The concrete-and-steel frame of Albion West End, a 30-story luxury apartment tower rising at 4974 Lindell Boulevard in St. Louis's Central West End, has reached its topping-out milestone. Albion Residential and Clayco announced the structural completion, a key construction checkpoint that clears the way for the building's glass facade and interior finishes to move forward toward a planned 2027 opening.
According to Connect CRE, the tower is expected to welcome its first residents in spring 2027, with full completion targeted for that summer. The 305-unit building will offer homes ranging from studios to three-bedroom layouts, according to the same report. Concrete Strategies is part of the delivery team handling the tower's structural work, while Ventana serves as the facade partner, the outlet notes.
A Long-Vacant Lot Gets Its Tower
The site had sat as a surface parking lot for years and had never held a permanent building before construction began in 2025, making it a rare undeveloped parcel along a Central West End corridor otherwise dominated by high-rises, according to CityScene STL. Koplar Properties, led by Sam Koplar, has owned the parcel at Lindell and Kingshighway boulevards for nearly a century, sitting directly across from the historic Chase Park Plaza, the outlet reports.
Albion West End also sits immediately next to One Hundred Above the Park, the 36-story Studio Gang-designed luxury tower that opened in 2020, according to KSDK. Together, the two towers help complete a dense wall of high-rises along Kingshighway Boulevard facing Forest Park. Designed by the Lamar Johnson Collaborative, the tower will stand roughly 320 to 335 feet tall with a glass facade featuring golden chevron accents, following a redesign from an earlier 2022 proposal by a different architecture firm.
Financing Followed a Redesigned Budget
The project's total budget is now estimated at $145 million, a roughly 10 percent increase — about $13 million — from initial 2022 projections, driven by inflation and rising material costs, KSDK reports. Albion Residential secured construction financing from Pacific Life Insurance Company in July 2025, enabling site work to begin, according to a report from Connect CRE.
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved a 10-year, 75 percent property tax abatement worth approximately $9.7 million in 2023 to support the project's financial feasibility, per the Post-Dispatch. The parcel had previously generated minimal property tax revenue as a surface lot before the abatement was approved.
Amenities and City Support
Albion West End will include ground-floor retail space alongside amenity offerings such as a resort-style pool deck, a rooftop terrace with panoramic city views, and hospitality-inspired common areas designed to foster connection and well-being, according to Connect CRE. Building plans call for roughly 1,500 to 1,700 square feet of ground-floor commercial retail space alongside a structured parking garage accommodating more than 300 vehicles, according to Chicago YIMBY.
St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer publicly backed the project at its 2025 groundbreaking, framing the conversion of a surface parking lot into 305 apartments as a boost to the city's high-demand urban housing stock, according to a statement from Clayco. The development marks Chicago-based Albion Residential's first entry into the St. Louis multifamily market, according to REJournals.
With its structural frame now complete, Albion West End is positioned as what developers describe as a gateway to the Central West End, joining a corridor where high-rise towers have steadily filled in the skyline facing Forest Park.
