ST. LOUIS • The 20 red brick warehouses west of Busch Stadium were once called “the greatest institution of its kind in the world.†At the dawn of the 20th century, the Cupples Station complex teemed with busy freight lines, factories and warehouses.
Today, after years of changing economics, bad development plans and damage from Mother Nature, nine buildings remain of the complex.
Soon, it will be eight.
On Monday, demolition crews arrived on Spruce Street and started work to make the century-old Cupples 7 warehouse nothing more than a memory of ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ mercantile past.
At City Hall, officials said they are doing everything they can to keep historic buildings standing tall.
Jeff Rainford, chief of staff to Mayor Francis Slay, said the mayor will hold an “all hands on deck†meeting on Thursday seeking ideas and possible legislation to keep a similar scenario from happening again. That could include anything from stiffer fines on developers to creating a large fund to help the city save buildings before it’s too late.
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“We are pulling everybody together in city government to figure out what lessons we have learned from Cupples,†Rainford said.
The problem, according to Rainford, is the difficulty of holding developers accountable for deteriorating buildings.
Rainford said one of the only options may be finding a way to create a fund that would enable the city to target such buildings, stabilize them and put a lien on the property to recoup its investment.
The good news about the Cupples station complex is that the remaining eight buildings all have been rehabbed. Preservationists have lamented, however, that downtown ºüÀêÊÓƵ is losing density, along with another link to its past and a possible showcase for real estate development.
The Cupples complex, built between 1894 and 1917, was said to be the first large-scale grouping of freight lines, factories and warehouses in one spot. It was the talk of the nation and a driving force behind the fortunes of merchants Samuel Cupples and Harry and Robert S. Brookings.
The complex fell into disrepair by mid-century. In 1989, Anheuser-Busch sought to demolish most of the complex to build a downtown arena and parking garages. The company withdrew plans after the city balked.
Throughout the nation, cities have coveted large, old buildings to convert into office space.
Four of the remaining Cupples buildings have become the Westin Hotel directly west of Busch, which opened in 2001, and lofts and offices. One houses the Rodgers Townsend advertising agency.
Some preservationists have called for an ordinance that would force developers to keep historic buildings from deteriorating. Others have said the city should withhold tax incentives early in the development process. Cupples 7 rotted for years until the city deemed that it was too dangerous to keep standing.
Developer Kevin McGowan’s company, Ballpark Lofts III, bought the Cupples building in 2005, along with two others. He rehabbed one of the buildings into lofts and prepared another one for renovation before selling it. He did nothing with Cupples 7.
“When we bought Cupples 7, the roof was already in the basement,†McGowan said. “I was hoping to one day get the financing for it, but the economy went bad.â€
Michael Allen, an architectural historian and director of the Preservation Research Office, said the city should have required the developer to stabilize the building before getting tax incentives for rehabbing other buildings in the complex.
“The weakest building was Cupples 7, but it was phased to be the last to be done,†Allen said.
That’s a difficult position, Rainford said, because it could have prevented the other historic buildings from being rehabbed.
City Treasurer Tishaura Jones inherited the property based on a deal cut by her predecessor, Larry Williams. The city sought redevelopment proposals, but officials said none was realistic. They said the millions it would cost to shore up the building was too daunting.
McGowan said he’s “sad to see it go down, but we always thought it would go down.â€
The question remains whether more demolitions can be stopped.