Car crashes into Grove business on the verge of reopening

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) -A collision between the drivers of an SUV and a garbage truck caused significant damage to the outer wall of a business in the Grove Wednesday morning.

The restaurant, Sanctuaria Wild Tapas Bar at Manchester and Boyle, had been closed for remodeling for the past few months. Steve Law, the owner, said he had nearly readied the restaurant to reopen in the next few weeks.

“We were getting ready to reopen on the first of June and now we can’t do that,” Law said. “I guess we’ll do the best we can.”

Law said the crash had damaged the front window of the business, as well as the dining room and floor of the building. He was waiting to hear from a building inspector about potential damage to the structural integrity of the building.

“We managed to put some of the wall back so we could secure it,” Law said as workers began the process of boarding up the front.

The Grove business district has steadily been growing since the pandemic. Abdul Abdullah, the president of Park Central Development, said that all but two storefronts within the Community Improvement District had active or pending leases.

Abdullah said that more than six thousand individual vehicles travel down Manchester daily, and that businesses were on track to generate $40 million in sales in 2025.

Park Central Development has ed much of that growth in the business community, and has worked with the City of St. Louis to tackle patches of blight in the area.

Currently the group is working to have a cluster of condemned buildings near Kingshighway demolished.

“For the safety and security of the neighborhood we’re ultimately going to get those torn down and we’re working with the city and our alderman to do that,” he said.

Michael Browning, the alderman for the ward, said he had also been looking for ways to reduce reckless driving along Manchester. He said several similar crashes had happened in the past few years.

MODOT is planning a resurfacing project along the Hwy. 100 corridor that will include several pedestrian-friendly upgrades. Browning said he hoped it would also include traffic calming measures to reduce the speed of traffic.

“We’re going to work closely with MODOT to make sure that the upgrades are going to address this problem. The police department, too. We’re bringing back red light cameras and speed cameras,” Browning said.

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