After years of sitting vacant and crumbling, the former Club Imperial in Walnut Park West is now on track to come down, with city officials preparing for deconstruction and demolition after engineers deemed the building a public safety hazard. The Land Reutilization Authority says tearing down the long-empty structure will halt further deterioration and clear the corner for whatever comes next on the site.
Structural evaluations commissioned by the city found that trying to save the building is no longer financially realistic, according to St. Louis Magazine. LRA director Shelton Anderson and St. Louis Development Corporation officials put the price tag for basic stabilization as high as $18 million, and that did not include a full restoration. Those numbers helped tip the scales toward demolition, even as nearby residents and preservation advocates continue to push for alternatives.
The LRA plans to ask its board at the Feb. 25 meeting for permission to solicit bids for deconstruction and demolition, with work potentially starting as early as spring if the plan is approved, FOX2 reports. Officials say they intend to use federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to carefully dismantle portions of the building, salvage key architectural elements, and potentially reuse them or turn them into some form of historical marker. Because the property sits in a designated blighted area, the city notes that a future project on the site could qualify for tax abatement of 50% to 100% for between five and twenty years.
Why the City Shifted From Stabilization
For a while, the city tried to buy time. As outlined by the St. Louis Development Corporation, officials commissioned structural inspections, put up scaffolding, and repaired fencing while they explored ways to stabilize the building. SLDC documents say the agency weighed the growing safety risks against the escalating costs and gathered feedback from community stakeholders, ultimately concluding that deconstruction is the most practical way forward.
A Storied Room And A Tough Goodbye
For many St. Louisans, this is not just another derelict building on the demo list. In the 1950s and 1960s, Club Imperial was a regional music hotspot, hosting Ike & Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, and other touring acts while helping integrate the city’s music scene. Preservationists who rallied to save the venue in 2018 pointed to that legacy, documented in a feature from St. Louis Public Radio, and many locals say losing the building will sting even if pieces of it are rescued.
If the board signs off on the plan, the LRA and SLDC would first solicit bids, then look for a developer whose proposal lines up with neighborhood priorities for Walnut Park West, according to First Alert 4. City officials say any deconstruction will be handled carefully to preserve as much historic fabric as possible while setting the stage for whatever project is chosen to anchor the site’s next chapter.
