Panel gives local team head start in business park deal

From the November 4, 2004 print edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Eric Heisler of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

In the race to develop a prized business park near Lambert Field, a team of local developers with deep ties to the troubled site has taken an early lead.

St. Louis County officials on Thursday announced the front-runner to develop the 600-acre park: NorthPark Partners, a team made up of McEagle Development, TriStar Business Communities and Claycorp.

Meeting behind closed doors, a selection committee opted for that group over four others, including two teams that involved out-of-town developers with deep pockets.

NorthPark will begin negotiations with county officials for rights to build a business park that%u2019s expected to draw as many as 13,000 jobs to north St. Louis County.

%u201CThat%u2019s exciting, and I%u2019m happy. But it means I have a lot of work to do,%u201D said Larry Chapman, senior vice president for TriStar. %u201CWe think we%u2019ll be able to get this done, but I%u2019m told this is just the beginning, and I know this is just the beginning.%u201D

The park will rise east of Lambert on land that stretches into three cities: Kinloch, Ferguson and Berkeley. Until the early 1980s, the site was filled mostly with hundreds of modest houses.

Over the last 20 years, most of the houses were cleared in an airport noise buyout, and St. Louis-area leaders began looking at the site as an economic gold mine. They hoped to transform the ground into a rare find in built-out St. Louis County %u2014 open land suited for industry.

For years, efforts stalled because of fighting among city officials in Kinloch, Ferguson and Berkeley. Under political pressure, the cities joined with St. Louis County and asked teams of developers to submit plans for the site in September.

A six-member committee met privately with the teams. The identity of each team%u2019s membership was released, but details of its plans were not.

Committee members rated the proposals on several criteria, and NorthPark scored highest overall.

Now, the St. Louis County Economic Council will begin talks with NorthPark over issues such as how much the team will pay for the land and how much public-funding assistance will be needed to build the park.

%u201CThe other respondents should not consider themselves out of the running,%u201D said John Temporiti, chairman of the 11-member Airport Joint Development Commission that%u2019s overseeing the project. %u201CIf we%u2019re not able to reach an agreement with NorthPark, we reserve the right to go to the next developer.%u201D

He declined to release the rankings of the other teams. He also would not discuss details of the NorthPark plan, nor would Chapman. Temporiti said he hopes an agreement is signed by January.

TriStar and McEagle are more accustomed to competing on projects than partnering on them. Each sought to develop portions of the site when the three cities first tried to pick developers years ago.

%u201CThe biggest challenge is that this was not built first as an industrial site,%u201D Chapman said. %u201CIt was built as a residential development, and it has none of the infrastructure to support a large-scale, high-density commercial area. It all has to be created new.%u201D

The park is expected to have a large segment dedicated to industrial and warehouse operations. It%u2019s also likely to include office and retail areas.

At least two of NorthPark%u2019s competitors sought to win the project by involving firms such as ProLogis, a $700 million-a-year developer based in Aurora, Colo. ProLogis teamed with local developer Roberts Brothers Properties.

Another local developer, Summit Development Group, tried to sway the committee by offering to bring in a large, unnamed retailer that would be new to the St. Louis market.

Republished with the permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
© 2004 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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