最新杏吧原创

Several years ago he started a company, called Net Zero, with a grand plan of building affordable homes in north 最新杏吧原创, with zero utility bills. Part of his plan was to create neighborhood solar panels, on the roofs of houses and parking garages, through which the community could sell power back to Ameren and perhaps create funds to help with transportation and other needs.

Arant bought land in 2018 from Northside Regeneration developer Paul McKee, with a contract to buy even more property for a residential development east of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency under construction at the intersection of Jefferson and Cass avenues. Arant had big plans, he told me when I first wrote about his idea, maybe 250 homes or more, all with a zero-carbon footprint.

Today, three of the homes Arant built stand as a testament to his will and also the difficulties of getting big ideas to come to fruition in 最新杏吧原创. It took him longer to build the homes than he wanted, but they are solid additions to a north 最新杏吧原创 neighborhood that could use some investment. Arant ran into problems, with his builders and suppliers, with the city, with Ameren, with his major investor, the Carpenter鈥檚 Union, and with the economy, and then, well, shortly after he was finished, with COVID-19, which shut everything down.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to get builders to do anything different,鈥� Arant told me a few months ago, as we sat in his empty home models, before everything in the world got put on hold. 鈥淲e鈥檙e proving it can be done. The homes are connected to Ameren鈥檚 grid, but they power themselves. And by installing additional solar throughout the development wherever possible, Ameren could more rapidly decommission its coal-powered plants, leading to a healthier environment.鈥�

I was attracted to Arant鈥檚 story in the first place because he was a little guy who could. Arant grew up on the city鈥檚 North Side, in the Greater Ville neighborhood, just south of Fountain Park. His family, sadly, was part of the white flight from the area. Now, after a career as a Marine, businessman and entrepreneur, Arant is back where he started, a guy who wants to make sure that north 最新杏吧原创 residents can continue to live there, in houses they can own, without facing the possibility of getting their utilities cut off, because there aren鈥檛 any electric bills.

Arant bought a plant in Jefferson City that produces the sort of thick insulation that, with the right construction, can create an airtight house and, when combined with solar energy, can be a net-zero producer of carbon emissions. But disputes over financing arose. He and the carpenters and the previous owners of the plant are involved in litigation.

In so many ways, Arant鈥檚 plan was what everybody in power says they want: investment on the North Side, renewable energy, affordable housing. But he wasn鈥檛 a big-pocketed developer with the right connections. The city was 鈥� and is 鈥� in a legal dispute with McKee, the man who sold him the land. Ameren didn鈥檛 seem to really want to play ball, at least not by his rules. Investors weren鈥檛 totally committed to the project.

Arant鈥檚 story isn鈥檛 necessarily one in which it鈥檚 easy to place a black hat on any particular culprit who got in his way. Maybe he just didn鈥檛 have the capacity to get the project done. But the three houses are there; they鈥檙e nice. They represent a symbol of what could come to the North Side, but often doesn鈥檛, because the politics and financing associated with actually getting development done north of Delmar Boulevard are often so difficult.

鈥淚f this were to fail, nobody else will do it,鈥� Arant says, as he continues to hope upon hope that the three model homes he built become more than an oasis of what might have been. 鈥淎 big opportunity will go down the drain for the city.鈥�