BELLERIVE ACRES — Looking to help strengthen the neighborhoods around its north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County campus, the University of Missouri-ºüÀêÊÓƵ has appointed a longtime community development specialist to lead its new “Anchor Institution Initiative.â€
Karl Guenther, who has worked for UMSL for eight years on initiatives such as the Community Builders Network of Metro ºüÀêÊÓƵ and the new Invest STL, will lead the new effort, which will focus on strengthening the neighborhoods around the UMSL campus.
“We have the ability to bring the economic wherewithal and the human capital of the university — in partnership with the community — to make that happen and have mutual long-term benefit,†Guenther said in a statement.
Other area universities have also focused on redevelopment and strengthening neighborhood institutions in the areas surrounding their campuses. The large increase in investment in the Grove area at least partly tied to the efforts of Washington University’s redevelopment arm, and it and ºüÀêÊÓƵ University both helped start the Cortex district between their campuses.
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UMSL has been involved with major economic development efforts, lending some of its land for the Express Scripts headquarters. In recent years, UMSL’s University Square community development corporation has been trying to develop land near a MetroLink stop, and it also helped on a project to beautify  near its campus.