Dominium Proposes $100M Mixed-Use Conversion of Landmark Arcade Building

By Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor

Dominium Development is offering $6 million to the city’s Land Clearance For Redevelopment Authority (LCRA) for Arcade Building, one of the biggest vacant structures in downtown St. Louis that has not been occupied for decades.

A city selection committee unanimously voted to negotiate with Dominium on a redevelopment agreement for the Arcade, which is owned by the LCRA. The project, which is expected to cost over $100 million, plans to transform the 500,000-square-foot, 18-story, Arcade and the adjoining Wright Building into 254 one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Gothic-Revival landmark constructed in 1918, located at 800 Olive Street, could become the third project for Dominium in St. Louis. The company recently completed the transformation of the Metropolitan Building, a former office building, into 70 artists’ apartments with street-level artist studios space. Last year it opened at 1604 Locust Street the Leather Trades an 86-unit artists’ loft building which the company said is now fully occupied. The Leather Trades, Metropolitan and Arcade developments were had all been projects of Pyramid Construction, which went out of business in 2008 after the nationwide housing crash.

Dominium’s plan calls for 69 market-rate apartments, which will be located on the building’s top four floors, and 185 affordable artists’ live-work units. The lower three floors of the Arcade, including the iconic two-level shopping arcade, will be renovated as commercial space. The project will also feature 143 parking spaces in the basement of the Arcade and will use an additional 250 spaces at the nearby Ninth Street Garage.

Dominium and city officials will now negotiate public incentives which could include tax-increment financing, property tax abatement, Brownfields tax credits for asbestos removal, Low Income Housing Tax Credits and tax-exempt bonds. The company also intends to seek federal New Markets Tax Credits.

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Photo Courtesy of: publichall via Wikimedia Commons.