https://hotair.com/david-strom...is-is-dying-n3786259

Saint Louis, it seems, is seeing its central business district die a slow and painful death. Office buildings have been clearing out, and with them the businesses that supported the workers have been leaving to set up in greener pastures.

The Railway Exchange Building was the heart of downtown St. Louis for a century. Every day, locals crowded into the sprawling, ornate 21-story office building to go to work, shop at the department store that filled its lower floors or dine on the famous French onion soup at its restaurant.

Today, the building sits empty, with many of its windows boarded up. A fire broke out last year, which authorities suspect was the work of copper thieves. Police and firefighters send in occasional raids to search for missing people or to roust squatters. A search dog died during one of the raids last year when it fell through an open window.

“It’s a very dangerous place,” said Dennis Jenkerson, the St. Louis Fire Department chief.

It anchors a neighborhood with deserted sidewalks sprinkled with broken glass and tiny pieces of copper pipes left behind by scavengers. Signs suggest visitors should “park in well-lit areas.” Nearby, the city’s largest office building—the 44-story AT&T Tower, now empty—recently sold for around $3.5 million.

The price for the AT&T Tower, three blocks from the Railway Exchange, was a sliver of the $205 million it sold for in 2006. Its value has been falling for years. In 2022, it changed hands for just $4 million.

Take the Chemical Building, a 128-year-old redbrick former office building a block from the Railway Exchange. Three times between 2006 and 2017 investors bought the building with plans to turn it into apartments. Each failed. One of the buyers put up a banner advertising “perfectly centered living with 1,2,3 & 4 bedroom residences starting at $170,000.”

That’s about all they did. The banner is still there today. The windows above the banner are boarded up. Others are broken or covered in graffiti. The building now has a new owner who wants to turn it into a hotel.

The Railway Exchange building’s owner, a Florida investment firm, bought the building in 2017 and announced grand plans to redevelop it into apartments and retail. The firm eventually stopped paying for security and defaulted on the mortgage. The city condemned the building last year.

A decade of rot has also made a conversion harder. Few shops and restaurants are left to attract future tenants. A 2016 water leak flooded the building’s basement. The mortgage lender still wants to get paid.

“It’s a mess. They’ve ripped through the walls trying to find copper,” said developer Amos Harris, who is eyeing a conversion of the property and was recently inside. The building is much too big, the downtown apartment market too weak and construction too expensive to convert it without subsidies, he said.

Fuck 'em.

Commie-run cities are dying.

My understanding is St Lious has been steadily declining for 75 years.

The last Republican Mayor of St. Louis, Aloys P. Kaufmann, was elected in 1945. Since 1949 through the present, St. Louis has had nothing but Democrat Mayors, so for the last 75 years straight!

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The last Republican Mayor of St. Louis, Aloys P. Kaufmann, was elected in 1945. Since 1949 through the present, St. Louis has had nothing but Democrat Mayors, so for the last 75 years straight!

Which also coincides with the enactment of the City earnings tax, which is 1% of gross income, right off the top, if you live OR work in the City of St. Louis. That's when people AND businesses started moving out...

So if you own a 2.2% gross margin business, which is typical in the retail grocery sector, and you're getting taxed at 1% of gross, that city just destroyed your store. Stupid mofos.

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Originally posted by wrightd:
So if you own a 2.2% gross margin business, which is typical in the retail grocery sector, and you're getting taxed at 1% of gross, that city just destroyed your store. Stupid mofos.

St. Louis has been dying for a while now. The only reason to go downtown was for sporting and concert events but sadly people have been getting injured and killed at those lately. And now Mayor Dipshit wants to prosecute businesses that have too many crimes on the property. Gardner is out but it will take the new Prosecutor a couple years to catch up with the backlog of cases.

It’s a shame really because it could be avoided by letting the police police. The business I worked at was in the suburbs and our owner spent something like 10 million completely rehabbing an old building downtime. We had 3 stories of a 7 story building and it was awesome. First floor was all restaurants then we had the 2nd, 3rd and 4th. 5th and 6th was loft apartments and the 7th was a big party area that had glass garage doors that opened to a massive deck with a pool and nice views of the city. It was an awesome 8 years.

Then Covid hit and everyone started working from home and apparently crime skyrocketed so we never went back. Now when you go down there it’s just a dead zone instead of people walking around everywhere during the day.

Funny thing, I've lived in Missouri for over 20 years and I have never been to downtown St. Louis. No plans to go in the future either.

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it could be avoided by letting the police police

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Then Covid hit and everyone started working from home and apparently crime skyrocketed so we never went back. Now when you go down there it’s just a dead zone instead of people walking around everywhere during the day.

Crime has always been an issue in St. Louis. There's 1,000,000 reasons why the city is in the shape its in, and although crime/law enforcement is one of them, it alone wouldn't come close to saving the city.

I've driven through there a few times lately and passed near downtown during business hours. No traffic jam.

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Originally posted by trapper189:
My understanding is St Lious has been steadily declining for 75 years.

More like something over a century when WWI created a manufacturing need that drew a migration from the deep South. A few race riots and Pruitt-Igoe housing projects later, yeah, St. Louis city is dying. It's long past the time that the city contained the problem.

My father grew up around St.Louis, he eventually moved out to N.California in the late-60's with his parents following the defense industry. Even back then, he had nothing good to say about St.Louis and its overall environment- crime ridden, industry in-decay, do-nothing politics, etc.

Another shithole democrat run (into the ground) city. I truly don’t understand leftist thinking. They love big cities because it enables them to fuel and hide their graft and self monetization, but they actively destroy the machines that provide their ill gotten gains. It is anathema to anyone with common sense and free will and happen to pay the taxes that support said graft and greed. They are essentially cutting their own throats. Madness.

I guess at some point the Feds will give them a grant to revitalize downtown and we all know how that usually works out .

I grew up across the river from Saint lewey. Used to go to Union Station, the Arch and Busch stadium in high school. It wasn't a pleasant place back then (86-87), I can guess what it's like now.

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Originally posted by selogic:
I guess at some point the Feds will give them a grant to revitalize downtown and we all know how that usually works out .

Probably... because government doesn't solve problems. Government IS the problem.

I travel through St. Louis a few times a year. Won't even stop for gas. Was on a motorcycle trip 20 years ago and stopped at a gas station that must have been in the bad part of town. Some crazy stuff was going on in the 5 min I was there.

Please bear in mind there is a huge difference between St Louis City and St Louis County.

The City choose long ago to not allow the "farmers/rural folk" to be part of the City. Hence it became St Louis County and is the gem of the area while the City slowly destroyed itself.

St Louis City is also I believe only one of the two cities in the country which is not in a County. Hence St Louis City is pretty much a political island with St. Louis County wrapping it to the west/north/south and the State of Illinois to the east (separated of course by the Mississippi River).

As a St Louis County resident, we don't willingly venture into the City. Like others have said, if it wasn't for the baseball, hockey, football, and soccer, teams with venues in the City, I doubt anyone would go there.

Please don't stay away from the counties of St. Louis, St Charles, etc. We are normal folk and would love to have you visit.