ST. LOUIS — St. Louis business owners are speaking out about a need for more investment into downtown. One of the owners is now closing her restaurant, in part due to safety concerns.

The other is scaling back due to lower-than-expected foot traffic.

It’s no secret that many businesses have decided to part ways with downtown St. Louis. It comes on the heels of some developers looking to breathe new life there.

But that momentum isn’t happening fast enough for two business owners who are now speaking with 5 On Your Side.

“We have to close our doors,” said Chef Brandi Artis.

She said she had to come to terms with reality. She opened Simply Delicious Restaurant on Pine Street in 2022.

“We have dealt with struggles over the last, actually since we’ve opened, with burglaries, theft…having people come into the restaurant that are homeless, coming in messing with customers,” Artis explained.

This month, the restaurant served its last meal.

Regarding how things could have been better, Artis said, “I absolutely feel if there was more infrastructure in place, if there were more businesses that were open, if we wouldn’t have loss the La Meridien,” she said referring to the hotel down the street that closed for all of 2024, citing a need for repairs.

The hotel said it hoped to re-open in early 2025. 5 On Your Side is awaiting an update on its plans.

“It just wasn’t as profitable as we thought it would be, being downtown,” said Chef Juwan Rice.

The Owner of Rated Test Kitchen is scaling back to only serve dinner. No more coffee, sandwiches and pastries the cafe offered by day.

This month, Board of Aldermen President Megan Greene tweeted photos touring the vacant AT&T building with the owner who is hoping to soon bring it back to its former glory.

Last year, 5 On Your Side reported the group Oliver Properties acquired the Six Cord building at 10th and Washington to make a $7 million renovation.

“I think it takes more people like myself to take that risk and invest into it because if there’s only one person doing it, that’s not going to be enough to make it make sense, you know what I mean, especially without the proper backing…If we get a group of 10 restaurateurs that will open up over 25 restaurants downtown, now you’re looking at a different footprint,” Rice said.

“A lot of the things that were coming in the city with large conventions, with some of those conventions stopping, some of them, we did suffer because of that,” Artis added.

City leaders could soon invest $74 million into downtown with money from the Rams settlement. Many in the downtown business community wanted more.