KETC Documentary examines the Capistrano rehab

   AH, THE GLAMOUR of television. As writer, producer and on-air talent for the KETC special "Rebuilding St. Louis," Margie Newman slogged through snow, rain and mud to follow the gut rehab of the Capistrano building in the Tower Grove South neighborhood.

   "It's a real Cinderella story," Newman says. "The before pictures were very dramatic, really grungy. Afterward, it's amazing how complete the transformation was." The saga began when KETC paired with the Home Builders Association to follow a construction project from start to finish. Several were considered, with the Capistrano chosen in part for its potential and in part because of its quirky mastermind, Susie Gudermuth.

   "This story is as much about people as it is about buildings," Newman says. One of those people is Gudermuth, whose low-key style and floppy hats belie the fact that she is a major force in Tower Grove redevelopment, having brought 21 buildings back to life when others thought they should be torn down.

   The real star of "Rebuilding St. Louis," though, turns out to be Jim Groebl, the project foreman, whose easy humor and clear explanations of what's going on could win him a slot on "This Old House."

   "Jim is a natural," Newman says. "And he was amazingly tolerant. It was amazing to see how quickly he and the crews became comfortable with us."

   The project focused on one unit in the Capistrano, a dilapidated and fire-damaged three-story building at 3905 Utah Place. The 79-year-old building, which Gudermuth bought from the city for $1, had been divided into 21 tiny apartments; turning it into six luxury condominiums required changing load-bearing walls, among other challenges.

   For the featured unit, six apartments become one modern, open space. Gudermuth is hands-on throughout the work, right down to choosing floor tiles and ordering a last-minute readjustment of kitchen cabinets. Groebl, a fourth-generation carpenter, teases her about changing her mind, she says, but clearly her perfectionism pays off, because the result is gorgeous.

   And it ought to be: Prices at the Capistrano will start at $440,000 for the smallest, 3,300 square feet, and go up to $750,000 for 5,000 square feet. Will they sell? "I know I'm pushing the neighborhood market," Gudermuth told the Post-Dispatch in November. "But I think city neighborhoods are undervalued."

   Newman sees those hefty figures as a sign that a renaissance in the neighborhood is official. She came out of the project confident that neglected parts of the city as a whole are on the way back. "We met so many people who are enthusiastic about revitalizing urban neighborhoods," she says.

   Newman is the daughter of a retired union sheet-metal worker who loved to hear her father's stories of the job. But his skills didn't rub off; in the beginning, "I barely knew the difference between cement and concrete," she says.

   She learned on the project, which required her to check in frequently, often standing guard to make sure the camera person didn't fall into a hole. "I was there when there was no heat. I was there in the mud," she says.

   "They never really staged anything for us," Newman says, emphasizing that the film is a documentary, not reality TV. "So I had to be there for the moments we captured. I was impressed at how big the job is, how much work it took. And being there gave me a huge respect for how technical everything is, how much craftsmanship it takes."

   Every month since the project began, Channel 9 has aired a 90-minute update on the work. Now, the whole story is told in tonight's one-hour special, which will be repeated at 1 a.m. Thursday, 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

   A graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Newman returned from several years in Chicago to work and live (in a downtown loft that serves as a playground for her two cats) in St. Louis. She is a reporter for KETC's nightly news magazine, "Living St. Louis," and will cover redevelopment in the old Gaslight Square area for a "Rebuilding St. Louis" project next year.

   "That story may focus more on people choosing to buy in the neighborhood," Newman says. "It's what I love about documentary filmmaking -- when you start, you don't know what the story is, and it's so exciting to find out."