The City of St. Louis awarded $1.14 million for four community-planned projects spanning seven neighborhoods on Wednesday.
The city's Community Development Administration awarded Neighborhood Plan Implementation grants to projects set for development in the Skinker DeBaliviere, West End, Downtown, Downtown West, Covenant Blu-Grant Center, Jeff-Vander-Lou and St. Louis Place neighborhoods.
The plans were adopted after community engagement to advance the priorities of the Neighborhood Plans previously adopted by the city, according to a statement on the grants.
Funding for the projects comes from the city’s economic development sales tax, which dedicates 10% of sales tax revenue to neighborhood plan implementation awards.
In a news release, Nahuel Fefer, executive director of the Community Development Administration, said the city met with people from neighborhoods throughout St. Louis. The funds will “turn neighborhood priorities into action.”
“These awards represent neighborhoods taking charge of their future,” Fefer said. “Residents have spent years developing thoughtful plans. This funding helps turn those plans into action — making visible progress toward safer, stronger, and more vibrant communities.”
A $279,500 chunk of the total appropriation will fund three pilot shipping container business incubators along the Brickline Greenway in Jeff-Vander-Lou and St. Louis Place. The containers are expected to host vendors, food pop-ups and cultural events. The funds will also provide training to entrepreneurs through a partnership with Mission St. Louis and Tabernacle CDC.
The Brickline Greenway is an ongoing project designed to connect 14 neighborhoods and several parks in St. Louis through trails.
The Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council received a $242,825 grant to turn two lots along Delmar Boulevard into community spaces. One site will become a public gathering area and the other a neighborhood dog park.
The city awarded the Downtown Neighborhood Association the largest grant of $388,000 for new wayfinding improvements in the Locust Business District in Downtown West. The new wayfinding signs, video signage, monuments and more will be located in the corridor between 18th and Jefferson streets.
A fourth grant awards the Cornerstone CDC in the West End $234,376 to redevelop a long-vacant warehouse at 900 Hodiamont Ave. into a “long-blighted” site into a park at the western trailhead of the planned Hodiamont Greenway.
According to a news release on the awards, the city’s planning and urban design agency is working with several other neighborhoods to develop and enact additional plans that could be funded in the future.
“The best ideas for how to strengthen St. Louis come from the people who live here,” said Mayor Cara Spencer in a statement. “These projects are the result of residents working together to plan the future in neighborhoods and the City of St. Louis followed through with the resources to make their visions real.”
