Update: Demolished by January of 2020; now a vacant lot.
This ensemble of buildings sits just north of Crown Candy Kitchen, in what I would believe would be a very desirable location for rehabbing.
I would encourage anyone who’s been interested in buying a shell in Old North to look into these buildings.
It looks as if the smaller house on the right, had recently been lived in due to the fact that it has windows and a cable dish attached to the front of the house. I wonder what happened? How much rehabbing is going on in this neighborhood? As beautiful as these homes are, it would be an expensive gamble to bring them back to their former glory if the rest of the neighborhood has been wiped out.
“Shell” is a generous description. The next severe thunderstorm will bring down these dumps.
How could so many investors miss this golden opportunity for redevelopment after so many decades when this is such “a desirable location.?” They’re nothing but a bunch of damned fools, I say!
Clearly you don’t understand the concept of the term “shell”, and I’m guessing you don’t get out too much to see north city. There’s been significant reinvestment and redevelopment in Old North STL over the past several years, and while it doesn’t get anywhere near the press and publicity that similar efforts – south of HWY 40 – do, that doesn’t diminish the impact people are having in giving that neighborhood some new life.
Redone 14th street, new bridge across the river, historic landmark as a neighborhood anchor, relatively healthy rehabbing efforts, in the shadow of downtown…20 years ago? Not desirable. 15 years ago, or even 10 years ago? Not real desirable. But now? Possibly…
There is a ton of rehabbing going on in this neighborhood, which makes these houses so much more desirable, and why I’m surprised that no one has picked them up yet. One block from Crown Candy and the 14th redevelopment and no one wants them? I’m hoping someone just saw their future dream house.
I lived directly behind these buildings on the 141X block of Sullivan for several years. The smaller home was indeed inhabited within lets say the last 10. The bigger building came up under demolition review when I lived behind it and we got it denied. However, it is missing its upper floors, or rather, they are now in the basement. A testament to the build quality of the walls for sure. I would have love to bought in Old North when the time came, but the prices were out of my range, sadly. Luckily though, I ended up in Marine Villa, another neighborhood on the rebound with amazing housing stock as well. I certainly wish the best for these buildings, without them stable the vacant lots to the east will likely never be built upon.