“It’s only fitting that we’re right here on Washington Avenue today,” Krewson said.

Elmuccio and Lewis count fashion financier Gary Wassner — who just launched a new clothing line with actress Whoopi Goldberg Wednesday — as an investor in the enterprise. Wassner, CEO of New York-based Hilldun, said there’s been demand for domestic manufacturing for 20 years, but real estate and labor costs in the big fashion capitals of New York and Los Angeles were prohibitively high.

“Everyone just got used to going overseas,” he said.

Yet “countless” problems would crop up in orders, from sizing, to timing. Wassner said he plans to inform the hundreds of brands he works with about the new St. Louis factory, and he plans to start testing products in St. Louis. He credited St. Louis officials with rallying around the idea.

“You could do this anywhere,” Wassner said. “St. Louis was the prescient one. They saw the opportunity.”

The new Evolution St. Louis facility has indeed received some help from the area. Kranzberg purchased the building — a former STL Venture Works business incubator — from the city’s economic development arm and is leasing it to the new company. On Thursday, the St. Louis Development Corp. allocated $5 million in federal New Markets Tax Credits to the project. And earlier this month, another city development arm made a $300,000 loan with a 4% interest rate to the company. The Missouri Department of Economic Development also has offered up to $136,000 in Missouri Works tax incentives if they meet job targets.

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