The 17-story building has been mostly vacant for years, but was most recently used as an office building with ground-floor retail.
ST. LOUIS — The architect and developer that purchased the Chemical Building in downtown St. Louis is planning to rehabilitate the structure as a hotel using historic tax credits.
New Orleans-based architectural firm John T. Campo & Associates plans to renovate the 125-year-old Chemical Building, 721 Olive St., as a dual-branded hotel after paying $5 million for the structure in December. The seller was an entity affiliated with Morgan Communities, an upstate New York-based commercial real estate firm.
“Our intent is to breathe new life into this gorgeous structure and avoid demolition by neglect,” when a building deteriorates so much that it must be demolished rather than reused, firm owner and architect John Campo said at a city meeting Wednesday.
The new owner did not give specifics on the …