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The organization plans to build a new performing arts center at the site, at Maryland Avenue and Topton Way off Interstate 170, it said in a release.

Opera Theatre, which has based its performances at Webster University for nearly 50 years, said it is early in negotiations with Caleres, formerly known as Brown Shoe Co., and that a final sales price has not yet been determined.

“As we celebrate our 50th anniversary this year, we are excited by an unprecedented opportunity to build a new home,” the organization’s general director, Andrew Jorgensen, said in a statement. “We are still early in this process, but we look forward to being in dialogue with our Opera Theatre community, Clayton residents and businesses, and other stakeholders as we pursue necessary redevelopment steps over the next several months.”

Caleres said in a statement that it plans to relocate two blocks east to 8182 Maryland and 8235 Forsyth Boulevard sometime in mid-2026.

The company has been shopping its 9-acre campus for four years. The site includes a 275,000-square-foot office building, a 66,005-square-foot office building at 8400 Maryland and an adjacent parking lot on Topton Way. The smaller office building and the parking lot are not part of the potential Opera Theatre sale.

Caleres over the years received at least three offers from potential buyers, including Clayton School District last year, but no deal moved forward.

The company, known for its Famous Footwear, Sam Edelman and Allen Edmonds shoe brands, reported a 3.4% decline of net sales in fiscal 2024 to $2.72 billion.

Last month, Caleres announced its acquisition of the Stuart Weitzman brand for $105 million. That deal is expected to close this summer.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis currently operates at the Loretto-Hilton Center for Performing Arts on Webster’s campus in Webster Groves. Its season, which always includes four operas and a concert, starts around Memorial Day and runs through June.

It shares the space with the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and the university.

In an interview, Jorgensen said the Opera Theatre’s longtime home at Webster was not built for operas and needs improvements to its backstage, dressing rooms and fly space — the area above the stage used for lighting and rigs. The potential to build its own theater, he said, is a “dream that we have been talking about at Opera Theatre for 49 of our 50 years.”

“While we love the idiosyncrasy of the intimacy of the theater and that wonderful garden, the truth of the matter is that the theater was not designed to do what an opera company asks it to do,” Jorgensen said. “It has poor acoustics, and the orchestra pit is inadequate.”

The company will celebrate its 50th season in May. Founded in 1976, it has become internationally renowned for presenting opera in English. The company translates famous classic operas and also commissions new ones.

This summer, it will present another world premiere that it commissioned, “This House” with text by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and her daughter Ruby Aiyo Gerber. Composer Ricky Ian Gordon did the music.

The opera company made history by commissioning “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” about the life of journalist Charles Blow. The opera was composed by jazz trumpeter Terrence Blanchard with text by Kasi Lemmons, and was the first opera by a living Black composer presented at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

It is not unusual for Opera Theatre of St. Louis shows to be reviewed in The New York Times or other national opera publications.

Each spring, Opera Theatre hosts its New Works Collective where six novice composers and writers team up to present three one-act operas.

The company also launches many young opera artists careers through its Gerdine Young Artist Program and Bayer Fund Artists-in-Training Program. And it has the Clayco Future Leaders Fellowship, which supports future arts administrators and leaders.

Rosalind Early of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.