The homes have virtually everything you would expect to find in the suburbs:three or four bedrooms, two-car garages, central air and heating, neat greenlawns, electronic security systems, full basements . . . even the proverbialpicket fences.
But this is not West County. Nor is it St. Charles County.
This is St. Louis 63106, in the heart of the inner city.
Single-family, suburban-style homes are replacing empty lots and abandonedbuildings in the long-depressed area just northwest of downtown St. Louis.
Construction began this year on two near-north subdivisions:
Betty's Walk, by SHIP Development Co., could include nearly 100 homes inan area bordered by North Florissant Avenue, St. Louis Avenue, 20th Streetand North Market Street. Three homes, including a model, are up.y
Mullanphy Square's first residents already have moved in. The subdivisionis scheduled to include 41 homes on Hogan and 18th streets between MadisonStreet and Cass Avenue, said Judy Woolverton of Cass Development. Cass hasbuilt seven homes so far.
Both developments promise more home for your buck than pricey subdivisionsin the suburbs - and 10-year property tax abatements, too.
The biggest project envisioned for the neighborhood, however, is still inthe early planning stages.
City officials would like to complement a proposed golf course with 130single-family homes, 40 townhouses and 72 condos. Prices would range from$70,000 to $150,000.
The city hopes that the developments will bring middle-income wage earnersback to St. Louis and revive an area in need of an economic boost.
The average family in the 63106 ZIP code made less than $7,000 a year in1990.
"We need to revitalize the city," said Maureen McAvey, executivedirector of the St. Louis Development Corp. "You just desperately haveto get a new infusion of private capital into the city."
The uniqueness of Mullanphy Square and Betty's Walk is striking.
On Benton Street, on the same block as the Betty's Walk model, red bricksfall from the crumbling wall of an abandoned building. The man who livesnext door - between the building and a boarded-up tavern - said junkiesoften climbed through the toppling wall to smoke crack.
Across a field from Betty's Walk, St. Liborius Catholic Church, a RomanCatholic parish that celebrated its centennial in 1956, is inactive.
More abandoned structures stand just feet away from where Mullanphy Squareconstruction crews are at work.
Developers - and buyers - say they aren't deterred.
A buyer already has taken the house that will take the place of a derelictbuilding "about to fall down," Woolverton said.
Why not build suburban-style homes in the inner city, she asked.
"The market is here," she said. "There's a lot of developmentpotential in this area because it's close to downtown and there are a lotof vacant lots."
The city owns much of the land in the area. Developers can get 50-by-110-footlots for $1,000, Woolverton said.
Homes in Mullanphy Square sell for a little more than $90,000.
Woolverton rebutted the popular perception of the inner city as a dangerousplace to live.
Mullanphy Square resident Beverly Frost agreed. Frost moved from St. Charlesearlier this year. She lives with her daughter Jennifer, 25, and plans tobuild another home in the subdivision for herself.
"My daughter wanted to live in a more diverse area," Frost said."As far as safety, it's as quiet as a church. You couldn't convinceme of that when we first looked. But my parents have been here several times,and we sit out front until 9 or 10 at night, no problem."
The Frosts like living near downtown, she said. "There's so much todo. We go downtown to eat. We go to ballgames."
Terry Hall, who is the real estate agent selling homes in Betty's Walk,admits that the neighborhood is intimidating. But he said, "It's goingto stay that way until we develop this."
Betty's Walk will be a gated community. And, as at Mullanphy Square, eachhouse will have an electronic security system.
The main difference between the two projects is price. Although Hall saidthe Betty's Walk homes will cost $120,000, subsidies will lower the priceto as low as $64,000 for some buyers.
A typical buyer in Betty's Walk may earn $24,000 a year and make house paymentsof $547 a month, Hall said.
City politics temporarily held up Betty's Walk. Charles Bussey Jr. resignedin May as an officer and shareholder of SHIP after getting into troublewith the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Hall said the project was back on track.
Some neighbors who live in the area still aren't sold on the idea of a virtualsuburbia in the inner city.
"I don't see it," said cabdriver Eddie Cooper of St. Louis. "Youcan't have just one street separating the haves and the have-nots."