As I’ve spent a lot of time in the Botanical Heights Neighborhood gathering photos for my gentrification posts, it’s amazing how much residential construction is taking place in this part of St. Louis. It makes sense that you’d see a bit of a bump in housing construction due to proximity to the SSM Health St. Louis University Hospital’s $550M project that is in full swing.
Tiffany and Botanical Heights, among others should benefit from this massive investment.
So it was good to see two new homes being constructed at Folsom Avenue and 39th Street at the western border of Tiffany where it abuts Botanical Heights.
Turns out there were two long vacant lots at 3861 and 3867 Folsom Avenue formerly owned by an “investor” first listed as someone in the neighborhood and then downtown. This owner sat on the property since the late 1990s; a demolition permit was issued for these properties back in 1995. The firm was called “Midtown Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation. Trouble is, they never redeveloped…they sat on it.
Screen capture from Google Maps
The LRA assumed the property and then Habitat for Humanity bought it for $1958.00 in January, 2018.
It’s great to see a responsible and well-intentioned, proven organization taking over. By June, 2018, Habitat for Humanity was issued two $160,000 building permits for the properties.
Construction is well underway on two new homes which will bring quality housing and density to a former dead zone in the neighborhood. It will also bring the thing the city needs more than anything: more people, the greatest resource of any city.
Northeast corner of 39th Street and Folsom Avenue - Tiffany Neighborhood
You know what would be the icing on the cake? Removing the horrible Schoemehl pots and blocked off street. Open the streets, we pay for them to connect us, not divide us. Oh yeah, and street trees, gotta plant some street trees!
