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Multiple failed redevelopment attempts over the years have plagued Downtown’s Chemical Building. The red, bay-window, architecturally rich building at 8th and Olive has held its place since it was completed in 1896 and has seen the surrounding neighborhood grow, die off and be reimagined. Its immediate neighbors have been successfully redeveloped into housing or hotel space. Salvation has almost come for it a number of times with usages ranging from condos to micro apartments to standard apartments to a hotel-apartment combo and to a dual-brand hotel.
Now, on what would be the 6th known redevelopment attempt for the Chemical Building, Metropolitan Build has the property under contract. Metropolitan is based in the Frisco Building just one block west on Olive. Their plans envision turning the Chemical into 108 apartments and 120 hotel rooms as part of a $135 Million redevelopment. Metropolitian Build developed the “Kindler Hotel” in Lincoln Nebraska and has pkans to do another location in Kansas City, so it can be reasonably assumed that the brand will be at the Chemical Building.
While we wait for further updates on this latest redevelopment attempt, I’m deciding to share photos from my visit to the property last summer. At the time, I was part of a development team that was considering a redevelopment of the building. We ultimately walked away to focus on an endeavor elsewhere.
Despite being vacant for so long, the interior of the building wasn’t as trashed as one might expect on a majority of the floors. The worst floor was the model condo unit floor where evidence of vagrants living there was clear. That floor, as you can see in the pictures, was full of trash, clothes and biohazards. Other floors had your usual abandoned building features – dead pigeons, bird poop, random pieces of trash, and the occasional graffiti. Other “rough” floors were the first floor as well as the top floor of the south wing.
Metropolitan’s potential redevelopment of the building will be challenging, as are all other redevelopments. For Downtown St. Louis, such a redevelopment is important to improve the appearance and perceptions of safety.
The gallery below features 100 photos from my visit. They aren’t all in chronological order but they do begin on the first floor and work their way up to the roof and north-wing penthouse before returning to the first floor.