Developers Promised to Buy Out University Homes
Date Posted: December 19, 2023
Posted In: Discussion, News, People, Regionalism,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The developer behind the new Costco-anchored shopping center here has backed out of a deal to buy an adjacent neighborhood, angering residents who say their futures are now in limbo.
Seneca Commercial Real Estate was to acquire the rest of the homes on Mayflower Court for its Market at Olive development. But the company pulled out within days of when it was supposed to close this summer. And then Seneca began boarding up the homes it did own, and homeowners said the company has done little maintenance since.
Now, six months later, one of the vacant homes has a broken doorknob. Another has overgrown brush and raccoons living in its chimney. Residents say they’ve seen trespassers looking into windows.
“It has been just a nightmare,” said homeowner Mary Gaines. “It’s just wrong.”
Larry Chapman, president and CEO of Seneca, said his company intended to buy all 16 homes on Mayflower, off McKnight Road and Olive Boulevard, to make way for a new apartment complex. But then potential retailers pulled out, and interest rates and rising costs took their toll. It no longer made sense to buy the remaining homes, he said.
“We are disappointed, just like the homeowners are, that we were unable to close,” Chapman said in an email.
The residents of Mayflower have faced years of disruption due to the development, which is home to Costco, Chick-fil-A and other chains. The project has courted widespread controversy since a previous company, Novus Development, first pitched it around 2018.