Carlton Tower/Carriage House Apartments

[ShowMeKC]

Twin towers, the 11 floor Carlton Towers and Carriage House Apartments are being taken down. There are still about 3-4 identical towers in Quality Hill which are in good shape. DST Systems, a company who occupies a nearby highrise owns the property. They are also involved in improving/developing Quality Hill.

The buildings about 3-4 weeks ago:

The southern building today:

One year after completion:

[M. Brown]

Were those Projects? My dad lived in the Pruitt-Igoe Projects in STL when he was a kid. He said they used to find dead bodies in the elevator shafts. The tore down the Pruitt-Igoe Projects. They were called the worst housing development in the ever.

[ShowMeKC]

Well, not "ghetto" (forgive me for using that word) projects. They were a "project" but not the projects.

There are about 4-5 buildings alltogether, now only 3 will remain standing.

[M. Brown]

I lived in STL for 4 years until I was 4. My mom said the first day I was home from the Hospital there was a gang fight right outside our apartment complex in Moline Acres. They had black masks and machine guns. That was Ghetto. At 18 I know now that I am blessed to have been able to live here instead of in the neighborhood we lived in in STL cuz chances are I couldve been in gangs and stuff.

[ShowMeKC]

From the Business Journal:

DST tears down two Quality Hill apartment buildings

Jim Davis

Staff Writer

A unit of DST Systems Inc. has begun razing Quality Hill apartment buildings that the company bought in February 2003.

 

Demolition began about a week ago.

Jill Metzler, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City-based financial data processor (NYSE: DST), referred questions about the buildings to Roger Buford, an executive with Master Realty Properties Inc.

When contacted by The Business Journal, Buford would not discuss his plans for the buildings.

In the fall, Buford was part of a group that bought the former Stuart Hall building, 2121 Central St., from DST. The buyers plan to convert the now-empty space into loft apartments.

DST is a leading redeveloper of property around its headquarters at 333 W. 11th St. The DST unit, Westside Apartments LLC, owns the Carlton Tower, 1020 Jefferson St., and the Carriage House, 707 W. 10th St.

The 50-year-old buildings contain 200 units. Their age and condition caused occupancy to lag.

In clearing the buildings, DST is following a strategy similar to the one it used with the former Convention Center Hotel on Quality Hill along Pennsylvania Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets. DST wants to construct a new office building on the hotel site but hasn't found a tenant.

Among the prospects it has unsuccessfully pursued is Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin LLP. The law firm is preparing to move to Plaza Colonnade, to open this year at 4801 Main St. south of the Country Club Plaza.

DST Systems ranks No. 5 on The Business Journal's list of area public companies.

REACH JIM DAVIS at 816-421-5900 or [email protected].

[ShowMeKC]

what is left of the two towers:

[ShowMeKC]

May 30th 2004: