Chrysler Plant Comes Tumbling Down
South County Times
November 12, 2010
By Brian Roewe
The walls of the South Chrysler Plant continue to fall, but recent developments raise hope for Fenton and the surrounding region still reeling from the demise of the once-giant auto maker.
The Chrysler Regional Redevelopment Strategy has selected the Chicago-based firm AECOM to research, study and develop a plan to reposition the area's economy and redevelop the workforce of the former plants.
"This is a very important project, and we're very happy to be underway," said Denny Coleman, CEO and president of the St. Louis Economic Council, one of three groups partnering in the initiative.
The partnership also includes the City of Fenton and Missouri Department of Economic Development.
"Our hopes for the site are that it becomes a research and development site for alternative energy," said Fenton Mayor Dennis Hancock.
Such a plan has the potential for attracting a variety of manufacturing jobs, including the production of electric batteries, parts for electric cars and even electric vehicles themselves.
"We're certainly not ruling that out," said Coleman, addressing the idea of re-entering the auto industry.
Coleman also cited the billions of dollars available from the Department of Energy as an incentive for attracting jobs developing alternative energy.
"We feel there are significant opportunities for established companies as well as start-ups," he said.
Still, the county partnership is open to the idea of diversifying the use of the 295-acre site as an industrial park as a means to insulate themselves from the whims of one industry.
"We don't want to get married to one industry, where you're more suspect to the ups and downs," said Hancock.
Hiring A Project Manager
To oversee the planning, the partnership hired Barbara Featherston as senior project manager for the Redevelopment Strategy.
The primary funding for the project comes from a $1,575,000 grant from the United States Department of Commerce. The full grant totals $2.1 million, as federal guidelines require the county, state and city to contribute 25 percent.
The state is contributing $262,500 while Fenton and St. Louis County are each contributing $131,250.
Featherston has a deep background in real estate, previously working for General Electric and Sara Lee Bakery Group in their corporate real estate divisions. She most recently worked as a director for the Center of Research, Technology and Entrepreneurial Exchange (CORTEX), a St. Louis non-profit organization.
As senior project manager, Featherston will become the principal liaison between the groups working on the two phases of the project. One phase focuses on repositioning the job force; hiring AECOM was the first step.
A second phase will analyze the site's reinvestment potential. Before this begins, the partnership must find a new owner, something they hope to accomplish by the beginning of the year.
A Plan for the Future
Chosen from a pool of eight initial candidates, AECOM offered the combination of manageable cost and experience redeveloping auto-dependent regions. In 2009, AECOM began working with the city of Flint, Mich., and Genesse County on re-positioning the area's economy after the loss of several General Motors plants.
The consulting group will conduct numerous studies of the region, said Chris Brewer, the vice president overseeing the project. The studies will cost $301,000.
Priorities for the study will emphasize jobs and investment.
Extensive analysis will examine how the region's economy has adjusted and evolved since the closing of the plants and amid the recession. From there it will identify investment opportunities for the entire region. In addition, the firm will evaluate the region's workforce to determine which skills are prevalent and recommend what training is needed to prepare them for new jobs.
AECOM and the county partnership plan to have the results of the study by the end of 2011.
At that time, Fenton Mayor Dennis Hancock anticipates the region having a clear direction of where it is going, and how the workforce will be reabsorbed back into the economy.
Moving on, Looking Ahead
The closing of the Chrysler Plants left a region and a workforce in tatters. At one point, more than 6,000 workers manned the assembly lines at the plants, many assembling minivans and Dodge Rams. By 2009, the lines stopped permanently.
Hancock acknowledged the plants were "a big part of a lot of people's lives," with some families supplying Chrysler three generations of workers.
"We feel an obligation to helping folks move on to the next phase of their life, whatever that may be," said Hancock.
"If you look at a map," Coleman added, "thousands of people were impacted outside St. Louis County. It was truly a regional impact, and we're looking for a regional solution."
One big step toward a solution will be the selection of a new owner. To assist in identifying potential owners, the county partnership hired the brokerage firm NAI Desco of St. Louis. Several parties have shown interest, and the partnership hopes to secure a new owner by early 2011.
In the meantime, demolition crews will continue to tear down the South plant. MCM Management Corp., in charge of the demolition of the above-ground portion, estimates the plant will be gone by the end of winter. The foundation of the South plant will remain intact, as will the North plant, viewed as having more value to potential buyers.
