Unfortunately, a devastating tornado touched down in the neighborhood back in May 2025. Leigh says recovery efforts are still underway on commercial and residential properties.
Mazur says the tornado did roughly $1.8 billion worth of damage to a number of neighborhoods in North St. Louis, including Fountain Park where LaunchCode is.
“Many homes and buildings were devastated literally blocks from LaunchCode’s facility,” Mazur says. “Much of that still remains to be fully rebuilt and recovered.”
Although it’s been nearly four years since Mazur left his position at LaunchCode, their mission remains close to his heart.
“As we think about organizations, whether they’re workforce organizations like LaunchCode, or other community development corporations, or those trying to build under-served communities—we know that access to capital is highly restrained. The presence and willingness of organizations and institutions like IFF become even more critical to fill that gap.”
“I still know how important the organization’s mission is to St. Louis,” he says. “I think about that facility and where it sits—it already occupied this symbolic place of importance on the Delmar Divide. Now it also occupies this place, kind of a scar from the tornado which displaced many people and put many people in even more challenging personal and financial situations. When you have an organization like LaunchCode there, it presents this space of possibility.”
Even though technology is always changing, Mazur says the organization’s mission remains steadfast.
“This is a place that’s about opening the door to people who oftentimes haven’t had many doors open to them,” he says.
IFF opening up its doors for LaunchCode to celebrate their doors reopening at their transformed facility is a story Mazur and others won’t soon forget.
“If a CDFI like IFF didn’t exist, there would have been no opportunity in the typical lending market to be able to borrow money to buy that building,” he says. “The organization would have been pushed out of a place that had been its home for years. It would have had to find a different place in a different neighborhood that may not have worked as well. As we think about organizations, whether they’re workforce organizations like LaunchCode, or other community development corporations, or those trying to build under-served communities—we know that access to capital is highly restrained. The presence and willingness of organizations and institutions like IFF become even more critical to fill that gap.”