As Downtown continues to boom, and the AT&T Building has found a buyer via auction, the owners of the Butler Brothers Building in Downtown West are planning to take a similar approach. According to a LoopNet Listing, an auction is scheduled to take place June 5th-7th with a starting bid of $3 Million. Whoever the winner may be, if there is one, will receive a preliminary redevelopment plan that, according to the listing, "includes 342 multifamily units with 397 garage parking spaces and two retail spaces".
According to the listing, the existing owner completed some preliminary ground work to speed up the redevelopment process. But as most of know, the building still needs a lot of work to make a redevelopment plan become a reality. Overall, the 718,000SF vacant building has been a road block to future Downtown West development. It remains the last big abandoned building in Downtown West with buildings such as the YMCA, Shell and Jefferson Arms all having redevelopment plans or are in the process of redevelopment. There are of course smaller abandoned building with redevelopment plans and some without, one with a redevelopment plan, but waiting for a buyer, is the neighboring Pennant Building.
The over 76,000SF, 4 floor building is also heading to the auction block on the same days as the Butler Brothers building. The starting bid is $600,000 and comes with preliminary redevelopment plans that include 53 multifamily units, four live/work studios and 36 garage parking spaces. According to the listing, those plans have been approved so a buyer can start redevelopment immediately.
If both buildings are bought and redeveloped, this part of Downtown West will go fro being dead to somewhat lively. Olive Street is as barren as they come since numerous parking lots and spaces kill the street while Locust is overshadowed by the Butler Brothers. If redevelopment happens, surely more development will happen on the immediate vicinity.
At this time, both auction pages say that the auction was completed, but that may just be a placeholder till Wednesday June 5th. Cushman and Wakefield is acting as the agent for these properties. The listings can be found below...
Butler Brothers: https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1717-Olive-St-Saint-Louis-MO/6945259/
Pennant Building: https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1701-1709-Locust-St-Saint-Louis-MO/6944237/
Several years ago, NextSTL shared these renderings from a marketing brochure for the Butler Brothers building from Cassidy/Turley. At the time, 2014, the building was still for sale so no doubt that it has been a challenge to sell the hulking city block sized structure. I assume that the renderings, and redevelopment plan, featured below remain the same from 2014.
If a developer wishes not to participate in the auction, they have the option to buy the building outright for $12 Million, but the auction looks to be the way to go.