Metro East Sun

The East St. Louis city council recently discussed an agreement on lease terms with a developer in the village.

During a Dec. 8 city council meeting, the Mayor and city council discussed the lease terms of the Broadview building as committees try to get the planned low income housing up and running. The city’s hesitation in entering into the agreement was based on some shaky language in the terms and possible liability for the city. The city voted in favor of the lease term of 99 years for the New Broadview.

Representatives from the developers and planners assured the city council that there was language in the lease agreement that would take any liability off of the city. They spoke about the investors that they had ready to fund the project, and if the current team fails the project or defaults on the lease, the investors will find another management group to run the project, effectively keeping the city out of the project.

"I would like to say that the New Broadview has been working with the city council and the state and selected developer in November of 2017. It has been a laborous task to get to this point," MOKAN and Efficacy Consulting President Yaphett El-Amin said at the meeting. "We are happily standing here today prepared to close this development and it will represent a total development cost of $44 million. Currently, the largest project since the casino came in 1993. I also would like to say that our first correspondence with the attorney to negotiate the lease, was October 12th, 2020. I say that because we acted and made concerted efforts to ensure that we have the best possible lease available and present here for the city and we have been for the last two years negotiating these provision."

The Broadview hotel was originally constructed and opened in 1927 as a way to create a resurgence in East St. Louis after a massacre in 1917. The beautiful building brought plenty of travelers to the city. The building is now owned by the city and has sat vacant for approximately 20 years. Officials hopes that renovating the building will bring a resurgence to the city. The New Broadview will be composed of 110 housing units, almost all of them low income or extremely low income. It will have units specifically for veterans and some retail space below that is available to residents.