Dooley wants tax abatement for project in Des Peres

From The ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, Wednesday, April 30, 2008
By Phil Sutin

CLAYTON - St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley on Tuesday asked the County Council to grant Edward D. Jones and Co. and an affiliate $17.8 million in 10 years of tax abatement to help finance a $145 million addition that could add hundreds of jobs at its headquarters in Des Peres.

The company wants to build an addition of 225,000 square feet and a four-level parking structure at the headquarters, at Interstate 270 and Manchester Road. The abatement covers half the taxes Jones would pay on the new structures in 10 years starting in 2010.

Earlier this month, the council granted Jones property and sales tax abatements totaling about $37 million. They are to run from 2009 to 2022 to help finance construction a $246 million project with three office buildings and parking garages totaling 817,000 square feet along Progress Parkway just east of Interstate 270 in Maryland Heights.

The two expansions would generate a minimum of 500 new permanent jobs at 800 construction jobs, the county economic council said.

At the council's public forum, Tom Sullivan, a civic activist, said the council should reject Dooley's request. The county may not benefit from the abatement, and it would encourage developers to think they are entitled to tax abatements for every project, he said.

The council also granted nearly $3.1 million in tax abatement and exemptions to help finance an office building of 146,000 square feet at 13610 Riverport Drive, also in Maryland Heights.

The benefit would go to Elsevier Inc., a publisher of science and health information from Amsterdam, Netherlands, that would use the structure, and Duke Construction Limited Partnership, which would develop and build it.