A 1940s Modernist-style factory formerly used by a pharmaceutical firm to invent, make and ship Foot-Geen cream and other potions is being converted into 50 loft apartments.
Developers Jeff Winzerling and Pete Rothschild are behind the nearly $10 million project at 3965 Laclede Avenue. The three-story building is just west of St. Louis University and across the street from the CORTEX life sciences district.
Glass block windows and glazed block interior walls, original to the 1946 design for the S. Pfeiffer Manufacturing Co., will be included in the new Laclede Lofts apartments, the developers said. The buff brick exterior and its terracotta detailing are being restored as part of the project.
Although it’s just one building on a largely industrial block, the Laclede Lofts project will fill some of the emptiness between SLU, CORTEX and the Central West End. The 3900 block of Laclede already has a post office, the St. Louis police garage, the 6 North apartments and a longtime hardware store. But it also has some unused buildings, surface parking and vacant lots.
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New sidewalks, streetlights and planters installed as part the Laclede Lofts project will make the renovated building appear closer to Vandeventer Avenue and SLU, Winzerling said. The project, scheduled to open early next year, will be marketed to young professionals, medical students and graduate students.
Winzerling, whose Universatile Development is doing the project with Rothschild Development, said the former factory is suited for loft apartments. Large windows ring the building. Ceilings are 11 to 15 feet high, and “the concrete structure provides good floor-to-floor sound insulation,” he said.
Rothschild said that despite the building’s nearness to SLU, Laclede Lofts are “designed and outfitted like a high-end apartment complex, not a ‘student’ building.” Each apartment will have laundry equipment, solid-surface counters and “designer” fixtures, he said. Most kitchens will have islands and two-bedroom units will have two bathrooms.
The renovation plan by architecture firm Ebersoldt & Associates has 21 one-bedroom, 25 two-bedroom and four three-bedroom apartments. Included are 19 indoor and 47 outdoor parking spaces, a garden area, a residents’ terrace and first-floor private patios.
St. Louis architect Bert Luer designed the Pfeiffer factory, where the company had its offices, laboratory and warehouse. According to the building’s successful nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, Adolph Pfeiffer (an 1874 graduate of the St. Louis College of Pharmacy) moved his company to Laclede Avenue in 1912.
Andrew Raimist, a lecturer at the Sam Fox School of Visual Arts & Design at Washington University, said the Pfeiffer building is “thoughtfully designed and constructed” though not “necessarily a unique and outstanding example” of Moderne architecture in St. Louis.
Pfeiffer went out of business many years ago. A company that produced bumpers and other car parts occupied the former foot cream factory when Winzerling and Rothschild bought the structure in 2008.
The new owners leased the building to the automotive firm but their thoughts were on an apartment conversion when they bought the structure. They began working on the Laclede Lofts project when the car-parts company left about a year ago, Winzerling said.
Associated Bank is the construction lender on the project and Blackline Design & Construction is the general contractor. The city granted the project 10 years of property tax abatement. Laclede Lofts also has $2.25 million in state historic preservation tax credits and $1.8 million in federal historic credits.
Proposals to reduce the state credit are considered each year by the Missouri General Assembly. The current session is no different as some legislators are seeking to cut what they consider the program’s excessive cost while others cite its record of reviving historic buildings in St. Louis, Kansas City and other parts of the state.
Rothschild and Winzerling said that even though their project is in a strong apartment market, renovation of their 1940s factory would be impossible without the tax credits.
In noting the latest effort to cut the credit, Rothschild said: “I love projects that take what’s distinctive about St. Louis and give it new vitality. I just hope this isn’t one of the last.”
He and Winzerling also own a former carriage plant across the street from the Pfeiffer factory. A bland modern facade conceals windows and other original features of the 1908 building, Winzerling said. The empty, one-story building next to a vacant lot owned by CORTEX could be redone as office or lab space, he said.
Other developers are sniffing around the area just west of SLU. Among potential projects is a multistory residential building on West Pine Boulevard. The project is on hold but might be revived, commercial real estate officials said.
Tom DeWoskin, a broker who lives in the vicinity, said greater numbers of bikers and joggers show that the neighborhood is growing.
“Anything that creates density is always good,” said DeWoskin, adding that he supports greater neighborhood diversity. “When you have diversity, you have chemistry. And when you have chemistry, you have an area that’s alive.”
Tim Bryant covers commercial real estate, development and other business stories for the Post-Dispatch. He blogs at Building Blocks, the Post-Dispatch development blog.
