أغر؟´«أ½

ST. LOUIS — The city will demolish nearly 200 tornado-damaged buildings owned by the Land Reutilization Authority and will use money from a controversial building stabilization program that was ended just weeks ago by the mayor to tarp and board up privately-owned structures.

Of the approximately 2,900 LRA properties in the path of the May 16 twister, 373 still had structures on them, and 182 of those were severely damaged, said Otis Williams, interim director of the أغر؟´«أ½ Development Corp.

“We just need to be able to clean up, but they will be demolished,â€‌ Williams said in an interview Friday.

Before the storm, LRA was already in the midst of a program to knock down 1,000 properties by the end of the next year, funded with a $15 million allocation of Missouri’s federal pandemic aid money to the back in 2022.

The $7.8 million or so left for the program should be enough to handle the LRA properties damaged by the storm, SLDC said. Another $5 million from the paused private stabilization program will be used to secure privately owned buildings, agency spokesman Deion Broxton said.آ 

North أغر؟´«أ½ bore the brunt of the tornado that ripped through the region from Clayton to Edwardsville, killing five. As the city’s owner of last resort, much of the LRA’s inventory is on the north side, which has struggled for decades with an exodus of residents.

The LRA properties being demolished, however, are a drop in the bucket of the damages caused by the tornado. One estimate of some 4,000 buildings in the tornado zone found less than 15% were vacant, and city building inspectors say they’ve tallied nearly 2,500 properties with significant damage.

The LRA takes title to abandoned properties, performing minimal maintenance and trying to keep them secured in the hopes of eventually selling them back to a private owner. It also runs a program to stabilize some of its holdings to preserve them and make them more attractive to potential buyers. Nearly 40 of those buildings were damaged by the tornado, and some may have to be demolished now.

Most of the city’s vacant properties are still privately owned — the LRA owns almost 1,200 vacant buildings, while private owners hold nearly 8,000, according to .

Williams said the city could use the remaining money fromآ a controversial private building stabilization program that Mayor Cara Spencer halted shortly after taking office. The program used money to perform repairs on privately owned properties when owners wouldn’t or couldn’t. But it billed the owners, sometimes for work that seemed questionable, and was mired in scandal after reports surfaced that a city building inspector had ties to contractors being paid by the city to stabilize the structures.

Still, the program was authorized by existing city ordinance that gives the city building commissioner the power to order repairs to private properties deemed dangerous or a nuisance. And it had about $5 million left for its work. The mayor on Monday announced that the money would go to secure buildings. Broxton, at SLDC, said owners won't be billed for any work paid for with the funds.آ 

Beyond clearing damage, Williams said SLDC is in discussions with Missouri officials about setting up a low-interest loan program to help impacted home and business owners repair and rebuild.

Williams also encouraged businesses affected by the tornado to fill out to help SLDC determine the scope of the impact, which will help it apply for funding and set up recovery programs.

Businesses can access the form at SLDC’s website at or email businessrecovery@stlouis-mo.gov.

Editor's note: SLDC clarified Wednesday that $7.8 million remained for LRA demolitions and $5 million prom the private stabilization program will go to secure damaged private structures, not demolish them.آ