BRENTWOOD — A St. Louis company is proposing a $400 million redevelopment in Brentwood that would line a half-mile of Manchester Road with apartments, townhomes, offices and a list of commercial options, from a hotel to a microbrewery.
The pitch, from Green Street Real Estate Ventures, would span 40 acres between South Hanley Road and Brentwood Boulevard and was pitched in response to a city request to redevelop the Manchester corridor following multimillion-dollar work to reduce flooding from nearby Deer Creek.
The Brentwood 353 Redevelopment Corporation Board, which oversees tax incentives for the area, is recommending the city approve Green Street’s . The Brentwood Board of Alderman will take up the matter at 7 p.m. on Aug. 15.
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The proposal comes less than a year after Webster Groves killed a similar, $320 million proposal from another Green Street-led development group.
Brentwood Mayor David Dimmitt said Green Street turned its gaze to Brentwood, on Webster’s northern border, after that vote.
“Webster Groves’ loss, as far as Green Street is concerned, was our gain,†Dimmitt said.
Recent flooding doesn’t seem to have dampened enthusiasm for the project.
In 2019, Brentwood convinced its voters to pass a new sales tax to fund an effort to reduce frequent flooding along the low-lying stretch of Manchester Road. The city has completed purchases of about 25 properties, demolished the buildings and added detention basins to hold rainwater.
The work is about 70% complete, Dimmitt said, and the road only flooded during the record-shattering July 26 rain.
A reader-submitted photo of the flooding near Manchester and Hanley roads in Brentwood.
The two intense storms that followed within in the next nine days, while worse than past rainfalls that have flooded Manchester and prompted water rescues, didn’t actually close Manchester, Dimmitt said. Though businesses along Brentwood Industrial Drive, just south of Manchester Road and closer to Deer Creek, did flood July 28, the improvements seemed to work, Dimmitt said. Much of the Manchester Road flooding Thursday was to the west, in Rock Hill, he said.
“It was substantially more water than we dealt with (in 2005 and 2015), yet Manchester Road stayed dry,†he said.
Flood waters surround buildings off of Manchester Road just west of S. Hanley Road, after heavy rains overnight and in the early morning Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022 in Brentwood. The area close to the confluence of Deer Creek and Black Creek often floods.
Dimmitt said he was “more encouraged†about the viability of the Green Street project after the rains tested the new infrastructure.
“Right now, it’s working, and we still have more things to do,†Dimmitt said. “Once we’re 100% done, I don’t have any concern at all.â€
Green Street is seeking 10 years of 90% property tax abatement for the project. It is also seeking support from a special 1% sales tax through a Community Improvement District. Green Street's consultants say any incentives would be more than offset by the increase in tax revenues from redeveloping the mostly low-density, industrial area.
The Brentwood Redevelopment Corp., controlled by the city, also gives the developer the ability to use eminent domain if it can’t reach sales agreements with the remaining property owners along Manchester Road.
Green Street’s proposal envisions a microbrewery or distillery, 170-room hotel, over 600 apartments, townhomes, an office for “a nationally recognized†prospective tenant and other commercial space.
Some of the apartments will be designated for seniors and 66 apartments will be “workforce housing,†which charges below market-rate rent, according to the plan.
