National Archives project secures financing
St. Louis Business Journal
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Financing has been secured for the $100 million National Archives and Records Administration military personnel records facility planned for north St. Louis County.
Developer Barry Real Estate Cos. of Atlanta brought in another developer, The Molasky Group of Las Vegas, to secure financing for the 474,690-square-foot archives facility to be built on 23-plus acres at 1829 Dunn Road, the St. Louis County Economic Council said Tuesday. Barry Real Estate sold the development rights to the project to The Molasky Group.
The project is expected to retain nearly 800 jobs for the region, and the first phase is scheduled for completion by May 2011.
It has been 15 months since the U.S. General Services Administration awarded the contract to secure the land. The project has faced multiple obstacles, including the collapse of financial markets and the downturn in commercial lending for large-scale projects.
The project will be built by a joint venture of Hardin Construction Co. of Atlanta and St. Louis-based Tarlton Corp. and designed by HKS of Dallas.
In July, the project received nearly $5.5 million in BUILD Missouri bonds.
The facility is a replacement for the National Personnel Records Center at 9700 Page Ave., which houses the military personnel files of 56 million Americans, including Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Elvis Presley and Dwight Eisenhower. The new building will hold more than 2 million cubic feet of military records in stacking systems that will be 29 feet tall.
