ST. LOUIS-The Koman Group recently purchased the troubled Cupples 9 building downtown for a reported $3 million, and now plans a $30 million redevelopment of the former warehouse. The company will make the structure at 900 Spruce St. a 147,000-square-foot office building, with an anchor tenant already signed, with ground floor retail.

The building is part of a 24-structure historic manufacturing and warehouse district that was built downtown in 1894 by Samuel Cupples. Vacant for at least two decades, developers Kevin McGowan and Nat Walsh have been working on redeveloping the properties. However, the previous $40 million plan for Cupples 9, as a mostly residential building with two floors of office, didn’t work out. Bank of America threatened foreclosure, and Koman bought the loans and the structure.

Tenant Osborn & Barr, a consulting firm for the agriculture industry, had planned on moving into the first development until it failed, and instead moved three years ago into space at Cupples 8 next door. Now, the firm will move again and occupy 66,000 square feet at Cupples 9. “Our goal always was to end up at Cupples 9, so we’re thrilled to revive plans that move us to a permanent location that accommodates our needs and reflects our agency’s culture,” said Rhonda Ries-Aguilar, partner and CFO, in a statement.

The new building will feature 15,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor, says Dan Farris with Koman. He says the remaining 66,000 square feet has drawn leasing interest. “We’ve had a lot of people through, we’re pretty optimistic that we’ll get it leased up,” he tells GlobeSt.com. Construction on the redevelopment is expected to be complete by early 2013, he says.

The building is on the National Park Service Historic Registry. Creve Coeur, MO-based Koman plans to keep some of the elements of the structure, including exposed Douglas Fir columns and beams, and ceiling heights of up to 20 feet high.