In spring 2027, four new businesses are expected to open on West Florissant Avenue where vacant lots have sat empty since two businesses were burned following the police killing of Michael Brown in August 2014.
Michael P. McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, said the nonprofit is transforming three vacant lots on West Florissant. The properties are adjacent to a planned First Bank branch that will anchor the project.
“When people see vacant abandoned lots that they know used to be businesses, it adds to the thought that a community is dying,” McMillan said.
“We will always be judged on what we did or did not do in Ferguson.”
Construction has begun on the plaza project. A new senior citizen center has opened across the street. The senior citizen center includes 44 housing units.
“We worked with the county, looked at the neighborhood driven plan of what they wanted to see in the area and then purchased those three lots with the help of Centene Corporation and Emerson. We are now beginning to implement what the community said they want to see,” McMillan said.
“The community needs to see action. They need to see that people still care; that Ferguson, Dellwood and North County have not been forgotten.”
The plaza concept grew out of community planning tied to the Promise Zone initiative, according to the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership. The Environmental Protection Agency supported brownfields cleanup and reuse efforts that helped make several parcels buildable.