A neighborhood organization is partnering with a trade group to turn a century-old St. Louis factory into an incubator for small industrial firms.
DeSales Community Housing Corporation and St. Louis Makes, which focuses on small to medium-sized manufacturers, held a presentation Thursday at what will be the Brick City Makes building, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“It really doesn’t take much to keep these firms in place,” said Sarah Coffin, an associate professor of urban planning and development at St. Louis University. “When we lose urban manufacturers, we lose more than the firm. We lose anchors, oftentimes, in these neighborhoods.”
“We’ve got a lot of built environment that can accommodate that,” he said of middle-market manufacturers.
The DeSales Community Housing Corporation, which owns the building, is hoping to secure financing to finish the $12 million rehab project by this summer, with spaces opening by the next year.
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