St. Louis County to buy old Lemay Bank site, expand Lemay Park
St. Louis Business Journal
September 22, 2010
By Kelsey Volkmann
St. Louis County said Wednesday it plans to expand Lemay Park using money from Pinnacle Entertainment's new River City Casino.
The St. Louis County Port Authority will receive at least $4 million a year in land lease payments from Las Vegas-based Pinnacle for the casino, which opened in March. At least $3 million of that goes to both non-profit and for-profit projects in Lemay.
The port authority bought a dilapidated, vacant two-story building at 152 Lemay Ferry Road at the entrance to Lemay. The building will be demolished, and in its place, St. Louis County will use the two-acre site to expand Lemay Park. The build-out will include athletic fields and green space.
The building, which is expected to be razed later this fall, is located in a floodplain and was the former Lemay Bank building and most recently the defunct Gateway to a Cure Foundation headquarters. The open space development replaces land the Lemay Park sacrificed to construct River City Boulevard, which was needed to build the casino.
Earlier this month, the port authority awarded $1.7 million in grants from its Community Reinvestment Fund to seven Lemay organizations after each submitted funding requests in June:
- Jefferson Barracks Heritage Foundation
- Lemay Baseball Association
- Lemay Child and Family Center
- Lemay Development Corp.
- Lemay Housing Partnership
- Missouri Civil War Heritage Foundation
- Missouri Civil War Museum
Over the next five years, 75 percent of River City's lease payment will be reinvested in Lemay. Second round funding applications will be available on the St. Louis County Economic Council website Oct. 1. Applications are due Dec. 1.
Part of the remaining casino rent money was used to create the $1.5 million Helix Fund, which will provide seed money for plant and life science start-ups.
