Facility
Great Futures Academy Breathes New Life Into the Neighborhood.
The focal point of the 14-acre site plan for the Great Future Academy is the first-of-its-kind Golf Learning Grounds. Featuring movable tee boxes and holes, this clever design will allow for easy reconfiguration of the “course” and optimal flexibility of the land. In addition, there will be a practice range, and short game area
Also included: two mini-pitch soccer fields, walking & workout trail, a community garden, and indoor spaces dedicated to STEM education, and more.
Once complete, BGCSTL will own and operate the facility while local PGA coaches will provide golf instruction.
Also on-site: Teen Tech Center with free access to high-end technology, a makerspace, and instruction and support in music and video production, web design, and college and career prep.
Together, these facilities in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood will provide a safe environment and a diverse range of opportunities for St. Louis residents of all ages to learn and grow.
Growing Golf in the City.
The Great Futures Academy would complement other local efforts and drive participation at existing courses in the St. Louis Metropolitan area and beyond. In addition, this project would bring Urban Golf of Greater St. Louis and other youth-serving golf organizations into the fold.
Adding More Greens to the Brickline Greenway.
The Great Futures Academy is adjacent to the new Brickline Greenway, an ambitious project building 20 miles of walkable and bikeable paths connecting JeffVanderLou with other neighborhoods throughout the city.
Restoring the Neighborhood’s Identity.
When Sportsmans Park was home to the St. Louis Browns and St. Louis Cardinals, games played there entertained and captured the imagination of patrons throughout the city. Across the street, the Carter Carburetor factory provided jobs to people in the neighborhood and beyond.
Together, they represented opportunity and prosperity for the people living nearby and gave the JeffVanderLou an identity.
The proposed Youth & Community Center will be built on this former EPA Super Fund site. After a seven-year, $38 million clean-up effort with federal support, the land is ready for redevelopment.
It will join ambitious redevelopment projects in the area like the Brickline Greenway and the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) campus to create opportunities that will benefit the residents of North St. Louis for generations to come.
The project will bring construction jobs to the area, in addition to ongoing full-time opportunities for staffing, and part-time work for kids.