ST. LOUIS 鈥 A $60 million apartment building is planned for the northwest corner of Duncan and Boyle avenues in the Cortex tech district.
The 262-unit project would finally add a residential component to the humming employment hub, home to offices for companies such as Microsoft and DuPont as well as early stage tech firms. Officials hope apartments help keep the area active after business hours.
GHM Capital, of the Philadelphia area, is pitching the project on the site of a parking lot behind the original Cortex 1 building that houses companies such as Square Inc. and Stereotaxis. The lot is currently owned by the tech district.
Plans call for a 515-space parking garage with apartments wrapped around the structure. The new spaces would both replace those lost by building on the lot and provide new spaces for residents of the apartments.
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An attorney for the developer told the St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday they hope to begin construction in August and complete the project by the summer of 2022. The city isn鈥檛 offering any tax abatement, nor is the Cortex district offering any of its tax increment financing incentives for the development.
The city LCRA does plan to issue bonds to facilitate a sales tax exemption on construction materials for the project.
鈥淭here鈥檚 been a number of very difficult and detailed discussions,鈥 LCRA director Otis Williams told the LCRA board Tuesday.
This isn鈥檛 GMH鈥檚 first project in the area. It just entered the market, purchasing in November the Everly on the Loop, a 209-unit, off-campus student housing complex at 6105 Delmar Boulevard, which was developed by CRG and Koman Group, now known as KDG.
GMH鈥檚 project comes as three other major projects in Cortex are underway or near completion. A 325,000-square-foot office and lab building being developed by Wexford Science and Technology and Ventas Inc. is expected to be complete by the summer of 2021. Washington University is considering a $300 million neuroscience building just west of the Crescent Building redevelopment that opened last year, now known as . And a 129-room Aloft hotel on Duncan Avenue is expected to open this spring.