AHM’s Transformative Downtown West Project is Moving Forward
Date Posted: January 25, 2024
Posted In: Discussion, News, Organizations, Regionalism,
From CityScene STL: Just one block north of St. Louis City SC’s CityPark, on some gravel lots on Washington and Locust, AHM Group is moving ahead with their series of developments. The first phases are up for review at the City’s Preservation Board next week and will be the first new-construction residential projects in Downtown West in decades. Sure, buildings like Monogram, MacDonald, and Butler Brothers have been redeveloped recently, but new construction has been lacking in Downtown West.
The first two phases of the AHM plan involve constructing a new parking garage to serve the buildings at 2100 Washington, 2151 Locust, the renovation of the vacant building at 2109 Locust into 44 residential units, and the renovation of 2101 Locust into approximately 35,000sf of office space. While urbanists might cringe at the inclusion of a large parking garage, it’s important to note that it’ll be nearly entirely hidden except for a small section on 22nd Street. The new building on Washington Avenue will hide the parking garage entirely while the new building on Locust, along with the existing old buildings, will block the entire parking garage from that angle.
The buildings at 2100 Washington and 2151 Locust will both include ground-level retail/restaurant space. In my opinion, the inclusion of these spaces will prove to be successful. With CityPark a few blocks away, these spaces will give restaurants, bars, and shops the opportunity to open up and serve the greater neighborhood and guests to City SC games.
The new buildings will be clad in a mixture of brick and metal panel. Neither 2100 Washington or 2151 Locust, will exceed 6-stories in height. AHM Group’s largest component of this project in Downtown West is the 29-story mass-timber residential tower at 21st and Locust. While not part of the initial phase, AHM plans to construct the tower, which will be the tallest mass-timber hybrid building in the world, at a later date. Trivers and Milwaukee-based Korb and Associates architects are the architects on that component. Arcturis is handling 2100 Washington and 2151 Locust.