St. Louis development officials scrapped a 2023 plan to redevelop a vacant high school in Dutchtown as the city eyes purchasing the building from the public school system.
Members of the Land Use for Redevelopment Authority voted to scrap the plan with GoodCo LLC, originally approved in 2023, that planned to purchase and redevelop the 235,000-square-foot Cleveland High School.
“There’s been no progress in that project,” said St. Louis Development Corporation Vice President of Economic Incentives Zachary Wilson.
But LCRA believes development interest in the property exists. Wilson said the city hopes to purchase the property from SLPS and put out a request for proposals for the property.
Last month, LCRA informed SLPS it hoped to purchase the high school and an additional elementary school from the school system. The bid would see the LCRA purchase Cleveland High School in Dutchtown for $300,000 and Marshall Elementary School located in the Ville for $200,000.
The district lists the roughly 235,000-square-foot Cleveland High School building at $2.3 million and the roughly 50,000-square-foot Marshall School for around $424,300.
The buildings have been abandoned for 22 and 19 years, respectively, and are listed as surplus properties for sale on the school district’s website.
Neighbors in Dutchtown say the Cleveland High School building has been a headache for the area since the school district closed it.
Dutchtown Main Streets, a neighborhood nonprofit, urged SLPS in a letter to accept the city’s offer on the building to address a “long-standing neighborhood nuisance.” The group estimates demolition of the building would cost taxpayers between $3 million and $4 million.
Nate Lindsey, a vacancy litigation attorney for Dutchtown Main Street, in October called on the city and school district to come to an agreement and correct “past mistakes” made when the school suddenly closed in 2005.
“This is really the last chance for the people and public officials currently in power to make amends for past mistakes around Cleveland High School and the Dutchtown community,” Lindsey said. “There was simply a closure and then no plan for what to do next.”
Lindsey said the building has undergone “demolition by neglect” over the past 19 years. A fire broke out in the abandoned school in 2020, and a teen was shot inside the building in 2024.
