Except for his time in the military, James Coplin, 53, has lived his entire life in a modest brick house much like those of his neighbors in the 3600 block of Hickory Street.
Across the street is a stretch recently cleared of similar dwellings owned by St. Louis University. In their place is vacant ground, behind which looms St. Louis University Hospital.
Coplin, who works for a cleaning company, says he believes that SLU is now interested in houses on his side of the street. He said that two or three times in recent months a real estate agent has dropped by to ask if he is interested in selling.
“I told him to make an offer, but he never did,” Coplin said.
SLU’s purchases on Hickory are among dozens it has made in recent years near the medical school, city records show. As it did on Hickory, SLU often demolishes the homes and other structures it buys, then plants the sites with grass. As for the school’s plans for the future with its accumulated real estate, details are scarce.
The real estate agent who knocked on Coplin’s door declined to identify who he was representing but referred a reporter to SLU. University officials did not respond to numerous requests for information about the school’s development plans.
Within the past two years, SLU has bought houses across the street from Coplin’s lifelong residence, he said. Leases on the street’s rental properties were not renewed, he added. As tenants moved out, crews moved in to board up the houses.
“A couple of months later, they started tearing them down,” he said.
SLU has largely consolidated its property holdings in the approximately 60-block area bounded by Chouteau Avenue, South Compton Avenue, Park Avenue and 39th Street. Within the area of recently purchased parcels is SLU’s new track and recreation field, but much of the recently purchased property is vacant. The university also has bought some industrial tracts north of Chouteau between South Compton and South Spring Avenue.
SLU’s president, the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, did not respond to a request for information about long-range campus development.
In a statement provided Friday, a university spokesman said SLU generally did not discuss real estate matters, including plans for acquiring property. But the spokesman said that like many urban universities, SLU has bought property near or adjacent to its campus for potential expansion.
The purchase attracting the most attention is that of the Pevely Dairy complex at Chouteau and South Grand Boulevard. SLU disclosed in August that it had bought the historic buildings from developer Rick Yackey, who had planned to convert the vacant structures into apartments and commercial space.
At the time, the university said it had no specific plan for the site. Only after SLU’s intent to demolish the buildings was publicized this month did the university say it planned to replace the structures with a building for its SLUCare physician’ practice.
Clayton Berry, SLU’s spokesman, said Friday that the university studied the Pevely buildings extensively and determined they did not meet the needs of a modern health care facility.
“SLU is planning to construct a multimillion-dollar outpatient ambulatory health center that will provide a wide variety of health care services and procedures for hundreds of thousands of adult and child patients,” he said. “This significant investment isn’t just essential for the university, but also will benefit the neighborhood, the city and the region.”
The city’s Preservation Board is scheduled to consider at its meeting Nov. 28 SLU’s application filed Oct. 26 for permits to tear down the Pevely complex. The city’s Cultural Resources Office has denied the university’s application. Mayor Francis Slay tweeted on Tuesday that the office would not approve an application to demolish the buildings.
SLU’s move to raze the Pevely buildings, which are on the National Register of Historic Places, prompted formation of the Pevely Preservation Coalition and a Facebook page, “Save the Historic Pevely Dairy.”
Many of the coalition’s members also led the effort this year to save the 1960s “flying saucer” building on South Grand near SLU’s main campus. Yackey, the saucer building’s owner, eventually agreed to preserve the unusual structure and incorporate it into a new retail development.
Randy Vines, a participant in both preservation efforts, said destruction of historic buildings made no sense when SLU owned plenty of vacant property suitable for its SLUCare expansion.
He and other coalition members want SLU to preserve at least the four-story main building and smokestack at the Pevely complex, which dates to about 1913 and sits prominently south of the university’s main campus.
“The greater result we’re hoping for is to force SLU to change its vision for that part of its campus,” Vines said.
Another coalition member, architect Paul Hohmann, said university officials might have a dozen better locations to expand SLUCare.
“SLU has acres and acres and acres of land all over the place to build their medical office buildings,” he said. “You’ve got to think they have a 20-year master plan on what to do with all that property. After all, they’re buying it. But if they have such a plan, they’re not showing it.”
Master plan or not, SLU officials may be smart to continue to buy as much property as possible near campus, said Bob Lewis, president of Development Strategies, a consulting firm.
“They’re protecting themselves, if nothing else,” he said. “Don’t wait around. If it becomes available, grab it.”
Lewis noted that the effort to redo the Pevely complex as apartments never got going. That plan took a hit in 2009 when a fire destroyed one of the three main buildings. SLU’s decision to buy properties near its medical center complex could bolster two growing economic sectors