COMPLEX FINANCING ARRANGED FOR HISTORIC ST. LOUIS HIGH-RISE DEVELOPMENT
August 11, 2014 adminPlymouth, Minnesota-based apartment developer Dominium plans to convert the century-old Arcade Building, located at 800 Olive St. in St. Louis, into a mixed-use space for university classes and 282 market rate and affordable-housing apartments. U.S. Bank has arranged several tax-credit financing packages of more than $77 million to fund the development.
The renovation of the 18-floor, 500,000-square-foot high-rise. includes 202 affordable and 80 market-rate apartments, ranging from one to three bedrooms. The affordable-housing units are specifically designed to meet the needs of artists, offering one- to three-bedroom apartments as well as over 13,000 square feet of artist studio space.
Dominium plans to market the affordable housing units to artists, based on its record of successfully leasing loft space in the Leather Trades and Metropolitan Artist Lofts buildings in St. Louis and Schmidt Artist Lofts in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
This is the third artist loft project in St. Louis that Dominion has partnered on with U.S. Bank according to Jeff Huggett, vice president and project partner for Dominium. “Our experience has proven that artist lofts are economic development drivers,” he commented.
The Arcade’s first two floors and mezzanine of 55,000 square feet will be leased to Webster University for classes, a 170-seat auditorium, community kitchen and an art gallery. This expands the Webster University campus downtown to 85,000 square feet from 33,000 square feet, including its presence in the Old Post Office.
Dominium projects that Webster University will be able to move in as early as December 2015 and construction on the remaining space will finish in January 2016. The renovation is a major part of the much-desired redevelopment of the Old Post Office Square.
U.S. Bank invested $77 million raised through its investments in federal New Markets Tax Credits, federal and state historic tax credits and a separate investment arranged from federal low-income housing tax credits.
U.S. Bank Community Lending Division provided a $44 million construction loan, partially bridging the equity provided by USBCDC. BMO Harris Bank provided bridge and permanent construction financing, Cornerstone Permanent Mortgage Fund (Boston Capital Finance) provided a permanent loan and the City of St. Louis provided a $4.8 million loan.
New Markets Tax Credits for the project were allocated by U.S. Bank, St. Louis Development Corp., Enterprise Bank & Trust, National Trust Community Investment Corp. and Central Bank of Kansas City. The low-income housing credits were allocated by Missouri Housing Development Commission, which also provided a federal HOME loan and Affordable Housing Assistance Program tax credits.