The historic and now rehabbed Broadview Hotel in East St. Louis opened Friday as the “New Broadview” — a 110-unit apartment building for those over 55 years old.
Local officials, developers and affordable housing advocates believe the former hotel’s $44.5 million restoration will serve as an anchor of economic development in the Metro East city that’s seen a depleted population and tax base in recent decades.
“It is our hope that this development has a catalytic impact on the downtown community,” said Yaphett El-Amin, president and CEO of Efficacy Consulting & Development, which spearheaded the project.
In addition to one-bedroom units priced at $709 per month and two-bedroom units at $822, the facility has a restaurant, salon, gym and space in the basement for business incubators. El-Amin said 10% of the units will be reserved for veterans.
The vision to rehabilitate the former hotel, originally built in 1927, started in 2017. It had been vacant since the mid-2000s, riddled with plywood-boarded windows and graffiti.
Restoring the 140,000-square-foot building came together via a public-private funding partnership with more than 10 different funding sources — or a “smorgasbord,” El-Amin said.
A little more than $20 million came from the Illinois Housing Development Agency, said Karen Davis, deputy director of the agency. Another $7 million came from historic tax credits, $1.5 million from Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grants and $2 million in earmarks for the Illinois General Assembly, among others, El-Amin said.
A handful of residents have already moved into the senior living facility.
Ronald Thomas, who’s now renting a unit, said he moved from St. Louis. “They could not have picked a better building to resurrect and allow the senior citizens to move into,” Thomas said.
City leaders and the building’s developers believe Thomas and other current residents will not be the only people who move to East St. Louis.
“As we continue to strengthen and build our city's economy,” said Mayor Charles Powell III, “developments such as this will serve as a reminder to our citizens, those with business and those looking to open business that East St. Louis is always and will be a great place to live and work.”
And that work isn’t over, Powell said.
El-Amin and her group have more to plan, she said. The design to restore the Spivey Building, located one block northeast of the Broadview, has already started.
In all, 21 buildings in downtown East St. Louis have historic designations, meaning they are eligible for tax credits designed to restore aging buildings and could be attractive to potential developers.
The city of Rockford in northern Illinois serves as a model that El-Amin and her group want to replicate with rehabbing the historic buildings.
“As the St. Louis Arch dominates the skyline to the west, I believe that this building will dominate the skyline on the east side,” said state Sen. Chris Belt, D-Swansea.
The opening with the New Broadway coincides with a religious nonprofit constructing 20 $360,000 houses farther east in town to attract middle-class residents.
