On Jan. 2, Clayton Superintendent Nisha Patel unveiled a plan to purchase the campus of Caleres, formerly known as Brown Shoe Company, in a letter to the community.
According to the listing document, the campus, located at 8300 and 8400 Maryland Ave., consists of nine acres of land and around 400,000 square feet of prime office space. As part of the deal, Caleres will be allowed to remain on the property for up to 15 months. The deal is set to close in mid-February, pending due diligence.
The campus expansion is part of what the district calls the “Clayton’s Empowerment Campus Project.”
“The plan will serve as the District’s roadmap for its physical needs for the foreseeable future and will be guided by our Profile of the Clayton Graduate,” Patel wrote. However, no further details exist on the nature of the plan at the time of publication.
The property is currently appraised at $33.5 million, according to the St. Louis County Assessor. The current purchase price is unknown.
“The acquisition of this property will be funded through a 20-year financing plan, and to repay this financing, we will utilize District capital improvement funds,” Patel wrote.
Previously, the property had other interested buyers. Most recently, the St. Louis-based Pier Property group attempted to build apartments, retail, entertainment space, offices and a hotel on the property. Before them, CRG, part of Clayco Builders, proposed a $500 million development complete with townhomes, office space, a hotel, condos, and a Lifetime Fitness.
However, not everyone is pleased with the decision. In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Clayton Mayor Michelle Harris said, “this development is really not the best in terms of the health and long-term sustainability for the city of Clayton.”
Harris noted that the deal would likely cause the city to lose of millions of dollars of potential tax revenue. She also projected that the district may lose substantially more in revenue. Records also indicate that the county may miss out on close to $1 million in tax revenue.
