St. Louis go-getter Maxine Clark became internationally known for founding a company that enabled others to build personal teddy bears and friends, however, it's her current rebuilding of the West End neighborhood that now has heads turning.
"We're creating a safe, inspirational location for community development, social improvement and collaboration in an area that's often considered a neglected dividing line of St. Louis, infamously known as the Delmar Divide. We need to build on what's working, and keep stretching it east. I like to say we're taking the good of a once thriving multigenerational, multicultural community and making it gooder," says Maxine, who's lived in St. Louis City since moving to the Gateway To The West in 1976.
While some saw a sad, vacant ConnectCare and former St. Luke's hospital site at 5535 Delmar Blvd., Maxine envisioned a happy and vibrant building, buzzing with activity from a thousand people, coming and going, to work, engage, dream and live there. She reveals she reimagined a Cortex Innovation Community-like center from which to provide office space, shared services and other resources for nonprofits, foundations and community support organizations.
"It’s a set of fantastic buildings, first built in 1904 at the time of the World’s Fair. It was surrounded by delis, churches, synagogues, stores and street cars. It's still such the ultimate sustainable setup, I kept wondering why someone wasn't doing something incredible with it. Then, I thought, 'Why don't I do it?'" she recalls.
Nearly five years ago, Maxine bought the property through a partnership with CRG, the private development arm of Clayco Inc. She says the new hub is scheduled to open in phases, starting this fall. While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed delivery of remodeling supplies, they still hope to have office tenants moved in by December. Tenants are slated to have access to shared meeting spaces, professional development and other support services.
Another portion of the building will be devoted to leasing 150 reasonably priced apartments during May/June 2022 to diverse professionals with jobs likely in teaching, nursing, social work, public health and safety.
There also will be onsite retail, such as a bank/credit union, restaurant, the city's first Black-owned pharmacy and a financial services business, says Maxine.
Calling her new initiative "The Delmar DivINe," Maxine says this transformational real estate project creates the first collaborative, innovative hub for nonprofits in the Midwest. In essence, it was similar to establishing a new Delmar Improvement District. "It will be a flexible and welcoming 'Yes, Yes' place to help close the divide. And we'll have a 7,000-square-foot community space with WiFi, state-of-the-art networking, online classes and refreshment area in the room, where people can meet, volunteer and come after school," she adds.
The ‘IN’ in the project name represents investment, innovation and inclusion, explains Maxine. For example, another reconstruction phase, perhaps in 2024, may be turning the former nursing school into possibly an early childhood campus.
Maxine hopes The Delmar DivINe gives St. Louisans the opportunity to change the outlook, making the neighborhood a living model for the city and eventually the United States.
"It's taken a lot of effort to do this, but the goal is to help the neighborhood regain the pride it had. It was a wonderful place originally built up during the 1900s by immigrants to the United States. I love history, and learned about the background of this area when the Clark-Fox Family Foundation invested in the opening of KIPP St. Louis and our KIPP Victory Academy in 2014. I met many of the neighbors and couldn’t believe this gem of a neighborhood was not booming. Our mission is to help that area between Clara and Belt Avenues on Delmar to return to an active, healthy community," says the philanthropist known for supporting educational causes.
"There couldn't have been a better pocket of neighborhoods to work with. They just needed to be reconnected," asserts Maxine. "St. Louis is a big city but still small enough that when things happen, it reverberates and affects all of us. If we win as a community, we all win."
For future updates, visit DelmarDivine.com.
"St. Louis is a big city but still small enough that when things happen, it reverberates and affects all of us. If we win as a community, we all win."
