A new community development corporation has formed among three north St. Louis neighborhoods on or near the forthcoming $245 million Brickline Greenway.
The Brickline North Community Development Corp. brings together residents and members of some existing economic development organizations in the Grand Center, Jeff-Vander-Lou and St. Louis Place neighborhoods.
“It gives us a stronger voice,” said T. Christopher Peoples, who directs equity and economic impact for Great Rivers Greenway, the organization building the Brickline. “We're not three neighborhoods asking the city for something. We're a unified front.”
It gives those three neighborhoods a better platform to approach the city or private funding sources for economic development projects along business corridors in north St. Louis that need revitalization, including North Grand where the Brickline will run, Peoples said.
“Activating the business corridors, bringing these major arterials back to life helps pull people to a centralized place,” he said. “The Brickline is only going to be successful if people are using it, and that means people are in the neighborhood.”
The new entity also includes the corridors of Jefferson Avenue, Parnell Street, Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, Cass Avenue and St. Louis Avenue, which may not be directly on the Brickline’s path.
“I felt like it wasn’t very equitable if I was to only focus on this certain section of these three neighborhoods and know that I’m leaving out small slivers of those neighborhoods that could easily be activated as part of this overall process,” Peoples said.
The new development corporation focuses on neighborhood revitalization, public safety improvements, small business support, neighborhood capacity building and community engagement and advocacy, he said. The Brickline represents an opportunity to bring more pedestrian and bicycle activity to north St. Louis neighborhoods that could help spur future development, he added.
“Neighborhood revitalization isn’t just looking at housing or commercial development, but it’s looking at infrastructure,” he said. “How do we make the sidewalks ADA compliant? Do you feel safe leaving your street to walk four or five blocks to Grand?”
For now, Peoples said he will act as the new corporation’s executive director as it gets up and running. He added it will also work alongside established economic development organizations in those neighborhoods like Tabernacle CDC, North Newstead Association, and Grand Center Inc.
But Peoples made clear that residents’ desires spurred this new organization and will ultimately drive it.
“I was just a steward. I was the person that got people in the room and helped facilitate the conversations,” he said. “The goal is that this thing sunsets one day, or the neighborhoods take it over as their own.”
And north city residents have clear ideas about what they want to see come to their neighborhoods, said Pastor Andre Alexander, president of the nonprofit Tabernacle Community Development Corp. He points to a survey of residents he conducted just before the pandemic that revealed residents wanted to see entertainment options in addition to more housing.
“All those things that families do in other places, people want that in their own neighborhood,” he said. “That survey really woke me up to that.”
Alexander and his organization are closely involved in developing more affordable housing in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood and stressed that economic revitalization doesn’t happen in phases.
“In the development world, they always say, ‘Rooftops before flattops,’” he said. “It’s that whole idea that we need people first before we bring goods and services. When you’re in an area that has not been invested in in decades, you really need both happening at the same time.”
Peoples agrees that adding the new development corporation for the three neighborhoods allows for better coordination and application of resources among the groups working to bring more economic development to north city.
