A new wave of investment is coming to Downtown West.
On Friday, July 31, AHM Group and Broadmoor Group broke ground on Rollick, a $24 million mixed-use development that marks the next phase of development for City Commons, a long-term neighborhood investment project by AHM Group.
Rollick, a six-story mixed-use building at 2125 Locust Street, will be home to 74 apartments, more than 3,000-square-feet of commercial space, and structured parking at the corner of Locust and N. 22nd Street. The development is the first ground-up mixed-use project in Downtown West in more than a century, according to a press release.
“Regional competitiveness begins with vibrant neighborhoods,” said Ron Kitchens, Managing Partner of Greater St. Louis, Inc., in the release. “Investments like City Commons make St. Louis more attractive to employers, entrepreneurs, residents, and visitors by creating the kind of walkable, mixed-use urban environments that today’s workforce increasingly seeks. This is exactly the type of catalytic private investment that helps move our region forward.”
Photo provided by AHM Group.
With neighboring attractions such as Energizer Park and Union Station, as well as the downtown retail and business district, the development will grow residential opportunity and add new and vibrant retail in Downtown West.
At a press conference on Friday, Kitchens hailed the project as an example of what thoughtful and committed investment in St. Louis can bring today — and inspire tomorrow.
“The greatest force for change is a job, and by creating more jobs in construction, more jobs for residents that are going to live in these units, more jobs for the retailers that are going to surround this development, we’re reminded that success is contagious,” Kitchens said on Friday. “This success today will inspire the next entrepreneur to walk by and go, ‘Well, what if?’ Maybe that entrepreneur is in the crowd today; maybe that entrepreneur is watching at home on television. But we as community leaders have the responsibility to be those cheerleaders, to be those thoughtfully committed individuals.”
Kitchens spoke alongside John Morrissey, president of Broadmoor Group; Congressman Wesley Bell; Stephen Westbrooks, president and CEO of St. Louis Development Corporation; Dustin Allison, CEO of Arch to Park Equity Fund; and Brian Pratt, Managing Partner, AHM Group.
The broader City Commons development will span nearly 12 acres and bring more than 1,000 planned residences, 216,000-square-feet of commercial space, and upwards of $400 million in planned public and private investment into Downtown West. The mixed-use investment will include the restoration of historic buildings in the neighborhood as well as ground-up developments with the goal of increasing walkability and connectivity across the neighborhood.
“Transformational projects don’t happen by accident,” Westbrooks said in the release. “They happen when committed private developers work alongside public partners with a shared vision for long-term neighborhood growth. City Commons exemplifies how strategic investment can reactivate underutilized property, expand housing opportunities, and create lasting economic benefits for the City of St. Louis.”
