Bakery Building is Just One of Many Neighborhood Rebirths

   The bakery building will be added to an expanding list of properties that Susie Gudermuth had a hand in restoring. She has been a key figure in the stabilization of the Tower Grove Heights area.

   As the old Ziegler Bakery building at Wyoming Street and South Spring Avenue deteriorated throughout the 1990s, the plywood boards that covered its doors and windows faded and cracked with each passing season.

   The two-story building in the heart of the rejuvenated Tower Grove Heights neighborhood was a cankerous bud amid a bed of roses - until now.

   Susie Gudermuth, a therapist for down-on-their-luck buildings in the neighborhood, has helped the large structure on the road to rehabilitation. Workers are converting the corner complex, built from 1908 to 1909, into condominiums. They are using materials and architectural features left from the days when Louise and Virgil Ziegler worked long hours tending to the ovens, churning out baked goods.

   One feature will be the incorporation of a large antique oven into one of the walls. Gudermuth is unsure whether the oven will be operational or ornamental.

   During the years before Gudermuth purchased the property, she and other neighbors watched with concern as the building's code violations mounted: broken windows, cracked paint, strewn garbage, overgrown weeds.

   "The place was in bad condition; there was drug dealing, noise and garbage," said Gudermuth, who lives on Utah Street.

   Gudermuth mentioned the L&B Bar, which closed in the early-1990s, and said, "When the bar was operating, there were alcoholics spilling out of the building, loaded during the afternoons."

   Gudermuth felt her first step was to try to get the building's owner to admit there was a problem. After failed attempts to cooperate with the owner, she tried to pull in a group of nearby property owners.

   The residents contacted the city's neighborhood stabilization officer and documented the code violations. Public hearings followed in which the neighborhood group was pitted against the owner and his lawyers.

   "The only way to get his attention was to take him to Room 208," at City Hall, said Jean Iezzi, a Hartford Street property owner who also donated time to the effort.

   While the group was given the opportunity to have its say at the hearings, the city routinely granted extensions to correct the violations.

   "We all had to take off work; we had good representation from the neighborhood, but no matter," Iezzi said. "Every time we tried to make a difference, we would get a two-by-four slapped on our head."

   Former Alderman Geraldine Osborne tried to acquire the building through eminent domain, but the board voted her down. Iezzi and others believe Osborne's political rivals spearheaded the rejection.

   The neighborhood effort lasted from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, when the tenants vacated their rooms, and the bar ceased operation. The campaign fizzled when the group failed to win even a small victory. "The city was not helpful," said Iezzi. "When the building went vacant, we figured, 'At least the problem tenants were gone. A vacant building is a quiet building.'" Finally, Gudermuth reached a deal with the owner and accelerated the restoration process. The condos will add to anexpanding list of properties that Gudermuth had a hand in restoring. She has been a key figure in the stabilization of the neighborhood, says Iezzi.

   "She salvages buildings that some people might have said, 'That should be torn down,'" said Iezzi. "She is willing to take risks with her own money. She is a cornerstone of the neighborhood."

   Carolyn Toft, president of the Landmarks Association, said it was a vital project. "Spring Avenue is important, so this work really needed to be done," she said.

   Gudermuth said: "How this building impacts the whole neighborhood is where the return will come. I was worried for the future of the building. If I didn't do it, who would?"

   Higher property values

   By all accounts, property values in this neighborhood bordering Tower Grove Park and the Grand South Grand business district have risen dramatically in the past 10 years. Many of the double doors of two-family flats are being replaced with the lone front doors of higher-value single-family conversions.

   "The property and appraisal values have appreciated phenomenally," said Cheryl Jones, a real-estate agent and president of the neighborhood association. "I bought my house for $85,000 in June of 1998, and one year later it was appraised at $130,000. I hadn't made any improvements. I didn't even cut the grass before the inspector arrived."

   Jones previously sold houses in Chesterfield. But whenever she tried to work in the city, her managers resisted and cited a lack of confidence in the city's potential.

   After transferring to the city, Jones has been overwhelmed by Tower Grove Heights' performance. In many cases, houses are being sold at double the prices they collected five to 10 years ago, according to Jones. In all cases, she says, a significant increase in value has occurred.

   Gudermuth reports the same kind of returns. In 1993, she sold a 25,000-square-foot house on Utah for $157,000. She repurchased, refreshed and resold the same house last December for $389,000. She sold another house on Utah for $195,000 in 1995. It is now on the market for $439,000.

   Gudermuth's big project is a large three-story house on Utah. She coordinated a complete restoration of the grandiose house and sold it to a longtime area resident for $750,000.

   The sale prices Gudermuth has garnered in recent years have raised eyebrows in the neighborhood. Many concur that houses are being sold for prices unimaginable 10 years ago.

   Said Iezzi: "She has told the rest of us that, wow, we can stick around and maybe even buy another house!"