ST. LOUIS – There’s a big, new development regarding the former Famous Barr department store in downtown St. Louis.
According to the notice for an upcoming online auction, it may lead to new ownership and maybe even a rooftop swimming pool.
The auction is not for the sale of the actual 110-year-old Famous Barr/Railway Exchange building. Instead, it’s for the sale of a nonperforming loan on the building. The purchase of the loan and the debt owed on that loan sets the state for the successful buyer to gain control of the building and the shut-down parking garage across the street.
The auction site calling it a “rare opportunity” to “obtain title” to the historic, 21-story, 1.2 million-square-foot architectural gem. It occupies an entire square block in the heart of downtown bordered by Olive, Locust, 6th, and 7th streets. The minimum bid is set at $3.5 million.
The auction site touts existing plans for 700 market-rate condos/apartments with room for event space plus a roof deck pool, restaurant, and bar.
“The loan amount is $15.5 million of unpaid principal balance with total owed indebtedness of approximately $41.1 million, according to the auction site. “A loan purchaser can capitalize on the current asset status and obtain a title to the collateral through the appropriate legal actions.”
It would be a complicated deal for a building besieged by issues in the near-decade that it’s been vacant: a sinkhole in 2017 caused millions of dollars in flood damage to the building’s basement.
There’s been widespread looting of the former department store’s metal and wiring, with trespassers hiding in walls and ceilings. St. Louis Fire Department K-9, Balko fell to his death during a search for a homicide victim who was never found.
The City of St. Louis condemned the building and has yet to be repaid by the owner, Hudson Holdings of Florida, for the city’s repeated board-ups, police, and fire sweeps.
Aldermen are looking at requiring building owners to maintain local points of contact.
“Too often when there are challenges with properties, we are sending letters out to people in California or Florida to some P.O. box that doesn’t have a name associated with it,” said Board of Aldermen President Megan Green.
There is also a many-layered legal mess. Gamma Real Estate Capital LLC is at the top of the heap.
Gamma loaned Hudson Holdings of Florida $19.7 million to acquire the building in 2017. Gamma’s lawsuit to recover tens of millions in debt and penalties from Hudson has been stuck in St. Louis Circuit Court for three years.
So, Gamma is now putting its stake in what for generations was a centerpiece of life in St. Louis on the auction block.
“I think it is a positive step. We’ve been hearing a lot of negativity about things that have been going on downtown,” said Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, whose ward includes part of downtown St. Louis. “I think that is a positive step; trends that are moving in the downtown area.”
Real estate brokerage CRBE is hosting an auction July 24-26.