Developer Reframes Self-Storage Proposal By Adding Five Residential Units, Commercial
Date Posted: September 9, 2025
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis Magazine: A developer whose proposal for a 24/7 self-storage facility at a prominent intersection in the Lafayette Square neighborhood was shot down earlier this year is not giving up his plan. But this time, he may have found a way around the neighborhood’s disapprobation.
Tom Graddy had put forward the proposal for a self-storage facility at the corner of Jefferson and Chouteau avenues, but suffered a setback this summer. First, the city’s building commissioner denied his building permit, and then in July when the city’s Board of Adjustment denied his appeal of that denial.
The project drew near universal opposition from residents in Lafayette Square, who panned the concept as unresponsive to their desires for such a prominent intersection. “There is no way that we are ever going to be in favor of anything on that corner that is public storage,” the president of the neighborhood association, Vincent Volpe, testified in July.
Dozens of Lafayette Square residents articulated similar views, along with dozens of emails, written letters and pages of signatures opposing the storage facility. It was enough for members of the Board of Adjustment to essentially tell the developer to go back to the drawing board.
“A Better Plan”
“I think this is wrong for the city. I think that this is a huge important corner. They can come back with a better plan,” said Board of Adjustment member Mona Parsley.
Now the developer has its “better plan,” having filed designs last month seeking a building permit for a $3 million redevelopment of the industrial site. According to city records it would now be a commercial/residential use instead of a warehouse, but a closer look at new designs for the site shows the vast majority of the existing more than 50,000 square foot building still being retrofitted for a self-storage facility.
The difference is that squeezed into the south side are five residential units, mostly measuring around 1,000 square feet, and three office spaces, the largest measuring about 1,500 square feet. And because the city’s zoning for this site leaves “mixed use” a bit open to interpretation, the new plans may have an easier time passing muster.