Happy 38th Birthday Bob Ray!

Stop by the Washington Ave Post today to wish Bob a happy birthday.

Feng Shui of Loft Design

I was reading this article in the Arizona Republic and thought it was worth a read (Note: unless you've visited the Arizona Republic online before, you will be asked to complete a brief survey before viewing the article....sorry). One of the best things about working downtown is being able to see the great designs and creativity used in decorating lofts once a buyer moves in. Of course, that can also be a difficulty, because due to the unconventional styles, sometimes people can not visualize themselves in a more modern environment. Click here to see some lofts decorated by Better Homes and Gardens online.

The loft shown here is a relatively small space that, when decorated, was a fantastic living space. It sold in just a few days on the market. Its eye-catching design and great layout probably had a hand in its quick sale.

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Art Loft Theater was a Blast!

Back in January, I posted about the Art Loft Theater at, where else, The Art Lofts.

On Friday we experienced the play Batboy. It was a hit!

I don't know what my expectations were, but they were exceeded. The acting, singing and story were tremendous.

There were two suprises though: one was that the bathrooms were "uni-sex" which to me, means one either sex can go in at a time. These were more like, everyone goes in at the same time with only a bathroom stall seperating men & women. A little strange.

The second suprise was that I didn't see anyone I knew there. Neither did my better half. It seems like there were few downtown residents that knew much about it.

Based on the webpage of the Art Loft Theater, they do say that they "Bringing 17,000 People a Year Into Downtown St. Louis." Maybe now that there are already some people downtown, they can get some home grown support. It's definately a great evening out!

Order Batboy tickets on Metrotix.

Action is good!

A few weeks back, there was a meeting at the Downtown St. Louis Partnership about the traffic patterns downtown and what needs to be done. It was a good meeting with some good ideas.

In a brief meeting with the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, I asked about implementation of those ideas. They said that it was in the works. I've noticed a few improvements, like driving down 14th Street, the lights seemed like they were all in synch. Also, a couple weeks ago Locust Street was changed to two way (west of 14th Street--it is still one way going west east of 14th).

Ideas thrown around about how things can be improved are always good, but its fantastic to see that the city is really serious about taking action to improve downtown. Could that have something to do with more voter's in the city elections are living downtown?

Lofts Across the Country

A guy called me today from San Diego. He is interested in a loft in St. Louis. Talking with him about the prices of lofts in San Diego invigorated me. Ocassionally I work with someone, often times a native St. Louisan, who seems to think lofts are all overpriced and that they are a fad. I hate to say it, but its true.....some people think that way.

One of the sites I enjoy clicking around on to get a feel for pricing in other cities is

Of course, I hope Lofts in the 'Lou is really "your loft resource," but seeing lofts for sale in some cities for over $700 per square foot reminds me of how fantastic our city is and why the loft market continues to be so busy.

January St. Louis Loft Sales

January was another busy month in the world of downtown lofts. Of course, sometimes the business doesn't translate into closings right away. There was an intense busy spurt where it seemed as if there wasn't a supply of lofts on the market. Of our listings, one sold and two went under contract in January.

The Terra Cotta lofts seem to have the best sales this month. Four sales with an average days on Market of 48.5 days. That average was brought up by one listing that seemed a bit high on price and one that I had a hard time showing that had a respectable 59 days on market. The other two listings sold in 4 days and 21 days. NOT BAD!!!

Here's the St. Louis loft sales on the MLS for January:

507 N 13th Street #207 $120,000
1501 Locust #301 $165,000
1501 Locust #601 $170,500
1511 Locust #210 $190,425
1612 Lucas #305 $211,000
1501 Locust #1006 $254,900
1501 Locust #905 $264,900
View all the details here!

Congratulations Crepe's in the City

Sunday was a record day for Jose & Mary's "Crepes in the City" at Washington Ave Post at 1320 Washington. They made a record of 105 crepes. A late comer, I had crepes 101 and 102 (I was hungry, what can I say?). I can't seem to forget about the Zamba, and I tried the newest item off the menu.

There is a fantastic menu of crepes that suit just about any taste. Check out the menuand stop by for some great food!

The Bottle District sudden turnaround

In talking about downtown St. Louis real estate, one of the big question marks people have is "The Bottle District." As far as major developments go, it seems that everything is on course based upon the article in this past weeks business journal. Hopefully more information will be ready for the Business Journals February 17th issue that features downtown developments.

I'm not really that crazy about the new name, The Gateway Village. "The Bottle District" sounded unique. Ok... there is unofficially the "loft district," but the new "Gateway Village" name seems to redundant in St. Louis. There's already plenty of things named Gateway in the downtown area (Gateway Arch, Gateway Mall, Gateway One Building, etc.) And the new Ballpark 'Village' will be just blocks away.


It is great to see that the plans for building residential towers are continuing. I was asked yesterday to what extent would the bottle district impact the loft district. Seeing some of the clubs and nightlife being moved away from the loft neighborhoods, it seems that the bottle district or gateway village may help add some entertainment destinations. It also seems like people fear that this great city will become too diverse or have too many facets. I'm not worried about that today.

More Space for Urban Dwellers Downtown

Just over a week ago, I was standing next to the Paul Brown Loft Apartments looking east at the beautiful Chemical Building at the Northeast corner of 8th and Olive. Not sure of its current use, I was wondering if it would ever be redeveloped and turned into a more classy office space or condo development.

The wait wasn't very long.

According to this weeks St. Louis Business Journal article on the front page, Crossland Capital Partners and Heismann properties, the developer's of the Meridian Lofts, have purchased the Chemical Building and plan a mixed use building. Existing tennants in offices will be moved to the first few floors, rental apartments will occupy most of the building and the top floors will be for sale as condos according to the article.

Looking at the ornate and unique architechture of this building, it should be exciting. The developers say that they will be building more traditional apartments and condos as opposed to loft style apartments and condos.
Looking at the rear of the building, there are several corners, so a great possibility exists to have a superb view in any number of locations, particularly in the top level condos.

The vision of the new downtown is becoming more and more clear as the weeks pass. More will follow on the progress of this development. Initial projections of completion are for April 2007. Lets hope for the best!

2020 Loft For Sale

Fantastic 1 bedroom loft for sale in the Lofts at 2020! It is a great sixth floor unit with a northern view facing the Adler Lofts and Majestic Stove Lofts. .
Lofts like this weren't on the market but for 30 minutes during the summer. The market has been very good since then, but it is picking up quickly.

This loft features hardwood floors, ceramic tile in bath, open floorplan over 1023 square feet. Upgraded lighting and custom cabinetry. Washer, dryer, and stainless steel refrigerator are included in the modest purchase price. It is MOVE IN READY and TAX ABATED.
Taxes are less than $8 per month.

The Lofts at 2020 (otherwise known as the Sporting News Lofts) are located on Washington Avenue right in front of Schlafly's Tap Room and the Pepper Lounge.

To visit this loft, contact us via email or at
314-517-5050

Cultural backbone of Washington Avenue

I was just surfing around the internet when I found this link to the Art Loft Theater. Unfortunately, I had never been to any of the performances and thought that it had closed a while ago.

I'm excited about the new lineup of shows coming out starting February 23rd with Bat Boy, the Musical followed by Jesus Christ Superstar in June.

Click here for Metrotix online for tickets to Batboy.

Click Here for Metrotix online for tickets to Jesus Christ Superstar.

Another Year for Loft Data

Happy New Year!!!

Conveniently, I did some searches the other day to get an idea of what the loft market has been like in the past few years. There have been several out of town clients that have been asking me lots of questions about the market lately.

Its always nice to be able to just point to the market information instead of talking about it. So here are the past 5 years of loft sales (taken from the local Multiple Listing Service).


Year--#Sold----$/Sq Ft----Ave.Days on Market----Ave.Price
2005-----121----------$156-----------------209-----------------$256,678
2004------84----------$141-----------------233-----------------$187,976
2003------53----------$135-----------------170-----------------$214,890
2002------25----------$121-----------------248-----------------$186,674
2001------19----------$104-----------------194-----------------$233,908

Keep in mind that these averages in some cases reflect the buildings that were released and priced on the MLS for those years. Some developers only use the MLS to list one unit, sort of as a 'teaser' listing to attract people to the building for a complete tour. About 50% of our loft sales have taken place outside of the MLS.

Regardless of the case, the averages indicate a nice steady period of growth and appreciation and not the insane type of markup that is more indicative of a "boom and bust" cycle.

Again, Happy New Year!

Buyer's or Seller's Market

Tonight a client asked if right now was a buyer's or seller's market downtown.

I was thrown off by the question. The resale market has been extremely busy of late.
Despite that, its hard to really say that a market with so much room for expansion and so many options is truly a seller's market. While the resale and many of the developments sales are bustling, some projects sales aren't so active.

To sum up, and of course, in my own opinion; if you're waiting until spring to sell your loft.....don't! There are buyer's in the market looking for a place to call home now. Is everything on the market jumping off within 30 days? Not hardly. Lofts still can take more time to sell due to the specific expectation of the buyer. Most buyer's continue to view lofts more critically than other types of housing in St. Louis.

Compared to other parts of town though, the loft market is alive and well during this traditionally slow time of year.

Ask Not.....

Downtown St. Louis obviously has the absolute best "Welcome to St. Louis" sign in the country in the Gateway Arch. When crossing the Poplar Street Bridge into St. Louis people passing through know they've just entered St. Louis the City. What about the neighborhoods?

I have a speech saved from the late Greg Freeman about some of his observations about the city. One of them was that as a city, we do a poor job of marketing our city and its neighborhoods within the metro area.
(Read the whole speech here) In the past 10 years that has changed quite a bit, but there is more that can be done.

The highway exit off 40 at 20th Street seems to be a great location for this, but wouldn't it be great as an entrance to the downtown and downtown west neighborhoods to show some community spirit about the area and welcome everyone to the neighborhood? There are still a lot of people who, despite the loft district getting lots of publicity for the architecture and the lofts themselves, don't really realize that there is a growing population calling this area home.

In this case, it appears unattractive to add this suggestion as another financial request on the city. Maybe that's the best route. That's what taxes are for, right? What about a grass roots effort?

Input is welcomed. Don't be afraid.

Attention Investors!!!

This huge loft space is for sale and is a great opportunity for investors in the hot downtown loft market. This loft is priced at $123.95 per square foot now and the price may be negotiable. Flooring is a distressed 100 year old maple hardwood throughout except in bath and utility room. This loft could be kept as is and rented or refinished to a more upscale luxury loft. Plenty of room in price for updates. Eighth floor unit with eastern view of downtown skyline. Great opportunity for investor or person looking to have potential for totally unique space.

Contact Chris at 314-518-9003 for a private viewing or email today!

St. Louis Loft Sales are Heating Up!

Traditionally the real estate market is supposed to start hibernating as the holidays approach. That doesn't seem to be happening this year. Many weekends I've seen other realtors tromping around town with clients looking at lofts more than usual. In the past two weeks, over 10 lofts have had offer's accepted and are in contract to sell. In the past month since I last posted the sales in the area, much of the supply of lofts has diminished by a healthy resale market.

These are the sales that took place in November. I didn't count, but it seems like more typing than I did for the months of September and October combined.

2020 Washington #703 $151,900
1511 Locust #310 $155,000
1511 Locust #102 $172,658
1511 Locust #403 $174,890
2020 Washington #414 $195,000
1511 Locust #602 $195,220
1601 Washington #211 $199,276
2020 Washington #104 $209,800
703 N Thirteenth #301 $235,000
1511 Locust #504 $240,000
1511 Locust #807 $281,000
1517 Washington #302 $359,000
703 N Thirteenth #208 $379,990
400 S Fourteenth #1020 $414,000

More details can be found in the loft listings pulled from the MLS.

The End of Traffic Madness Downtown?

During my day to day travels, I occasionally find myself asking questions about why certain traffic signals, lanes, etc. are set up the way they are. "Doesn't anyone know about this?!#$!?!" I was excited to go to the open house yesterday at the Downtown St. Louis Partnership office to look into the most recent analysis of the downtown central business district traffic flow and recommendations by Crawford Bunte, and Brammeier, Traffic and Transportation Engineers.

I was happy to see lots of people in the loft development industry present. I was happy to see the level of detail that a professional engineer will look at when assessing the traffic in a given area. Though very detailed, it appeared that they really thought about how things could be improved in our downtown by fixing some vehicle and pedestrian issues that are downright obnoxious.

Things I was most excited to hear and hope are implemented.
1. Having a more coordinated system in place to control traffic signals downtown.
2. Placing a wide median on Tucker to assist in managing the traffic flow, allowing more pedestrian friendly roads, and potentially beautifying that important downtown artery.
3. Considering having eighth and eleventh streets changed from 1 way to 2 way.

Ultimately, the traffic in St. Louis is substantially better than in many other cities. We have no real room to complain, but that seems to be why fixing some of the obvious problems has never really addressed before. We really don't have it that bad.

The problem comes in more that navigating through downtown can be confusing and that for people looking into St. Louis as a convention location or for offices may not stick around town long enough to figure out the areas to avoid and how to get around with ease.

My only hope now is that the City of St. Louis does everything possible to implement the findings of this great study.

Downtown Traffic Study Open House

The Notorious Ebay Loft for Sale

When I first heard about the loft for sale on Ebay with no reserve, I viewed the likelyhood of a deal with amused skepticism.

This same loft was just listed on the MLS on Wednesday for what still appears to be a favorably priced $349,000. I spoke to a few people who thought that the price of $300,100
would be too much, so they hesitated on bidding. In this case, though I haven't actually been in the loft, the market indicates a price more like the current list price. $300,100 would have been selling the loft much lower than its value.

One positive thing is that if you are working with a buyer's agent / realtor, they now can help you with the contract, negotiations, inspections, and all the other work that comes with buying a home. While charitable contributions are fantastic, they shouldn't be made in place of having professional assistance in a major real estate transaction.