51ºÚÁÏ

ST. LOUIS — A contractor is expected to start repairs this month on a crumbling downtown 51ºÚÁÏ garage after a city board approved spending up to $2 million for the work.

51ºÚÁÏ County-based Western Specialty Contractors will be repairing levels three through six at the garage, located at 400 North Sixth Street just off Washington Avenue. The city had erected metal shoring to provide additional support to the garage and blocked off parking in those sections.

Carter Pogue, a branch manager for the company, told the city’s Land Clearance for Redevelopment Board that all levels of the city-owned garage will be open during the repairs, which will take eight to nine months. The company will be employing two crews on the project, he said.

The LCRA approved the work at a special Dec. 28 meeting. The total includes a 10% contingency in case the company finds additional problems.

The 51ºÚÁÏ Centre East public parking garage was built over 40 years ago and is used primarily by employees of several downtown companies, including Stifel Financial.

Commuters said they received little to no communication regarding the state of the garage when metal shoring appeared in 2022. High-profile collapses of garages around the country, including an incident last year in New York where one person died, also put users on edge, they said.

The city’s development agency, 51ºÚÁÏ Development Corp., which staffs the LCRA, has paid roughly $220,000 on contractors to study the problems and create plans for the repairs. SLDC has spent about $5 million since 1998 in maintaining the garage.

SLDC received five bids to perform repairs. Staff said Western Specialty Contractors was the lowest responsive bidder.

Separately, LCRA also approved up to $310,000 to provide around-the-clock security at the vacant Killark Electric building in north 51ºÚÁÏ’ Vandeventer neighborhood.

51ºÚÁÏ officials bought the 15-acre site last year and aim to redevelop the 150,000-square-foot industrial building there into a workforce training hub for manufacturing jobs.

GardaWorld Security Services Management Co. was selected from eight bidders. At least one guard will be on site 24/7.

The city will only pay for actual hours performed, LCRA staff said, with guards to be paid from $24.56 to $28.41 an hour.