Coffee Shop Opens in Renaissance Place at Grand Mixed-Use Building
On February 15th, 2013, Chronicle Coffee opened its doors in the Saint Louis Housing Authority Central Office Building located in the Midtown area of St. Louis at the north end of the Grand Center Arts District of Saint Louis.
The 1,500 square foot coffee shop, funded in part by a grant from the Empowerment Zone, is owned by the same owner as Northwest Coffee Roasting Company and has a goal of serving the once-disinvested neighborhood by providing good coffee, healthy food and a community meeting place. The Northwest roasting facility will serve Chronicle Coffee. The new shop employs six people.
The opening of Chronicle Coffee represents the last component of the Blumeyer HOPE VI Revitalization Plan that redeveloped much of the adjacent Arthur A. Blumeyer public housing site into Renaissance Place at Grand, a new 512 unit mixed-income community. In addition, the Central Office Building and Renaissance Place together make up a LEED for Neighborhood Development certified community.
The Blumeyer Village Tenants Association (BVTA) was instrumental in bringing the project to fruition. Urban Strategies, Inc., in conjunction with BVTA and as part of the Empowerment Zone grant, worked with community residents to link them with employment and business opportunities at the site.
The Central Office Building was developed by Midtown Community Commercial Development, a limited partnership between an affiliate of McCormack Baron Salazar and BVTA. The building was partially funded with New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) equity raised by MBS Urban Initiatives CDE). The $8.9 million building, owned and operated by the Saint Louis Housing Authority, also contains 30,000 square feet of office space (used by SLHA) and a 2,500 square foot PNC Retail Bank.
Read a St. Louis Business Journal article about the shop here.