Brothers work to develop part of south St. Louis to create ‘The Crown District’

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    ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOV) — St. Louis is full of history and is working hard to turn itself around and rebuild. Currently, there’s more than $10 billion in development. Many are helping, including one family proud of St. Louis.

Thousands of cars drive through the intersection of Kings highway and Chippewa every day, likely never looking up at the unique corner building built in 1927.

“It’s such a prominent building on one of our most prominent corners. It should be a source of pride and it isn’t,” said Ivan Garcia.

The Garcia brothers hope to change that.

“Berto and I and really our whole family have really taken a huge stake and a commitment to our neighborhood,” said Ivan.

Down the street from the corner is the Garcia’s real estate firm, Garcia Properties. The brothers never planned to get in the bar business, but say hello to The Golden Hoosier.

“I was in here taking this bar apart and I got really sentimental about it because like, how many people have sat right here and had a beer?,” he said.

The new sign has drawn attention and it’s almost ready to open, but they plan to wait until spring when hopefully the pandemic has started to ease.

In the meantime, they’re hard at work on the rest of the block.

The brothers are also working on a new independent coffee shop, bringing in businesses neighbors have long hoped for.

“It sounds really simple, but we just want this to be a reflection of the people in the neighborhood,” said Berto Garcia.

Their vision is to create a new district called the Crown District, which stretches from Magnolia to Eichelberger and will hopefully bring new life to blocks of historic buildings.

Some businesses will stay, while others will go.

“We’re trying to bring in businesses that are a service to our neighborhood,” said Ivan.

The hope is to have the multi-phase project completed in the next two years.

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