Olive Crossing developer outlines progress, seeks council extension and option to swap office for restaurants

Greg Gowlitz, the developer of the Olive Crossing project, told the Olivette Planning & Community Development Commission that work on the 14-acre site has produced a 184-unit apartment building and an Aldi grocery and that construction will move forward on Lot 3 this year. He said he will ask the City Council for a two-year extension to the redevelopment agreement — to June 30, 2027 — and for the council to approve an either/or option allowing Lot 5 to be developed as originally approved office space or, alternatively, as retail/restaurant pads that could be built and leased sooner.

Why it matters: Olive Crossing has been built with tax-increment financing (TIF) and public-road improvements; changes to the plan or the project schedule could affect the project’s tax revenue projections, the TIF repayment schedule and the scale of the final development in a key commercial corridor.

Gowlitz gave the commission a short chronology of the project. He said the original concept dates to 2015; the city approved amendments in 2019 and again in 2021 to add additional uses. He described site challenges that extended the schedule, including major road widening coordinated with MoDOT, a multi-year Army Corps of Engineers permitting process to encase a federally regulated tributary in a storm pipe, pandemic-related material and labor shortages, and lengthy lease negotiations that delayed key retail components. He said the Clover…