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UMSL plans to demolish old buildings there and develop a workforce district with retail and businesses where students can learn on the job. The university hasn’t finalized what businesses will go there, but the project will open up 35 acres of land for development, said Chancellor Kristin Sobolik.

“We have every reason to believe that UMSL’s solid reputation for educating the professional workforce of the region will help us cultivate and recruit the business opportunities that will propel our campus forward,� Sobolik said at a news conference Tuesday.

Founded in 1963, UMSL is surrounded by golf courses, leafy North County communities such as Bel-Nor, and two MetroLink stops. Natural Bridge Road splits its north and south campuses that serve over 5,300 undergrads and almost 2,500 graduate students.

The south campus was previously the site of Marillac College, a liberal arts school for nuns operated by the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul, according to . In 1976, UMSL purchased the campus for $5 million following years of dropping enrollment at the Catholic college.

In 2021, UMSL started on a $110 million overhaul on its north campus.

UMSL is renovating the library, building a new student welcome center and deconstructing the old Social Science and Business tower. By the end of next year, north campus renovations will be done and south campus academic programs will move there, said Adella Jones, chief of staff for the chancellor.

Then UMSL will demolish two south campus buildings original to the Catholic college, including Marillac Hall, home to UMSL’s education and optometry programs. UMSL’s Music Building, formerly used as dorms by the college, will come down. And a baseball field in between them will also go and be replaced with a new one closer to other athletic fields on the north campus.

The north campus will serve as the “academic core,� Jones said in an interview, while the south campus will become home to the North St. Louis County Business and Workforce District.

UMSL asked neighboring communities what they would like to see on the south campus. Health care was chief among the responses, Jones said. UMSL already has an eye clinic there that serves the public, and the university could explore adding an urgent care or behavioral health center where students could learn.

Neighbors also said they’d like a grocery store and a coffee shop, Jones said.

“Everybody wants coffee,� she said.

The district could house new laboratories for pharmaceutical development where students could train, Jones said. UMSL has partnerships with Express Scripts, a company that manages prescription drugs plans.

But it’s going to cost millions to bring down the old buildings and prepare for new ones. Money from Missouri and St. Louis County will help pay for it.

In 2022, the state in federal pandemic relief money to UMSL’s overhaul. It awarded the next year. The nonprofit James S. McDonnell Foundation donated another $8 million. And, earlier this year, the St. Louis County Council approved giving $10 million to UMSL.

The university needed help from St. Louis County to demolish the south campus’ old buildings and prepare the land for new development by doing road work and installing utilities, said Jones, the chief of staff.

Council Chair Rita Heard Days, whose district includes the university, spearheaded the grant.

“Without vision, the people perish,� Days said Tuesday. “And so what we are doing now is a vision for what this corridor should look like, a vision for what this neighborhood should look like. And I am so very, very proud.�