Jim Onder’s real estate ‘hobby’ led to tech hub project in Ferguson. Can he pull it off?

Nassim Benchaabane | Post-Dispatch |  May 25, 2026

After weeks of debate and opposition from residents, city officials last month rejected a plan to turn the former Emerson campus into a tech hub and data center. The project, despite promises to deliver millions in new revenues, wasn’t good for Ferguson, officials said.

But the man behind the idea says his pitch is still on the table. Attorney Jim Onder, of Brentwood, is under contract until June 15 to buy the 217-acre office complex and redevelop it.

“I think we can make a huge difference in that community,” Onder told the Post-Dispatch last week.

Onder, of Brentwood, runs a law firm that boasts multimillion-dollar judgments for clients claiming harm from accidents, faulty products and negligence. His name and practice are well-known in the region from advertisements on billboards, radio and television. He donates often to local and state politicians, including his brother, U.S. Rep. Bob Onder.

At the same time, Jim Onder has had a hobby: real estate. Over three decades, he has built or bought at least 70 houses, apartments and commercial buildings, from Richmond Heights to Webster Groves to south St. Louis. He has renovated and resold some of them. He still owns dozens.

Some of his projects have stalled. A two-decade old pitch to redevelop a major corridor of Webster Groves, for example, hasn’t happened. A historic theater and popular cafe he promised to renovate two years ago sit vacant. And his ownership of dozens of homes in Webster Groves has frustrated neighbors.

His pitch for the Emerson site, which calls for up to $1.5 billion in tax breaks, would be more ambitious than anything he’s done before. Critics say he failed to show enough details about what exactly he would do and how it would address residents’ concerns about environmental impact.

“I couldn’t just approve any project, no matter how experienced or inexperienced a developer may be, with just a concept,” Councilman Jamil Franklin said. “That’s just not how any one should operate, relying on hopes and dreams that they’ll be able to do everything they say they’ll be doing.” 

Supporters say Onder would deliver on his promises.

“He’s one of the smartest people I have ever met,” said Brian McLain, a longtime Webster Groves realtor who worked with Onder. “If he wants it, he’s going to get it.”

‘Always been my hobby’

Onder, who grew up in Affton, leads a Webster Groves-based firm known for taking on high-profile lawsuits. Among the most notable were cases against Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder and against Bayer’s Roundup weed killer, on claims both caused cancer.

The firm, founded in 2002, has become well-known in part through a steady stream of advertising, including a recent series of AI-produced commercials, sometimes featuring Onder as a professional athlete or rock star.

Meanwhile, Onder branched into real estate. Today, his portfolio includes single-family homes in Webster Groves, an apartment complex in Richmond Heights and CIBC Place, a glass-and-steel high-rise in Brentwood at Interstate 64 that Onder bought in 2024 for $34.3 million, his largest investment to date.

“Real estate’s always been my hobby, my passion,” he said.

His interest began as a child, he said, when he accompanied his parents as they rented out or repaired apartment buildings they owned in St. Louis. The properties, he said, eventually paid for him and his two siblings to attend medical and law school. 

After completing an accounting degree from Washington University in St. Louis, he attended St. Louis University Law School. Two weeks after graduating in 1988, he bought a house in Cahokia Heights. He fixed it up and rented it out until he sold it.

Onder said he targeted properties that needed reinvestment. In some cases, he tore down buildings and built something new in their place.

McLain, Onder’s former partner, said he generally provided the real estate expertise, Onder the money.

“He was a great partner,” McLain said. “If he told you he was going to do something, he did it.”

Onder has also formed a granite company to source granite and marble for his properties. And he recently hired a team of computer developers to create an AI system that would manage his firm’s caseload — a product he hopes to later market and sell to other law firms.

“I’ve always been a businessman,” Onder said.

Stalled projects

Not long after building Onder’s own law offices on Lockwood Avenue in Webster Groves, Onder and McLain sought to start developing South Brentwood Boulevard, an entryway into Webster that city planners had eyed for redevelopment. 

The pair in 2007 pitched four two-story mixed-use complexes at South Brentwood and Thornton Avenue, near Deer Creek, to replace several old houses they planned to demolish.

They asked city officials for tax breaks and a special taxing district to help pay for construction and improvements. In return for the incentives, they agreed to make stormwater fixes and other improvements to Lorraine Davis Park, where the region’s trail network planned to build a new path.

But after more than a year of city deliberations, the project stalled. Then-mayor Gerry Welch said it was one of a few pitches for the site that fell through over the years. New construction on the flood-prone property was too costly and difficult, she said.

“It was just a big dream people had that they could take this parcel and do something good with it,” she said. “That just didn’t work.”

Onder blamed city officials for delaying the project until the 2008 financial crisis, which upended financing. 

“We had two other buildings pre-sold, ready to go, and were just waiting for that final approval from Webster,” he said. “Then all of a sudden the subprime mortgage crisis hits, you know, financing for real estate dries up, and the thing fell through.”

Two decades later, Onder drew attention when he bought the shuttered Ozark Theatre on Lockwood and the adjacent Webster Garden Cafe for $2 million.

The theater, one of the oldest in the region, stopped screening films 47 years ago. It has since been converted into offices, nearly demolished to make way for condominiums, and then saved by voters and a tenacious owner who renovated its historic façade.

After that owner died, the theater sat vacant for two years until late 2024 when his wife sold the property to Onder.

Onder said he wanted to renovate most of it for the arts, like stage productions.

Last September, he scrapped the plan. Renovations could have cost $4 million, and no major arts groups were interested in using the space, he said.

“The last thing I need to do is, you know, spend millions of dollars to create this beautiful theater that no one really wants to use,” Onder said last week. 

The cafe next door closed in September. Gary Schoenberger, a St. Louis musician who ran the cafe with his wife for eight years, said they couldn’t continue running the cafe with an uncertain future. 

He said he doesn’t blame Onder for the closure.

“It was just strictly business from his standpoint,” Shoenberger said. “We had the emotional investment in it, but I understand how these things go.”

Webster concerns 

Today, Onder owns more than 30 rental homes in north Webster around South Brentwood and North Elm Avenue.

His presence has frustrated some neighbors.

The area, long a tight-knit community of middle-class Black families, has changed over the years as residents died or moved out. Smaller homes were replaced by larger ones. Others were turned into rentals. 

“It’s just very disheartening to see what they’re doing to our neighborhood,” said Cahliah Hammonds, a homeowner on Euclid Avenue. “It’s just adding to the gentrification of North Webster.”

Hammonds grew up next door, in a house that Onder bought a few years ago from her grandfather. The house was one of three on the block that Onder Properties demolished and is now replacing with six new townhomes. The city approved the new construction in March.

For months, however, construction crews have dumped debris on the lots. She sees it every time she goes out on her porch. “It frustrates me that this is what I have to look at every day,” Hammonds said. “I don’t think Onder would tolerate this outside of his house.”

And residents have been frustrated by the condition of a few homes Onder owns that are condemned and awaiting demolition. 

On Elm, three dilapidated houses Onder has owned for years are falling apart, roped off by orange construction tape. 

And after a storm toppled a tree into one of Onder’s houses on Corona Court, it took Onder more than a year to remove the tree and demolish the house, residents said. It’s now a vacant lot.

“He doesn’t seem to take care of the properties very well,” said Nancy Czyzewski, a resident of Corona Court.

Some tenants who rent from Onder said they pay affordable rates.

Onder says he has kept rents low, increased affordable housing and torn down houses that were “eyesores” and health hazards. The demolition process takes time because of insurance battles and Webster regulations, he said. 

“If anything, I’m contributing to the stability of the neighborhood,” he said. 

Future plans 

In March, Onder proposed overhauling the former Emerson campus into a “center for technology, energy innovation, advanced manufacturing, office and research activity” with up to $19 billion in new equipment purchases through 2050.

In a town hall with Ferguson residents, Onder compared his vision to the Cortex Innovation District in St. Louis and said he would renovate and expand an existing data center on the Emerson campus to use “clean” energy and rely on its own private energy sources.

Residents and officials were skeptical, citing a lack of details Onder provided about what exactly the campus would become, who would use it and what impacts it would have on the environment and utility bills. 

“If this deal were truly good for Ferguson, you wouldn’t be afraid to slow it down and prove it,” said Melanie Marie, one resident who spoke during meetings.

Earlier this month, the city council voted 3-3, deadlocking on approval of up to $1.5 billion in tax abatements Onder said were necessary to complete the project.

Ferguson Councilman Nick Kasoff, who supported granting tax incentives for Onder’s plan, said Onder was the city’s best option to keep the former Emerson campus from sitting empty. 

Remote work has put an end to large office campuses. The site needs extensive maintenance each year. And Onder is wealthy enough to hire the right people, Kasoff said. 

“If you have a well-known lawyer with access to any legal talent that he wants, and with deep enough pockets to carry a development until it starts making money, it’s really a great candidate for taking on something like this,” Kasoff said. “As far as Mr. Onder’s lack of expertise — he can hire expertise.”

Onder, who still has the campus under contract to buy for roughly $18 million from its current owners, Copeland Electric, declined to say whether he is trying to close the deal. 

But he maintained it would benefit Ferguson. “I know it’s a good deal for Ferguson, but sometimes people can’t get out of their own way,” he said. 

He touted his successes on past projects: His Webster law offices. New homes in Webster and Rock Hill. Renovating the Algonquin Senior Living facility. A new apartment complex in South County. Leasing dozens of properties, including CIBC.

In Ferguson, he said he would “put together the right team,” and has already signed up general contractor Arco Construction, a partner on the data center recently approved next to The Armory in St. Louis.

He said he is in talks with major firms across the country interested in the Emerson site. He has contacts in law and business across the country. He is involved in nine other U.S. data center projects, including in Ohio, Georgia and Texas. 

He would not provide details. The tech industry, he said, is highly competitive and won’t disclose plans before approvals.

He said he considered his Ferguson pitch a personal “cause” to help the community, as he did so many of his legal cases.

“If you look at my history, when I take on a cause, I get it done and I make the world a better place because of it,” he said.