St. Louis County Council considers tax abatements

From The St. Louis Post Dispatch. Saturday, November 08, 2008
by Phil Sutan

CLAYTON-- The St. Louis County Council on Thursday approved sending notices about tax abatement it is considering for three projects to the jurisdictions the tax relief would affect. The abatements would be:

- Twenty years of full abatement totaling nearly $73.6 million for Barry Real Estate Cos. Inc. and an affiliate who would construct a building of 474,690 square feet at 1829 Dunn Road in north St. Louis County. The federal government would lease the structure for a regional headquarters and warehouse for the National Archives and Records Administration. Barry would also receive nearly $2.4 million in sales tax abatement on materials it purchases for the project. The federal government requested the abatement so the county would treat the structure the same as a government building. The abatement would help preserve 600 jobs.

- Fourteen years of half abatement of personal property taxes on new production equipment at 2600 and 2703 Wagner Place, Maryland Heights, and new research equipment at 385 and 369 Marshall Avenue in Webster Groves for Mallinckrodt Inc., a subsidiary of Covidien Ltd. The total abatement would be nearly $5.3 million. The company plans to buy the equipment in phases. The tax abatement on any purchase would last 10 years. Mallinckrodt would receive an abatement of $658,123 in sales taxes for a building of about 5,000 square feet for a new production line. The company would add 30 jobs.

- Ten years of half abatement of real and personal property taxes totaling nearly $1.2 million for Seiler Instruments and Manufacturing Co. and two affiliates. Seiler would purchase a building of 148,000 square feet at 3433 Tree Court Industrial Boulevard in southwest St. Louis County to manufacture fire control equipment. The abatement would preserve 145 jobs and lead to 45 new jobs within five years.

In other matters, the County Council set a public hearing on a total budget of $518.2 million for next year. The hearing will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 18 in the County Council chambers, 1st floor, County Administration Building, 41 South Central Avenue, Clayton.

The council will not meet Tuesday because of the Veterans Day holiday.