“We feel like Forest Park Southeast will have the largest percentage population growth of any neighborhood in the city,” he said.

The Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. (WUMCRC) has been working to stabilize the neighborhood for decades and slowly bought up vacant land and old houses as they became available. Now, with the Cortex technology district humming along and the region’s biggest employer, Barnes Jewish, continuing to expand to the north, housing is in high demand in the area.

“The difference from when we got here until now was the private market wasn’t interested in this community then,” said Brian Phillips, executive director of WUMCRC. “The private market is interested now.”

He said the university made a “deliberate decision” years ago to keep the neighborhood mixed income. While many people fight low-income housing in their neighborhoods, people in Forest Park Southeast want the diversity, he said.

“There are low-income housing tax credit units scattered throughout the neighborhood, and from the outside, you wouldn’t know these are not market-rate units,” he said. “And that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

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