Community Profiles

With construction of the $695 million Stan Musial Memorial Mississippi River Bridge and the $1.75 billion National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) Western Headquarters, St. Louis’ Near North Side is becoming a new “front door” to the City and focus of redevelopment efforts.

After a comprehensive planning process involving the City of St. Louis, Urban Strategies, Inc., McCormack Baron Salazar, and multiple community stakeholders and residents, the City was awarded a $29.5 million federal Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grant in 2016. 

The $159 million housing strategy includes demolishing and renovating Preservation Square, a 40-year-old 675-unit mixed-income community and replacing it with 695 new and renovated sustainable apartments, including subsidized units, affordable/low-income units, and market-rate/unrestricted units. On site will be a new management building, a renovated community building, a recreation area with a swimming pool, smaller outdoor spaces, and a number of larger mixed-use buildings alongside a proposed Metrolink Light Rail expansion route.

The people strategy leverages the $4.5 million of the CNI grant with nearly $50 million additional public and private investment to provide case management services to all Preservation Square residents and
create individual and family human capital plans.

The Neighborhood Strategy leverages $4.5 million in CNI Funding with approximately $2 billion in neighborhood investments including the NGA redevelopment to increase retail, business, employment,
and entrepreneurship opportunities; increase access to healthy foods; facilitate greater economic mobility; and improve safety.