Dave Kuntz, a former pastor turned workforce organizer, is pushing a plan to turn a vacant St. Louis building into a hands-on trades training center aimed squarely at the region’s labor shortage. Backers say the project will blend classroom teaching with paid work placements and employer partnerships so trainees are not stuck in limbo between school and a real paycheck.
As reported by St. Louis Business Journal, Kuntz, who leads East St. Louis-based R3 Development, wants to remake the unused site into a workforce hub. According to the Business Journal, the nonprofit has already secured state funding and recently raised its participant age cap to 24 to reach more young adults.
From Church Pulpit to Power Tools
R3 Development bills itself as a community and workforce organization that teaches young people construction trades while they rehab blighted housing, creating an employment pipeline that fixes both buildings and resumes at the same time. Details on the group’s programs and nonprofit filings are available through Cause IQ, which notes R3’s careers academy and its emphasis on construction skills training.
Where the Jobs Are
Regional workforce research points to heavy demand for credentialed trade workers across the St. Louis metro, especially in construction and other skilled trades where employers routinely report trouble filling openings. St. Louis Community College’s State of the Workforce report highlights ongoing skills gaps, while national industry analyses warn that construction will need hundreds of thousands of additional workers in the coming years, underscoring why local training pipelines carry extra weight.
R3 leaders told the St. Louis Business Journal that the state funding will help cover classroom buildout, training equipment and employer partnerships meant to steer graduates directly into registered apprenticeships and other paid roles. The Business Journal notes that the model prioritizes employer-ready credentials instead of one-off certificates that do not always translate to a job offer.
If the conversion moves forward, supporters say the project could flip an idle property into a steady job engine while feeding local contractors and construction projects a stream of trade-ready workers. R3’s earlier rehab efforts and youth employment programs suggest the nonprofit is trying to link on-the-job training with neighborhood investment, according to public nonprofit profiles.
