An Anheuser-Busch heir has plans brewing for an $8 million mixed-use development on the site of the former Falstaff Brewery in Midtown.
Robert Hermann Holton, president of St. Louis-based Ridgeline Group, is buying up properties at Forest Park Boulevard and Spring Avenue, near Saint Louis University, to develop a residential and commercial project with 25 to 31 apartments, 4,000 square feet of retail space and a pub-style restaurant.
Holton, 28, closed Oct. 10 on his $1 million purchase of the former Falstaff Brewing Plant No. 1 at 3674-3686 Forest Park Blvd. from The COO LLC, an investment group led by Kim Fearheiley. The investment group bought the property for $295,000 in 2001 from Watson Label Products, which occupied the entire building from 1961 to 2000.
The four-story plant was built in 1909. It became Falstaff Corp.'s first brewery complex in St. Louis when Joseph Griesedieck purchased the plant in 1922. Beer production at the Forest Park Boulevard site ceased in 1959.
On Nov. 17, Holton received preliminary approval for the former Falstaff site to be named to the National Register of Historic Places. Final approval is to be awarded within 45 days. Holton is seeking the historical designation to be eligible for state and federal tax credits. "If we don't get the designation, it will be redeveloped as office and retail space," he said.
Construction is set to begin on the Falstaff Apartments in April 2007. Monthly rents will range between $1.05 and $1.20 per square foot, and the apartments will be marketed as housing for Saint Louis University students.
Previous efforts to redevelop the site have failed, including Thomas Wells' plans in 2000 to convert the former Falstaff plant into an entertainment, retail and residential loft complex. But Holton said the location and demand for student housing will make his project successful.
"There is a shortage of SLU housing," he said. "You can't go wrong with the location. I think it's the best in St. Louis."
He said a 2,500-square-foot Jimmy John's restaurant on the ground floor also will be expanded. Metro Digital Imaging, led by Fearheiley, Branch Manager, leases 6,000 square feet on the ground floor.
Holton's plans for the area span an entire block on Forest Park -- from Spring Avenue to Grand Boulevard.