The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis will use a $750,000 federal grant to help renovate its north St. Louis business plaza to help attract Black-owned businesses to the area.
The 42,500-square-foot center at Aubert Avenue and Page Boulevard behind the Urban League’s headquarters is currently home to businesses including a dollar store, a banquet facility, restaurants and beauty establishments. The nonprofit envisions about 12 more businesses leasing space in the plaza after renovations.
Enhancing retail in north St. Louis could help drive economic opportunities for people of color and help keep people in the community while shopping for goods and services, said Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League.
“We want to be a source of hope, stability and show that we are here for the long run, that we are about a positive vision of revitalizing this very, very important corridor,” he said. “We are here to try to not only make a difference from the physical standpoint but also from the human standpoint.”
The funding is part of $18.4 million that U.S. Rep. Cori Bush helped secure for St. Louis through the federal Community Funding Project, which supports local social service efforts and nonprofits.
Members of the House of Representatives could request funding to assist up to 15 community project initiatives in their districts during fiscal 2023. Other organizations that received funding include Power4STL, A Red Circle, the St. Louis Housing Authority, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri, SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital and SEED St. Louis.
“We partnered with grassroots organizations, nonprofits, and local governments to secure over $18 million in funding directly for St. Louis,” Bush said in a statement. “These investments will advance projects that will create jobs, enhance public safety, deliver public health services, build new affordable housing units, support our youth, families and workers, and strengthen our communities.”
The Urban League bought the business plaza in 2020 from the Roberts Cos. Over the years it has enhanced the center’s lighting, upgraded the heating and cooling systems and repaved the parking lot. The nonprofit is also working on creating a fitness and community gym space.
McMillan wants to restore the area to being a hub for economic opportunity in the Black community.
“On Easton, before it became Martin Luther King Boulevard, there were so many shops and businesses and places where people would go and get their goods and services right here in the neighborhood,” he said.
For economic growth to occur, McMillan said, companies must invest in inner city projects, but it does not happen often because investors are terrified of the risks, leading to decay and disinvestment in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods.
“It takes an organization like the Urban League, that is not for profit … to then come in and say, ‘we'll spend the funds, we will get the grants and we will try to raise the money in order to bring back the community,” McMillan said. “It just takes an infusion sometimes of things like this congressional earmark from the congresswoman, or tax abatement, tax incentives for other private developers, and then grants from city, state, county and federal governments in order to try to make up the difference.”
