Long-delayed redevelopment of Freight House District vacant lot has a new proposal

A 12-story, 116-unit residential tower with retail on the ground floor is the new plan for 2100 Wyandotte, a vacant lot in the Freight House District that once was dubbed the PCB Block because of prior industrial work.

Developer Copaken Brooks has posted a drawing of the latest proposal, showing a bigger mixed-use building than envisioned in previous redevelopment proposals.

The new plan calls for market-rate studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments with 153 enclosed parking spaces under the name Arterra 21.

Redevelopment of the site near Union Station has been in the works since 2000, when the Environmental Protection Agency approved piece-by-piece demolition of a former seven-story PCB Treatment Inc. building.

The $18 million demolition finally began in 2004 under strict EPA Superfund cleanup procedures and was completed in 2005, at which time a parking garage was conceived for the site.

By 2007, the land had been acquired from the EPA for about $900,000 by Copaken White & Blitt and an entity controlled by Hunter Harris of Harris Construction Co. The following year, the Copaken/Harris group proposed a six-story “boutique” condomium building of 50 units.

That marked the introduction of the Arterra 21 name. The condominum proposal also called for retail on the first floor and an underground parking garage.

But the deep recession and collapse of the housing market put the brakes on that plan, and it wasn’t until April 2014 that the successor Copaken Brooks company returned with a more ambitious 75-unit apartment project.

That proposal now has grown. The company posted online an updated, larger drawing for the still vacant lot. Twitter posts said that “rezoning is on the plate next” and that groundbreaking is expected this summer.

The company said Thursday that it will have more on the project to announce later.

Meanwhile, Copaken Brooks and Vince Bryant of 3D Development are moving ahead on a $40 million renovation of the 10-story Corrigan Building at 1828 Walnut St. as office space instead of converting it, as previously announced, to apartments.

This story was originally published February 26, 2015 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Long-delayed redevelopment of Freight House District vacant lot has a new proposal."