A veteran St. Louis developer has gone public with his desire to transform the old Cleveland High School building.
The city’s Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority voted unanimously with one abstention Wednesday to designate Chris Goodson and his company, Goodco, as the redeveloper for the 11-acre site at 4352 Louisiana Ave. It is the first step in a long process but also the furthest a plan for Cleveland has advanced.
The St. Louis Public Schools vacated the 235,000-square-foot building in 2006. Since then, the structure has fallen into disrepair and been the source of hundreds of nuisance calls.
Goodson is best known for the preservation and redevelopment of the City Hospital complex near Lafayette Square. He told the LCRA that those buildings were in worse shape than Cleveland.
“It looked like something out of a science fiction movie,” he said. “I’m very excited about this opportunity to try and transform an area that is very much like City Hospital.”
In addition to being designated as the redeveloper, Goodson said he has reached a memorandum of understanding with the school district to do community engagement in the neighborhoods around Cleveland. While he envisions mixed-income housing and retail at the site, he wants to tackle the project with many others.
“I want to be able to collaborate with the city, the school district, the alderman, the different business districts that are represented around there and of course mainly, the neighborhood groups,” he said.
Third Ward Alderman Shane Cohn was first elected in 2009, three years after the school district vacated the building. Cohn said Goodson’s track record, as well as his willingness to seek input from residents, made him hopeful.
“I’m looking forward to that community engagement, and I am thrilled that we will be doing it with a partner who is willing to do so publicly, openly, transparently, with my neighbors and the community as a whole,” Cohn said.
Latasha Smith, president of Dutchtown Main Streets, feels similarly.
“He’s reached out to individuals in the community to get our blessing,” she said. “He’s already doing something that other developers have not, which is to engage the community.”
Both Smith and Cohn said it would be nice if the plan included opportunities for employment, education and entertainment, which his constituents often have to leave the neighborhood to find.
"If you want to go see a movie, you have to leave southeast city,” Cohn said. “If you want to go bowling or you want to go to a craft store, or you want to go to an urgent care, those are all things that you would have to generally leave the Dutchtown neighborhood to do.”
In addition to soliciting community input, Goodson must work to negotiate a contract to buy Cleveland from the school district; it’s currently listed for $2.35 million. The project is eligible for up to 25 years of tax abatement, and Goodson plans to apply for a variety tax credits.
