Northeast News
(Editor’s Note: This article ran in the June 9, 2004, edition of Northeast News.)

Two-and-a-half years ago when Yuri Ives decided to move from California, he was drawn to Historic Northeast because of the Victorian and Queen Anne-era homes.

“I could have chosen to live anywhere in the United States,” he said. “I always wanted a big Victorian.”

Having retired from the hotel and restaurant industry, Ives is switching his sights to real estate and restoration.

He spoke from the front porch of the five-bedroom house at 511 S. Gladstone Blvd. that he purchased from a well-known, if not infamous, landlord who managed multiple properties in the Scarritt Renaissance neighborhood.

“I got the house from Eric Williams,” Ives said.

The grand home had been divided into eight one-bedroom apartments in the 1940s during the housing crisis brought on by the returning soldiers from World War II. Ives said he was led by his stomach to take a risk and make an offer to Williams after having only seen one room.

He explained how the room looked when he first saw it, tracing out walls that no longer mar the front room and dining area of the restoration-in-progress.

“The bedroom of that apartment had the white marble fire place in tact,” Ives said.

That hint of architectural detail, plus an affinity for what he called “neighborhoods in transition,” sold Ives on 511 S. Gladstone Blvd. As it turned out, seven of the original 12 fireplaces are intact. So far, Ives has restored them to operational status. Other repairs are in progress. The dining room floor is now marble, as Ives sacrificed the hardwood to fix other floors damaged from years of renters and make-shift rearrangements for extra kitchenettes and bathrooms. The 1880s home has five full and two half-baths as it is.

The solid-standing seamless copper roof that crowns the wrap-around porch has generated lots attention from neighbors. Ives said he likes the idea of never having to repair that roof again, as well as the sound effect created when it rains.

“I do not put cosmetic repairs ahead of structural ones,” he said, which explains the visually haphazard restoration. “Other neighbors have told me I’ve raised the bar for renovations around here.”

The second and third floors are generally finished, and Ives expects to have the main floor livable by the end of the year. That’s not his only project, though, nor his first restoration in Scarritt. He also had purchased the grimly-kept four-unit building across the street.

To look at 512 S. Gladstone Blvd. now, with its striking paint-job, landscaped terrace and clean lines, a person who remembers the place when it was mouldering without a decent roof can hardly conjure that image without photographs. The place looks just as it should and has increased in value more than triple-fold. Ives has sold 512 to a family moving down from Liberty, Mo., who are doing their own renovations at 406 Gladstone Blvd. to make it a single-family home again.

Next to 512 is a 16-unit corner building Ives has purchased with plans to spruce it up into 1,550-square-foot condos. He wants to create an opportunity for “invested neighbors” of the type who would be drawn to Historic Northeast for its architecture and culture but who also like to cook on stainless steel appliances. This project is also expected to come to fruition within a year’s time.

Besides real estate work, Ives also is active in the community. The fountain at the Concourse was a favorite crusade last summer for him.

“Last year there were a lot of issues,” Ives said. “I had to call the police more than 119 times about the drinking parties going on there. But, we got ‘no alcohol’ signs written in Spanish and the police are doing a proper job of enforcement.

“This year, there is high traffic at the Concourse but little alcohol. We have great families taking advantage of the park there now.”

He said this happened despite the lack of direct action from the mayor’s office, once he found the right people in the parks and police departments to work with.

Ives has a few more neighborhood projects in mind, including the speed bump debate and whether getting them installed in key locations would reduce the drag-strip effect on Benton and Gladstone. As the codes committee chair for Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association, Ives is the go-to person for neighborhood preservation issues. He said he walks through the neighborhood daily for exercise, but wants more people to call him with concerns.

“If I don’t see it on your street, it’s not neglect but just that I haven’t seen it,” he said.

He said he welcomed calls to 816-805-3527 about housing code and nuisance violations in Scarritt.