He runs the Home Improvement Outlet from the first floor of the Buster Brown building and distributes custom granite countertops nationwide from a facility along Vandeventer Avenue.

While it might be easy to dismiss Osher as tilting at windmills, the 55-year-old is a businessman. 'He didn’t share my vision,' he says and laughs. On top of that, Osher has fired his attorney. Last week the historic building became part of the city’s eminent domain suit that would, in effect, force property owners to sell to the city if the NGA chooses the north St. Osher and the city haven’t come to an agreement on how much the property is worth. Louis Public Radio Jim Osher poses for a portrait inside his building. The cost? Somewhere in the $5 million range, or as Osher puts it, 'A tenth of what it would cost to rebuild this building.'Ĭredit Carolina Hidalgo | St. He’s got two companies that say they can do it by either moving it on railroad tracks or on wheels. Instead Osher wants to pick up the 85,000-square-foot building, move it across the street and turn it into a shoe-themed hotel. 'This is history that won’t ever get replaced,' he says, shaking his head at the idea of a wrecking ball. And if the agency does move there, the building will have to go.īut Jim Osher is brimming with enthusiasm. Louis officials hope will become the new home for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Now the four-story brick building with an unusual curved front sits on marked land. The company made children’s shoes here for decades under the Buster Brown label. It was built in 1901 and the Brown Shoe Company bought it a few years later. We’re standing on the fourth floor of the Buster Brown Blue Ribbon Shoe Factory, a building that’s on the National Register of Historic Places. 'You see that piece of wood?' he asks pointing to a massive rafter. Jim Osher can’t imagine how anyone could think of tearing his building down.

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