ST. LOUIS – It's sat vacant for more than a decade. Now, the Millennium Hotel in Downtown St. Louis has a new owner.

On Friday, the group behind the purchase – Gateway Arch Park Foundation – gathered to celebrate the prominent purchase.

The Gateway Arch Park Foundation is under contract for the purchase of the vacant hotel, located at 200 South 4th street. It was first opened as the Stouffer Hotel in 1969. It closed doors in 2014.

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"By taking action on this asset and bringing it back to prominence we are showing the world that St. Louis means business," says Neal Richardson with St. Louis Development Corporation.

The foundation did not disclose the price, though it was an acquisition three years in the making.

"We are taking an incredible location and taking vacancy head on and hopefully taking steps to turn this into a wonderful location for someone to look under the Arch as they walk by or drive by or experience this location," says Jared Boyd, Chief of Staff for St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones.

The foundation is working with St. Louis Development Corporation, the city of St. Louis and Greater St. Louis Inc., on the redevelopment plan for the property.

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"The spirt of Eero Saarinen is always with us and guiding us and I mean that in all seriousness," says McClure, in reference to the architect behind the Arch. "What Saarinen created in our city and envisioned now defines us to the entire world. In any way we can move his vision forward we want to be part of that with our partners with the National Park Service. The Millennium Hotel next to it, it would be interesting to know what Saarinen would think of what we're doing today. I think he would be happy."

The public private partnership intends to perform an assessment of the property with an announcement of the results in the next few months. Future plans for the hotel could become more clear after that.