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BY CAROL ARNETT

The Florissant City Council heard plans for office space for the city-owned property at 4500 Washington (the former Our Lady of Fatima convent) from potential developers. The city has an agreement to sell the property via a lease/purchase agreement. Before the city sells any property, it must hold a public hearing on the proposal which was held Feb. 25.

The city bought the property from Johnny Londoff Chevrolet after the car dealer bought the entire Our Lady of Fatima site from the St. Louis Archdiocese. The school was purchased by Lindenwood University, and Londoff uses the rest of the property to store automobiles.

Kevin Goffstein of Prudential Alliance Commercial spoke about his company’s plans for the property. “We would like to market the building for offices,” he said. “We feel there is a potential demand for office space.”

Goffstein said he did not have details on how the company would configure the interior space, saying they wanted to get market feedback and an idea of potential tenants before they made any decisions regarding the interior. He did say that his company would begin work on the exterior and landscaping as soon as possible.

Councilwoman Karen McKay asked Goffstein how may rehabs like the convent building his company had done. He said he had done three or four, including one very similar in Affton.

Councilman Keith English verified that Goffstein knew the state of the building. England said it needed several thousands of dollars of work simply to bring it up to code. Goffstein said he was aware of the building’s condition.

English said he thought Goffstein’s idea for offices was a good one. “People are not knocking down the door for this property,” he noted.

In other action, the council heard from the Lou Jearls, the city’s Director of Public Works, at the executive session before the council meeting. Jearls gave the council a list of the city’s derelict houses, and noted that the number of such properties had gone down in the last year. Jearls said the city would continue to monitor the houses on the list and work at making the owners fix them up.

Jearls said that some of the houses on the list were derelict due to owner neglect, and others had owners who were working with the city to fix them up. “To be honest,” Jearls said, “several are fire damaged and it takes time to deal with insurance companies.”

Mayor Robert Lowery noted that the city has an aggressive code enforcement team to ensure that property values remain stable. “We’re not nitpicking, but looking for real problems,” Lowery said.
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