St. Louis nuisance property ordered to close once again

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - The City of St. Louis is ordering a nuisance property to close down again after repeated calls for service at the business.

Last year, the city ordered the Grand Motel on North Grand Boulevard in north St. Louis to close down for five months after at least 86 calls for service from Aug. 9, 2021, to Aug. 9, 2022.

Last month, the city ordered it to close for a year starting this month. According to recent court documents, “even with the consent order in place, the police service calls have increased since February of 2023 as neighbors complained the property has reopened, in violation of the consent order.”

The calls for service stem from things like prostitution, rape, shootings, drug overdoses and assaults. Documents also show at least four people overdosed at the motel last year.

“We want it permanently gone,” former Jeff-Vander-Lou resident Audrey Ellermann told First Alert 4.

“The Grand Motel has been nothing but a problem for our community,” one person who lives near the motel said. “And since it’s been closed, you see how peaceful it is?”

The owner of Grand Motel declined to speak to First Alert 4.

There are plans in the works to revitalize the Jeff-Vander-Lou Neighborhood. The city recently granted around $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to organizations to rehab structures and build new construction in the neighborhood. One of the projects includes a stretch of grand.

“I feel like that would kind of be like a beginning for investors to say, ‘OK. They’re doing something. Let’s go over and see how we can help and what we can do,’” Ellermann added.

Within the next three years, the 97-acre National Geospatial-Intelligence development will open nearby, hopefully creating more development in the area.

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