✨ Member Spotlight: DeSales Begins the Virginia Plaza Transformation
Construction has begun on Virginia Plaza, a high-impact mixed-use development that will transform vacant and underutilized properties along the Virginia Avenue Commercial Corridor in Dutchtown, Carondelet, and Mount Pleasant. Led by DeSales Community Development,
Virginia Plaza will include 78 new homes, including apartments and townhomes, with a mix of affordable housing (30% and 60% of Area Median Income) and market-rate units. The project will also preserve and renovate historic structures, add new mixed-use buildings with commercial space, and create opportunities for future businesses and services in the neighborhood.
The development team includes Roanoke Construction as the construction partner, along with Fox Grove Management, Naismith-Allen Inc., and Spencer Fane LLP.
Virginia Plaza is designed to support long-term neighborhood investment by improving walkability, creating community gathering spaces, and strengthening the Virginia Avenue Commercial Corridor. It's another example of how community development organizations are using housing, commercial development, and neighborhood amenities to create stronger, more connected communities.
This development was supported by the City of St. Louis - Community Development Administration’s (CDA) second year of Neighborhood Transformation Grants for Affordable Housing Production in 2024. $17,531,048 was leveraged more than tenfold to catalyze over $250M in development. The 22 funded projects include over 926 units spread out across 42 sites, in 19 neighborhoods citywide. Other awarded developments include:
The renovation of the vacant Baden School into 51 affordable units
A mixed income and mixed use new development on Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd
The first redevelopment phase of Clinton-Peabody, the City’s oldest public housing
The renovation of the vacant Economy Inn Motel into permanent supportive housing
The fifth and final phase of the Choice Neighborhoods renovation of Preservation Square
The renovation of the Prince Hall State Office Building into senior housing
The renovation of Eliot School in the Fairgrounds neighborhood into permanent supportive housing
The awards were funded through a variety of federal funding sources, including: the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA - $3.88M), the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG - $2.43M), HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME - $4.00M), and HOME-American Rescue Plan Program (HOME-ARP - $7.22M).
The awards add 18 new projects to the City’s portfolio of over 100 affordable housing projects (Baden School, Clinton Peabody, Preservation Square, and Virginia Plaza were previously awarded funds), bringing the total number of city funded affordable units under development to over 3,500 in 2024. This affordable housing pipeline sums to over $800M in total construction development, and includes more than 400 units.
"These awarded projects demonstrate the City of St. Louis' proactive approach to improving our neighborhoods and addressing housing disparities in our communities," Mayor Tishaura O. Jones announced. "Too many of our neighborhoods have historically seen decades of neglect and this new investment in affordable housing will benefit St. Louis working families for generations to come."
The projects reflect a mix of for sale units, affordable rental units, and permanent supportive housing that will create opportunities for families to build wealth, expand the supply of affordable rental housing, and help house our unhoused neighbors.
“Generations of racial segregation, restrictive covenants, redlining and discriminatory appraisal practices have left scars like the Delmar Divide, collapsed homes and vacant lots etched into the fabric of St. Louis,” Executive Director Nahuel Fefer said at the time. “CDA is committed to supporting the production and preservation of housing as diverse as our city and to working with residents and a diverse and talented cohort of developers to lay the foundation for long-term growth in neighborhoods where investment is needed most. These awards are about more than housing, they are about economic justice and rebuilding residential markets left behind by historic disinvestment.”
According to the City’s 2023 Affordable Housing Report (pg. 73), between 2015 and 2019 the City subsidized a total of 1261 units, including 65 for sale units, and 39 units under 30% AMI.
