Pete Rothschild Reflects on Long Career & Property Sale

The following article was published in the March 2026 issue of the CWEA Griffin. A link for the entire March issue follows this post.

1974 photograph shows Pete Rothschild and Buzz Wall in front of Rothschild’s Antiques

Real estate entrepreneur and long-time neighborhood fixture Pete Rothschild recently sold a majority stake in 10 CWE retail, office, and residential properties, and 2 parking lots to St. Louis-based AHM Group.  The portfolio includes the 4 historic corner buildings at the Euclid/ McPherson intersection, 14 Maryland Plaza (Twisted Ranch), 449 N. Euclid at Washington, The Scottish Arms building at 8 S. Sarah, the c. 1890 former police station at 12-14 N. Newstead, The Euclid parking lot just north of McPherson, and a section of the lot on McPherson at Walton.

AHM Group focuses exclusively on urban neighborhoods and currently owns about 1,000 apartment units and 350,000 s.f of commercial space across the City of St. Louis.

In a press release, AHM Group’s Co-founder, Partner, and CWEnder Kyle Howerton said: “Our goal in acquiring this portfolio is not simply ownership—it’s stewardship…This investment allows us to continue investing at a neighborhood scale, supporting local businesses, preserving historic buildings, and ensuring the CWE remains vibrant for decades to come.”

During our interview Rothschild said: “I’ve had my real estate business for what seems like my whole life, so it’s not easy for me to let go of these properties. I’ve maintained a financial stake and an advisory role, telling people what to do, which I am use to, except,” he laughed, “at home. I still own the Hill Building (Starbucks, Kingside Diner) at Euclid and Maryland, and the Bacchus building (Brasserie, Patisserie Svoi) at Euclid and Laclede.”

Reflecting on his long career, Rothschild mused: “It’s not that I’m not a team player, but I’ve never really worked for other people. My wife, Donna, refers to me as involuntarily self-employed. As a kid, I drove an ice cream truck, had a lawn mowing business, and a job as a Fuller Brush man too.” 

Rothschild went to John Burroughs School until 11th grade.  He explained:  “My family’s jewelry business sank along with the rest of retail downtown, so I transferred to Ladue High School. As a transfer student, I wasn’t able to participate in sports because the schools were in the same district, which was really disappointing. I didn’t feel academically challenged there either, and since I have ADHD, paying attention was difficult.” In his senior year, his parents sent him to boarding school, where “I felt pretty normal because half the people there were nuttier than I was.”  His higher education experience consisted of abbreviated stints at schools in Missouri and Texas.

1974 photograph shows Rothschild’s Antiques staff including from left, Ron Tingler, Buzz Wall, Pete Rothschild, Paul Akeman, Snidely Whiplash, Terry Ann Guest

Rothschild had developed a fondness for old buildings and old things, and he and some friends loved scouring antiques stores in Gaslight Square. “You’d buy a chair for $10, spruce it up and sell it for 20 bucks,” he said. In 1969, when he was 20, he moved to an apartment in the CWE and opened Rothschild’s Antiques at Euclid and McPherson. 

“Then I got into real estate which is exactly the same idea as the $20 chair, except with a bunch of zeros behind it. I didn’t start out with any money, and didn’t really know what I was doing, but I figured the worst thing that could happen was that I’d just be broke again.” 

Rothschild bought his first property in the early 70s, a two-family on McPherson for “next to nothing.”  His next purchase was the Barwick Apartments, also on McPherson, which he bought for $45,000. Over the past 50 years, he’s acquired properties all over the city and county. When business was at its peak, Rothschild employed 90 people working in management, construction, maintenance, and administration. 

His biggest real estate challenge came during the recession of ’08. “That was a disaster. Until then, my M.O. had been to buy a cool old building I liked. The banks loved me because I always honored my agreements. They would lend the purchase money and then I would go back to borrow money for the construction phase. That was fine until ’08, when the banks said they could no longer loan the rehab money due to regulations. It was a major meltdown for the economy, but we were able to survive it, pay our debts, and not go broke.”

“Covid was another disaster. Our tenants were struggling and needed our help to stay in business. We made deals with many of our retail tenants and as a result, no one went out of business. It cost us most of our savings to get through the crisis, but we paid all of our lenders and kept our employees.”

Then there was the devastating fire at Euclid and McPherson in June, 2022. As Rothschild described the aftermath:  “The building had been converted to condos decades earlier and the Condominium Association held the insurance policy. That meant there were 8 different attorneys, not including our own,12 insurance adjusters, and the owners of 4 condominiums I didn’t own. At that time, contractors were backed up with work, and supply chain issues made getting new equipment take forever. In addition to spending the insurance proceeds, we had to invest a lot more money to bring the building back to a habitable condition.” Three years later, in December 2025, all of the storefronts were occupied, and customers began returning to the area. 

RothschildSTL is in the process of moving out of their handsome third floor offices overlooking the corner of Euclid and McPherson, a corner of the CWE filled with so many memories and so much history. It’s where it all began for Rothschild. “AHM Group is moving in, and my staff of 4 and I are moving to the 2nd floor of the Brasserie building at Euclid and Laclede.”

“While I still own properties here and throughout the city and county, my role in the CWE has changed dramatically. But I know Kyle Howerton and his company will honor what’s been built here and guide it thoughtfully into the future. I think most business is just common sense, hard work, and luck. I consider myself a very lucky guy.”

Here is the entire March 2026 issue of CWEA Griffin.