McCormack Baron plans to turn the homes along 14th Street into retail spaces or apartments that could easily be converted to storefronts. As downtown continues to redevelop, a newly enhanced 14th Street could serve as a natural connector.

“If we make some of these corridors that go to downtown like 14th Street more pedestrian-friendly, it would make some of those opportunities more successful,” Shin said.

Though $30 million isn’t a lot, it is a “prestigious” grant and could “be important for morale” as the city tries to spark some life into north St. Louis, Swanstrom said. HUD officials and other federal agencies have begun taking a closer look at St. Louis in the wake of the Ferguson unrest, he said, pointing to several other grants and initiatives that focus on north St. Louis and north St. Louis County.

“It will send a message that this is where it’s happening and the federal government is supportive nationally,” Swanstrom said. “Part of this is trying to put St. Louis back on the radar screen in terms of community and economic development.”

If St. Louis is left out of the final round of awards, backers of the effort say the partnerships will remain and many of the projects will still move forward, albeit less quickly and with fewer dollars.

“The fact that we’ve gone through extensive planning and had these conversations, we would just have to find another source of funding,” said Otis Williams, the director of the St. Louis Development Corporation, the city’s economic development arm. “It has generated a lot of enthusiasm and hope, I think, for the folks who live there. So we would hate to lose that energy.”

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