Officials: River City Casino Boulevard leads to jobs
November 9, 2009 6:01 PM ET
St. Louis Business Journal
By Kelsey Volkmann
Elected officials plan to celebrate Tuesday the completion of a $23.8 million road that local company executives and politicians hope will spur further economic development in South St. Louis County.
Las Vegas-based Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. paid for the mile-and-a-half-long River City Casino Boulevard from Interstate 55 to the Mississippi riverfront along the River Des Peres to provide access to its new$380 million casinoopening next spring.
St. Louis contractor Fred Weber Inc. built the road, which took two acts of Congress, 120 acres of environmental cleanup costing $10 million and the cooperation of many entities, according to the St. Louis County Economic Council.
The road is spurring the cleanup of abandoned brownfield industrial sites nearby.
Phil Hulse and Mike Clark, principals of Green Street Properties of Clayton, credited the road withopening up accessto Interstate 55 and boosting their $50 million plan to convert the former site of the Carondelet Coke Corp., the largest piece of dormant property owned by the city, into a business and industrial park that will create 700 jobs.
The road also opens up access to a site being developed by St. Louis structural steel fabricator Stupp Bros., a $5 million project creating 225 jobs, and to the$20 million developmentof the National Imagery and Mapping Agency site, which is creating 20 jobs, according to the St. Louis County Economic Council.
"This four-year collaborative effort to build the River City Casino Boulevard will provide access for investment in jobs for over 2,000 people and has already resulted in over 1,000 construction jobs for the community," St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley said in a statement.
The road also boosts access to Hancock Place School District, Notre Dame High School, the Metropolitan Sewer District's Lemay Treatment Facility, the Saint Louis Enterprise Center in South County, the Lemay Child & Family Center, Jefferson Barracks Park, the planned Jefferson Barracks military history complex, Jefferson Barracks National Cemetary, Lemay Park, the Heine Meine athletic complex and Great Rivers Greenway's regional system of interconnected parks and trails, the council said.
Tuesday's opening celebration is scheduled for 10 a.m. Dooley, U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., and St. Louis County Economic Council President and Chief Executive Denny Coleman are expected to attend.
Someone who isn't expected to attend is Daniel Lee, whoresignedMonday as Pinnacle's chairman and CEO after the state launched an investigation into his alleged threats against a St. Louis County councilman.
