A New Jewelry Store, After Gravois Apartment Complex is Torn Down

An apartment complex at 8009 Gravois Road, will soon be torn down to make way for a new jewelry store and parking. Keith Brooks, owner of Southside Jewelry and Loan, at 8101 Gravois Road and the newly-opened Sharp Shooter restaurant, bought the complex for expansion.

Brooks said the previous owner went bankrupt, and he took the opportunity to buy the property. “We’ve been working with the St. Louis County Planning Commission with Councilman Stenger to get the appropriate pre-authorization for the site development of a jewelry store and parking,” he said.

Larry Stone, president of the Affton Community Involvement Association (ACIA), is concerned though, because some residents of the apartments are disabled, and the ACIA doesn’t want to see them become homeless. He wrote to St. Louis County Councilman Steve Stenger about using county funds to prevent homelessness.

Brooks said he has no plans to put anyone on the street.

“We have plans for the property, but I do have a sensitivity to their needs for housing,” Brooks said. He said four or five residents remain in the complex, out of 13 originally, and they will likely relocate within Affton.

Books offered the building to the fire and police departments for training, before its demolition.

“We’ve been working on this for six months,” Books said. “We have approval from the planning commission, so we’re down to within 60-90 days of tearing it down.”