The Victor Apartments
By Mark Fogarty
6 min read
Careful Strategy Reimagines Huge St. Louis Warehouse
One of the curious things about the enormous Butler Brothers warehouse in St. Louis is that the first world chess championship was held on its site in 1886, about 20 years before the 735,000-square-foot block-long building was built and became one of the largest storage spaces ever constructed in America. The careful strategy needed by William Steinitz to be the victor in the championship chess match in 11 games is now being mirrored by a complex reimagining of the old industrial building into The Victor apartments, retail and workspace.
It will take $144 million in total development costs to accomplish the reimagining of the eight-story building, according to Melissa McCormack, senior vice president of community development banking at Bank of America. BofA is helping fund the project by investing $23 million in Federal Historic Tax Credit equity, and its Private Bank unit is lending the project $61 million in construction money, she says.
Other funding includes developer’s equity of $11.2 million of mezzanine financing and a bridge loan from FirstBank of Nashville.
Even with the complexities of the project, McCormack reports, “It is on time and on budget, which is lovely to say and not always the case. We are really thrilled.”
Development Services Group Inc. is building 384 studio, one- and two-bedroom market-rate rentals on the two-acre site in downtown St. Louis. Rents will range from $1,150 to $2,300.
McCormack says that in the early 20th Century, the Butler Brothers warehouse (it has a sibling in Minneapolis) was the IKEA or Amazon of its day, with upfront display space for its wholesale catalog wares, a giant warehouse space for fulfillment plus speedy shipping via the giant Union Station rail property just two blocks away.
“They were essentially the franchisor for all the Ben Franklin dime store chains around the country. So, the first floor or two were really used for visual aid. You could come in and you could see examples of how to set up your local store and then the warehousing space for everything that was ordered and shipped around the country was on the upper floors. It was ahead of its time,” McCormack says.
Current plans call for about 18,000 square feet of ground floor retail, including restaurants and shared workspaces, she says.
The build has created 320 jobs during construction, McCormack says. After it opens, there will be between 15 to 20 jobs running the building, plus retail jobs at the site.
A Municipal Priority
McCormack notes the City of St. Louis has made this project a priority. It is directly adjacent to a new soccer stadium (the new apartments will be called The Victor in anticipation of winning seasons), and the city has granted 15 years of tax abatements to help the rehabilitation of the area. The stadium, called CityPark, was completed in 2022 and it is the home of the St. Louis City SC, a professional soccer club.
The warehouse has stood vacant for more than ten years, so the rehab will have “a huge impact on the neighborhood and the streetscape,” says McCormack. The building is being rehabbed in two phases, with the first one now done and ready for move-in. The second phase is anticipated to be done by the end of this year.
Who are the intended residents? “People living and working in the city and enjoying everything it has to offer,” says McCormack. A bus stop is in front of the building, and it is within walking distance of many downtown properties.
Among the most outstanding features on offer is “a huge rooftop,” she says.
“It’s enormous. It has amazing amenities plus 360-degree views of the city, including the Arch.” The amenities include pickleball courts, a grill/lounge area, a dog run and a rooftop swimming pool.
Another important amenity is a garage. The garage will have 385 spaces, essentially one for each tenant.
McCormack and developer DSG agree that rehabbing an old building often is preferable to starting over from scratch.
“By reusing this enormous concrete and masonry structure, the embodied carbon put into this building nearly 120 years ago is equivalent to carbon sequestration of nearly 16 of St. Louis’ Forest Park. This reinforces the concept that one of the most sustainable practices is to adaptivity reuse our existing building stock to preserve not only our history but our planet too,” according to DSG.
McCormack says, “The building has character new construction doesn’t have. Warehouse buildings have an amazing amount of light. You really feel that light coming in from the interior courtyard and exterior, giving a light open feeling.”
Lots of Light and Air
McCormack notes the building’s courtyard is airy. “The central courtyard lets light into interior spaces. The developer worked with the National Park Service and the State Historic Preservation Office to remove a portion of the floor to further open that courtyard space,” says McCormack. “It allows natural light into those interior units.”
Memphis-based developer DSG comments, “The design concept weaves the rich history of the Washington Ave. garment district with the site’s history as the location of the first world chess championship.
“The building is reorganized along a dominant east-west axial spine, connecting 17th Street through the building to a new lobby and courtyard, and connecting through the historic lobby to the west out to 18th Street one story below.
“Amenity spaces and units are oriented around this new axial connection, reactivating the building from the inside out. Historic elements are highlighted, celebrated and accommodated to elevate the history of the building while adaptively reusing the structure for its next generation of life.”
Gary Prosterman, chief executive of DSG, says, “This is an amazing project. I’m proud of our team for getting Phase I completed in 15 months.”
The Butler Brothers Warehouse
A History
Butler Brothers was founded in 1877 in Boston by three brothers as a mail-order catalog wholesaler serving local retail stores. An innovative ordering system allowed local merchants to customize orders and receive their goods within days of ordering.
In 1927, faced with competition from retail chain stores, Butler Brothers opened its own competing Ben Franklin stores.
In the 1950s, Federal records of civilian Army employees were temporarily stored here. The Butler Brothers company was bought out in 1960.
The building has most recently been renamed the Plaza Square Building. In the two most recent decades covered by online city records, a huge variety of enterprises have occupied the building—including warehousing, printing, a photography studio, office space and more—though much of its interior remained unoccupied.
Source: builtstlouis.net
