$400M Northern Light Project Would Transform Site of Homeless Encampment
Date Posted: February 17, 2026
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis Magazine: An alderman and a first-time developer have big plans for an area of North City that’s best known as home to a controversial homeless encampment.
A bill introduced by Alderman Rasheen Aldridge on Friday would use tax abatements to tee up redevelopment at Cass Avenue and 10th Street in Old North. A developer has proposed turning the blocks currently home to a smattering of tents into what’s being called The Northern Light Land Development Project.
Multi-Story Event Center, Townhomes
That project would be anchored by a multi-story event center and include townhomes, a small amphitheater, a greenhouse to host weddings, and a bed and breakfast. Aldridge’s bill would provide a 25-year tax abatement for the property, with it being abated at 90 percent for the first decade and then at 50 percent for the following 15 years.
Shooting Big
“The Northside, for so long, has continued to be left out,” Aldridge tells SLM. “We deserve great, bold development like we see downtown and in the central corridor.”
The developer behind the project is Jeanetta Hawkins, and Northern Lights represents her first attempt at a development of this scale. “She’s shooting big,” says Aldridge.
Hawkins is a veteran of the events industry who for 16 years has operated her Personal Touches by Jeanetta business out of a building on Cass just a block east of the proposed redevelopment site. In paperwork associated with the proposed development, she writes that her mission is to transform the nearly 10-acre parcel “into a high-tech, multi-venue ‘Oasis’ that anchors the Downtown North Corridor.” She estimates the total cost of the project to be around $400 million, including land acquisition.