My wife and I purchased this old school building. This building sat empty and untouched for several years before we acquired it 7 years ago in 2015. It is located at 4430 Labadie Ave St. Louis Missouri. We bought that building because my wife and I are products of St Louis. We are African Americans who want to make a difference and bring those things to depressed areas in north St Louis that other communities enjoy today. We invested over $150k to prepare the building to become an Adult Day Care facility. We wanted to also set up for doctors to conduct visit to their patients. After we completed 85% of the redesign of the building, we experience a burglary not once but 5 different times causing over $100k plus worth of damages. The last 4 years we have been cleaning the building and salvaging what we can. Our goal is to raise $300k needed for repairs and to pay off the building.
Over the time we have moved on from wanting to do the Adult Day Care. We have thought about having a resource center that would provide the following services to the community:
Music lessons (we have a musician that my wife sings with professionally)
Singing lessons
Tutoring of law classes
Apprenticeship in carpentry, plumbing…
Rent office space out to a law firm. There is enough room for several attorneys to utilize
The Urban League has purchased a historical bank building 4 blocks from our location and the U.S. government is in the process of building a government center less than 3 miles from our site. Additionally, St. Louis is building a International Soccer stadium located 3 miles for our location.
We are open to any suggestions in starting a thriving business.
We want to help revitalize this historical neighborhood known as “The Ville”.
Thank you for your support.
Wesley and Felica Gillespie
Owners
Gillespie Family Foundation, LLC
Before the break-in.
Front of building before the break in
Sitting room before the break in
Reception office before break in
main hallway
Laundry room before break in
After the break-in.
We decided to change the color of the building to give it a more up to date color.
We are changing the color inside to match the color outside.
This is a kitchen with full plumbing and electricity.
Front of the building
Damage done after the break in. Cooper piping was stolen, and water flooded the building causing a significant amount of damage.
Graffiti on wall from vandalism
Graffiti on wall from vandalism
Damage from break in.
Work in progress being done by my wife and myself.
Front of building
3 offices
Recreational room
Front of building. We left the painting from the children day care.
