I recently noticed some new home construction from Tucker Boulevard just south of Downtown in the Peabody Darst Webbe Neighborhood. A quick scan of the neighborhood, and I noticed two more lots west of Tucker seeing infill as well.
I had to figure out what was afoot. Turns out the new homes are part of a multi-home build by Habitat for Humanity:
“Habitat’s 400th home is located at 1200 block of South 13th Street and last week’s ground breaking marked the start of a 10-house build in the LaSaison (Peabody Darst Webbe) neighborhood. Five homes (Phase I) will be completed by the end of 2019. These new homes will have three-to-four bedrooms, two baths and will be two-story buildings.”
This is the first I’ve heard of the “LaSaison Neighborhood” moniker, the official city neighborhood is Peabody Darst Webbe (PDW) so I’m sticking with that.
This part of town was formerly the site of Mid-Century high rise public housing complexes that are no longer thought to be equitable and sustainable. The newer concept for affordable and subsidized housing is single and multi-family homes; in this case, the current homes were largely built in the early 2000s.
Sorry for the nighttime photo.
Per a spot check of Geo St. Louis, the majority of these new-ish homes were built on property previously owned by the St. Louis Housing Authority and were sold to developer Pyramid Companies, a locally based firm, that was responsible for much of the loft redevelopment around town ~20 years ago. Pyramid went out of business in 2008 due to the owner being indicted for bank fraud, teamed with a crashing residential housing market. Pyramid completed most of the PDW homes in 2006, a couple of years before their demise.
The remaining vacant lots in PDW are now being developed in two phases of five homes each. Phase one is pinned below in blue, and phase two in red.
Phase one is well underway, with ground broken, foundations poured and even some framing underway.
In order, homes one through five:
This project brings more infill and density in a high-profile area. This is the perfect spot for affordable housing, with immediate proximity to quality groceries, farmer’s markets, pharmacies, retail, parks, public transit, surface arteries/Interstates and jobs.
Habitat for Humanity is a proven entity. I’ve come across some of their work in the Tiffany Neighborhood. The holes along Tucker and within the neighborhood are being filled in. Non-productive land will soon see more residents…more St. Louisans.
Cheers to PDW and Habitat for Humanity.
