Delmar Divine Opens After 6 Years
Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear, has opened Delmar Divine, a hub for nonprofits located in a renovated hospital building on Delmar Boulevard in St. Louis. The building will house 23 nonprofit tenants and offer shared spaces, such as a café, gym, and podcast studio. Additionally, 150 affordable apartments, retail space, and a restaurant are planned.
Clark hopes the Delmar Divine will encourage collaboration and problem-solving among social services organizations. She also envisions future phases, such as turning a former nursing school on the property into a campus for early-childhood providers.
Speaking to St. Louis Magazine, Maxine Clark, a non-profit patron in the Delmar region has finally accomplished her dream of a social services hub, Delmar Divine. Complete with a working space, gymnasium, and restaurant she expects the building to accommodate 23 tenants in her working space.
The project started as a result of a wrong turn, Delmar Divine attempts to gather the non-profits in the region to address serious issues and encourage collaboration with others who are trying to serve the community in similar ways. According to Clark’s research, there are 14,883 other non-profits in St. Louis, but many are not aware of what other organizations are doing or how they can assist, such that work is not making as big an impact as it could.
Clark’s long-held vision also encompasses the neighborhood beyond the office space is lined with a 150-apartment complex for social service workers which will be priced so that the rent will not exceed their average salaries.
Phase II of Delmar Divine is a campus for early childhood providers with dorms and a working space depending on the urgency of the need. A space dedicated for children with special needs and a public kindergarten illustrate the current vision for Phase II and Maxine Clark is eager to answer the question, “What if we figure out how to do early childhood education the right way?”