a few questions in the 2007 Preview special section the St. Louis Business Journal. When asked what he thought would be making news he said, “The success of Washington Avenue will spread to nearby neighborhoods. Old North St. Louis and Benton Park West will become the new Soulards.”

I repeated this to a client of mine the other day when she asked about Benton Park West. And she said, “Does that mean it is going to have a lot of bars?”

I took this as a good reminder that we all think very differently and what one word (or in this case neighborhood) connotes to one may not be what it connotes to another. When I think of Soulard, I think in terms of price and I think entry level there is around $250,000.00. To check myself I did a quick search on the MLS. Nothing scientific, but here’s what I found when I looked for an updated 3 bedroom, 1.5+ bath single family: 9 active listings with prices starting at $235,000 and capping at $429,888. I drove around these three neighborhoods deliberately searching for a street scape that reflected what comes to mind when I think of these places.

When I hear Soulard, I think of finished street where the house look well kept and the street looks cohesive.When I think of Benton Park West, I do think, “Here’s the new Soulard” I think that it is on the verge of exploding. Right now my first time home buyers can still afford it. In terms of price I think $160-$175,000. I did another search to check myself and I wasn’t too surprised. Again, it wasn’t an exhaustive search. I was looking for at least 3 bedrooms and something move-in ready. I found 13 active listings. All at least 3 bedrooms. Prices started at $159,000 and capped at $252,900. $250,000 seemed high to me so I compared it to the place in Soulard for $235,000 to see what the difference was. For $235,000 in Soulard you get what looks to me like an 80’s renovation. It has just over 2000 square feet with wood floors, white kitchen with mismatched appliances and formica countertops, no parking. Overall it appears to be in good condition and with a little bit of polish it could really shine.

However, in Benton Park West, the listing for 252,900 is a single family with an oversized 2 car garageport. It has recently been gutted so all the systems are new and finishes include granite countert ops, stainless appliances and luxury bath.Now for the real challenge.

This photo is what I think of when I think of Old North St. Louis. I was tempted to take a picture of all the new construction that is going on at North Market Place, but that’s not what I usually think of. I think of Crown Candy, vacant lots and boarded buildings. I also think that it is far, but it isn’t. From the corner in the photograph, Blair and Branch, to Locust and Tucker is just under a mile and a half. In contrast from Locust and Tucker to Iowa and Arsenal it is closer to 2.5 miles. The search in the MLS turned up 3 listings: all new construction ranging in price from $169,900 to $189,900.

In conclusion: Yes, I think Benton Park West will have more bars as soon as the neighborhood can support them! And the intersection of Salisbury and Blair up north would make an amazing main street!