A sign in one of the windows says, "Dreams Sold Here."

It's an advertisement for the Missouri Lottery, but it might as well be the motto for this red-and-brown brick building along Martin Luther King Drive.

The nonprofit Habitat for Neighborhood Business broke ground on the building in March 2008. Two years later, there was a ribbon cutting for the 7,200 square foot building.

The dream was to bring new retail businesses into the economically-challenged and underserved Ville neighborhood in St. Louis. And in the process, the nonprofit's leaders wanted to provide a launching pad for entrepreneurs by offering below-market rents and help from student, professional accountants and mentors.

Now the last tenant, Chizoms Food Mart, is getting ready to open its doors in the next week or two. When it does, it will join a wig shop, a barbershop, a shoe store, and a business that sells fraternity-related goods.

"The process has taken awhile," said Doug Brown, the Habitat chairman and a former executive at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. "But we were thrilled to death that in this economy, we were able to fully fill it in 18 months."

Brown is frank about the fact that many of these businesses are not necessarily filling the biggest retail voids in the neighborhood. A St. Louis University study several years ago had identified some of those needs: a grocery, dry cleaners, pharmacy and restaurants.

But, he said, "I believe there's a greater chance of success if we let people fulfill their dreams."

And Brown's especially excited about the incoming food mart, which will not only offer some healthy and fresh food products, but he hopes it will also draw more traffic to the building and increase exposure to the other businesses.

Theodore Becton, the owner of Chizoms, noticed the new building going up a few years ago. It stuck out in a neighborhood where you don't see a lot of new developments.

He already had one small convenience store at 709 North Euclid Avenue, which he calls his "learning tree store." But he wanted to expand.

"I thought it would be a perfect fit," he said. "I want to be part of the revitalization of Martin Luther King."

His new store will be bigger than his first store, which was 2,200 square feet. It will have fountain soda, espresso machines, and fresh-made deli sandwiches. It will also have a "healthy corner" with granola, nuts, fruits and vegetables.

"That's one of the main things we're trying to do," Becton said. "To offer more healthy products to the area instead of what's in the neighborhood."

Now that this project is nearly complete, Habitat is scouring neighborhoods for a second project.

MORE RACY ADS

There's no graceful way to transition to my next topic. So let's just get right to it.

Hardee's newest commercial may not have run during the Super Bowl. But from the sounds of it, the spot ranks right up there with GoDaddy's racy ads.

Of course, provocative ads are nothing new for the St. Louis-based company that has used a number of sexy spokeswomen such as Paris Hilton and Padma Lakshmi in eye-popping ads to peddle their burgers over the years.

The company's newest ad, set to be released later this month, features 19-year-old Kate Upton, the 2011 Sports Illustrated Rookie of the Year swimsuit model.

According to Fox411.com, which was on hand for the taping of the commercial, it takes place in a 50's-era drive-in movie theater. Upton, dressed in a skimpy polka-dot dress, apparently writhes on top of a classic convertible as she seductively eats a Southwest Patty Melt.

Nope, there's nothing subtle about it.

Jenna Petroff, a Hardee's spokeswoman, said the ad, which will be both for Hardee's and its sister brand Carl's Jr., should hit the St. Louis market around February 27.

As for the Super Bowl, Petroff said the company has apparently never made a commercial specifically for the big game.

But if it did, we can only wonder how Hardee's would make that ad even more over the top.