ST. LOUIS – The Armory STL in Midtown surprised fans on Sept. 25 by announcing a temporary closure of the bar. It’s been open for nearly two years and saw over 1.5 million visitors, according to Armory STL. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Armory STL is temporarily closed but without any official reopening date

  • Concept designer Miller said the closure is due to lack of funding

  • The team behind the Armory STL are full committed to acquiring the funding to reopen the Armory and complete other phases

  • Originally, the Armory was meant to have a lower level of entertainment and a rooftop bar on the east side

Initially, it opened in Dec. 2022 as part of a multi-phase project, but additional phases were never complete due to lack of funding. Their original vision for the large brick building with stone carved eagles was to have multiple entertainment venues at a lower level and a rooftop beer garden. 

“This phase that we opened was never meant to live on its own,” said Jimmy Smith, COO of the Armory. “Even if we could have added just the rooftop, this whole picture would be different. What we had planned up there was amazing.”

Creator of the ArmorySTL concept, Jacob Miller, blames the landlord. 

“It’s pretty simple. The landlord was supposed to fund the build-out of the whole thing,” said Miller. “When only a fraction was funded, we were left with an incomplete project and were drowning in debt. We are working to restructure the whole thing.”

Miller also is grateful for the way St. Louis embraced the Armory and plans to “figure it out,” because they recognize the demand for downtown entertainment in St. Louis. 

“I fell in love with this city years ago while working on a large project downtown and saw the Armory as a way to create something meaningful to the community.”

Miller and his team are seeking outside capital to help achieve their vision and they do not plan to give up on an eventual reopening of their original vision.