Yesterday was something of a milestone for the city’s Central West End. Whole Foods opened a 30,000sf grocery in The Orion building at West Pine Boulevard and Euclid Avenue. With this development, and others, the neighborhood continues to lead the way for the best car-optional living in the metro area.

Still, the Central West End is just getting started. nextSTL has learned of planning underway to build a high-rise residential building at West Pine and Kingshighway. The 0.72-acre surface parking lot, owned by the Silliman Group and Antheus Capital was acquired along with the purchase of the 16-story Parc Frontenac across West Pine and is currently used for resident parking.

Sources tell nextSTL that ambitions for the residential tower reach 40 stories, but may be scaled back due to construction cost estimates. Sources further shared that the owner has engaged Studio Gang architects out of Chicago for design work.

Studio Gang is known for high design, with recent residential projects featuring an undulating exteriors that maximize air and light exposure and offer a landmark facades. In Chicago, the firm’s recent projects include City Hyde Park and Aqua Tower.

Reached for comment, Peter Cassel, Director of Community Development with the Silliman Group and Mac Properties told nextSTL that they do not comment on buildings under contract, nor potential developments, but did note that the firm has experience developing surface parking lots.

According to a company profile, Antheus Capital and its two subsidiaries, Silliman and Mac, have acquired and redeveloped more than 130 buildings and 6,000 total living units of multi-family and mixed use properties in Chicago, Kansas City, and St. Louis. The company redevelops to hold and manages its own properties.

In St. Louis, the group owns the Parc Frontenac at 40 N. Kingshighway, the nearby 15-story Montclair on the Park at 18 S. Kingshighway, The Dorchester at 665 S. Skinker at the other end of Forest Park, and Vandy House at Lindell Boulevard and Vandeventer Avenue.

Cassel told nextSTL that under new ownership, the St. Louis properties have seen significant investment. “There’s a lot of new product coming to St. Louis,” Cassel noted. “A couple years ago, it was possible to have an OK apartment in a great location, but now you have to have a great apartment and a great location.”

Montclair on the Park has seen more than $4.5M in permits issued for remaking living units, interior shared spaces and amenities. Cassel stated the Montclair had significant vacancy when acquired, which has allowed renovations to proceed floor by floor without emptying occupied units. Parc Frontenac has seen about $850K in permit activity for first floor renovations.

{Montclair on the Park (1951)}

{Parc Frontenac (1956)}

Addressing the significant investment being made in the two buildings facing Forest Park across Kingshighway, Cassel stated, “They’re fantastic locations, the opportunity to live in the Central West End and right on Forest Park suggests it should be a great apartment.”

Silliman Group and Antheus Capital have been active on the other side of Missouri in Kansas City, especially along Armour Boulevard. According to a 2014 Kansas City Business Journal item, the group invested $150M in multi-family residential development along that corridor from 2007-2014. The total investment in Kansas City as of 2014 had reached two dozen buildings and more than 1,500 apartments.

If construction proceeds with a Studio Gang design, it will mark another notable investment in big-name architecture in St. Louis. At Kingshighway and Lindell, immediately north of the West Pine site, Kohn Pederson Fox (KPF) will work with Forum Studio to envision a significant infill project (no new news there). At Washington University in St. Louis, KieranTimberlake was chosen to design a new building for the Sam Fox School. Plans viewed by nextSTL show what will be a thoroughly contemporary building.

Studio Gang’s Aqua Tower and City Hyde Park:

Studio Gang has won numerous awards, including being named the 2016 Firm of the Year at the Architizer A+ Awards. Founding principal Jeanne Gang was recognized as Architect of the Year by Architectural Review at its 2016 Women in Architecture awards. Jeanne Gang has also engaged in the conversation about the impact of design in “Post-Ferguson America”. You can click here to view her concept for “Polis Station,” which explores how “elements of a police station are broken apart and integrated into their community”.

After the completion of a couple projects in St. Louis City’s booming central corridor that can only be characterized as architectural malpractice, recent projects have offered better design. New construction at 4101 Laclede and the Koman Group project at West Pine at Euclid are more contemporary. Both were designed by Trivers Associates of St. Louis. Nearby institutional construction at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy has presented an investment in design as well.

With several proposals rumored for high-rise construction in the Central West End, we recently chronicled the tall residential buildings of the neighborhood. Half a dozen buildings of more than 10 stories were built in the 1950s and 60s. Yet since 1983, a span of 33 years, just two were added as the Park East Tower (2005) and 4545 Lindell (2007) were completed.