Region-wide, condos are taking longer to sell. Yet buyers are signing contracts on a Clayton condo building that won't be finished until late 2028. Both are true this fall, and the explanation runs through a stretch of Maryland Avenue where a nine-acre corporate campus has been sold off in pieces over the past two years.
If you're comparing Clayton with Ladue, Kirkwood or another close-in suburb for your next home, this matters now. Signing early means agreeing to a price, a floor plan and a closing date roughly two years ahead. You'd also be committing before most of the surrounding block has been designed.
The regional condo numbers point the other way
The September 2026 housing report from St. Louis REALTORS covers combined townhouse and condo sales across its service area. It shows a buyer's market building up. There were 842 listings, up 10.8% from September 2025. Supply reached 3.8 months, and the median time on market was 60 days, up 39.5% from a year earlier. The median sale price for the month was $217,500, down 4.0%. Pending sales fell 11.4% and closed sales fell 7.1%.
Those figures cover the whole region, and they lump townhouses together with condos. They describe the typical attached home in the St. Louis area, and that home has very little in common with a 2,500-square-foot unit with heated garage parking in downtown Clayton.
Clayton's newest condo building is moving the other way. On October 7, 2026, the St. Louis Business Journal reported that luxury condo demand was driving early sales at a $40 million Clayton project. Site preparation was underway, and the developers expected to finish in late 2028. The building's location helps explain the difference.
How the Caleres campus came apart
The building is ARQUÉ at 61 Topton Way, on the southeast corner of Maryland Avenue and Topton Way. Clayton's December 15, 2025 meeting minutes list the landowner as Brown Group Inc. The condo's approvals moved forward over the same months that the Caleres headquarters campus on Maryland was being sold off. Here is how those events lined up:
- 2024. Caleres marketed its Clayton headquarters campus of roughly nine acres. Its annual SEC filing reported an agreement on the main parcel in January 2025 and letters of intent for the remaining pieces in February 2025.
- March 24, 2025. Opera Theatre of Saint Louis announced it was under contract for the headquarters site.
- November 2025. CityScene STL reported the condo proposal: a six-story building with 29 condos, first-floor retail and resident-only parking.
- December 15, 2025. Clayton's Plan Commission and Architectural Review Board approved the site plan 5–1 and the design unanimously.
- December 19, 2025. Opera Theatre closed on 6.67 acres at 8300 Maryland Avenue after 11 months of due diligence. It plans to build a performing arts center there.
- October 2026. Site preparation was underway on the condo building, per the Business Journal.
Caleres stayed in Clayton. In its purchase announcement, Opera Theatre said Caleres would lease space at 8182 Maryland Avenue and 8235 Forsyth Boulevard, two blocks east of its old headquarters. Caleres' latest quarterly filing, for the period ending August 1, 2026, expected the new headquarters space in the third quarter of 2026. As of that date, one campus parcel was still committed for sale.
What the building actually offers
The project comes from the Mehlman family, with architect Core10. When CityScene reported it in November 2025, the plan called for 29 condos of about 2,470 to 3,150 square feet. It also included 5,689 square feet of retail and 63 parking spaces for residents. A Ladue News promotional feature describes the units as customizable, with five penthouses among them. The project's own site lists private terraces, tall ceilings, a rooftop garden and heated resident parking.
Buyers are paying for that combination: one level, an elevator, a garage, a terrace and a walk to dinner. It rarely shows up in the region's resale condo listings. A buyer who wants all of it in Clayton usually has to wait for a new building, and new buildings come along one every few years. Listings for the building put asking prices in the high $1 millions for its smaller floor plans. At that level, the regional $217,500 median says little about how this part of the market behaves.
The Mehlmans have sold this way before
Selling units before the building exists is a pattern on this street. The family's earlier project, The Pearl, has 18 condos in two buildings on Topton Way just south of Maryland. In June 2019, Town&Style reported that 12 of the 18 had sold before construction began. Prices then ran from $850,000 to $1.7 million for 1,800 to 3,600 square feet.
Forsythia on the Park followed a similar path a few blocks away. When it launched in July 2024 at 8250 Forsyth Boulevard, MetroWire reported asking prices of $900,000 to $2.2 million for 38 two- and three-bedroom residences. Features included underground parking and a 24-hour concierge. Builder HDA has since announced the building's completion.
Those 2019 and 2024 prices are history now, not comparable sales for 2026. They do show that new Clayton condo buildings come to market about once a cycle and draw commitments long before move-in. That pattern explains why early sales hold up while regional condo inventory grows.
What a 2026 contract cannot tell you about 2028
An early buyer at 61 Topton Way gets a fixed floor plan and finishes. Much of what will surround the building is still undecided.
| Around the site | Settled as of October 2026 | Still open |
|---|---|---|
| 8300 Maryland Ave. | Opera Theatre owns 6.67 acres for a performing arts center | Design, permitting and city approvals, still ahead as of the December 2025 purchase |
| Caleres | Staying in Clayton at 8182 Maryland and 8235 Forsyth | One campus parcel committed for sale as of August 1, 2026, buyer not named in the filing |
| ARQUÉ ground floor | About 5,700 sq. ft. of retail approved | Tenants |
| 121 S. Meramec Ave. | The Upton, 118 luxury rental apartments | Completion, expected in the second quarter of 2027 |
Opera Theatre was explicit about the timeline. In its December announcement, it said it planned to gather input from Clayton residents and audiences while working with the city on permitting and design approvals. General Director Andrew Jorgensen said the company still had "a great deal of work to do to realize our vision for a new home." The company also said it would stay at the Loretto-Hilton Center at Webster University for several more seasons. A condo buyer who closes in late 2028 could move in next to an active construction site.
The Upton matters for a different reason. KAI Build and Kansas City-based Revive Capital Development are turning the former 7UP/World Trade Center building at 121 S. Meramec Avenue into an 11-story, 118-unit luxury apartment building. KAI's announcement calls it a $55 million adaptive reuse, with groundbreaking scheduled for October 6. Its studios, one- and two-bedrooms serve a different buyer than ARQUÉ's penthouses. Still, by 2028, downtown Clayton will have more new places to live than it does today. That's useful to know if you might resell a condo there within a few years.
Contract terms on a building this far from completion vary from one developer to the next. Questions about deposits, timelines and what happens if construction runs late belong with your attorney and lender. This post is general information, not legal or financial advice.
Questions buyers are asking
Does the regional slowdown mean Clayton condo prices are falling? The September 2026 report from St. Louis REALTORS showed a 4.0% year-over-year drop in the median townhouse and condo sale price across its whole service area. It doesn't break out Clayton separately. Older resale buildings and new construction trade on different terms, so compare a specific unit against sales in its own building and against units of similar age.
When will the opera center open? Opera Theatre's December 2025 purchase announcement gave no construction schedule and said design and permitting work with the city was still ahead.
Is Caleres leaving Clayton? No. Opera Theatre's announcement and Caleres' filings both say the company is keeping its headquarters in Clayton, two blocks east of the old campus.
At Ryan Patton, we handle both brokerage and construction. That lets us look at a pre-construction condo contract through a builder's eyes: the finish schedule, the delivery timeline, and how a 2028 unit will price against the house you might sell to buy it. If you're deciding between signing at 61 Topton Way, buying a resale unit, or staying put in your current home, let's walk through the numbers together.
