ST. LOUIS 鈥 The real estate arm of the region鈥檚 main business lobby is set to buy the historic Wainwright Building, in downtown St. 亚洲无码, for a little over $8 million.
Greater St. 亚洲无码 Inc. said in a news release Tuesday that a fund it coordinates was the winner of an online auction Aug. 29 and is now negotiating toward closing.
The release did not say exactly what Greater St. 亚洲无码 plans to do with the site at North Seventh and Chestnut streets, which state officials say needs tens of millions of dollars in maintenance and repair work.
Dustin Allison, Greater St. 亚洲无码鈥 real estate chief, declined further comment.
But the organization has made improving downtown one of its top priorities in the wake of a pandemic that emptied offices and saw high-profile shootings and late-night mayhem foster a sense of lawlessness on the streets.
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It has called on City Hall to spend money to put up more surveillance cameras, improve streetscapes, build new housing and attract new businesses downtown and on the riverfront.
It has partnered with the city鈥檚 economic development arm to draw up plans to address two of downtown鈥檚 largest vacant buildings.
And Allison said in the release that the purchase of the Wainwright Building would ensure the building, which is considered an architecture gem as one of the first skyscrapers, 鈥渨ill be preserved for future redevelopment.鈥
鈥淲e look forward,鈥 Allison continued in the release, 鈥渢o working with the City and Downtown partners on a plan to develop the Wainwright Building and to continuing our partnership to revitalize Downtown and make it the safe, vibrant, and beautiful neighborhood at the heart of our metro.鈥
The Greater St. 亚洲无码-affiliated real estate fund, Arch to Park Equity Fund LLC, has assisted with several other deals in the city, including a residential development in the Grove area and the rehab of the massive but empty Butler Brothers building in Downtown West.
State government, which was key to the 133-year-old office building鈥檚 survival in the 1970s, announced in July its plans to sell it and another downtown building, forgo costly renovations and move some of the 600 workers assigned to the buildings to new space in Chesterfield.
The news was a blow to city and business leaders already grappling with the challenge of filling several large, vacant downtown buildings amid a tough market for office space in the age of remote work and recurring concerns about public safety in the city center.
But state officials said they needed out of an aging building too expensive for them to responsibly care for.
鈥淭here鈥檚 another facility there in Chesterfield鈥 a much more modern facility,鈥 Gov. Mike Parson said in July. 鈥淣eedless to say, we鈥檙e finding ways to try and save money for the State of Missouri.鈥
Officials also didn鈥檛 have enough employees in the building to justify the space. said less than half of the 400 people assigned to the Wainwright were there on a regular basis.
The portion of the state workforce located in the city has been shrinking for more than a decade. In 2006, more than 5,300 state workers worked in St. 亚洲无码, making Missouri one of the city鈥檚 top 10 employers, according to city records. But that total shrank nearly every year for the next decade, hitting 3,940 in 2017 before the state dropped off the city鈥檚 top 10 list altogether in 2018.
There were 3,259 state workers in 2021, when the state briefly reappeared on the list. But it hasn鈥檛 been listed since.