St. Louis County to take off with airport project

From the December 24, 2004 print edition of the St. Louis Business Journal
By Patrick L. Thimangu

If all goes according to schedule, a proposal to develop 600 acres east of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport will be one of the biggest economic development projects to break ground in St. Louis County in 2005.

The development is expected to create up to 12,000 jobs, generate $320 million in property and income tax revenue, and a have a total economic impact of $7 billion in the St. Louis area, according to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

Dooley said the proposed project is the culmination of months of negotiations that led to cooperation between officials of Berkeley, Kinloch, Ferguson, St. Louis County and the state. The officials formed the 11-member Airport Area Redevelopment Intergovernmental Commission earlier this year to oversee the project.
Last month the commission selected North Park Partners as the front-runner for the redevelopment. North Park, a partnership comprising developers TRiSTAR Business Communities LLC, McEagle Properties LLC and Clayco Construction Co., beat out other local developers that had submitted proposals for the project.

Dooley said North Park has not submitted final plans for the project, which is scheduled to begin in early 2005. The idea, though, is that North Park will fine-tune the plan it submitted to the commission to create a park with a mix of office and light industrial development.

Larry Chapman, a partner at North Park, said the partnership is in the early stages of negotiating and is figuring out the final design, costs and financing of the big project. He declined to give estimates on costs for the project, but said the financing would come from many sources that might include a mix of private debt equity financing and public funding through bond issues.

Chapman said he is optimistic that the Airport Area Redevelopment Intergovernmental Commission will approve North Park's final plan.

"I would imagine this spring we will have gone through all the negotiations," Chapman said.

The 600-acre property proposed for development is currently designated a state Enterprise Zone and a federal historically underutilized business (HUB). The property, which is the largest area of land not in a flood plain available for development in St. Louis County, was a residential community that the city of St. Louis bought and razed to create space for the airport's noise zone in the 1980s.

Dooley said other significant projects on the drawing board for St. Louis County next year include Pinnacle Entertainment's $300 million proposal for a mixed-use gaming and retail development in south St. Louis County. The Missouri Gaming Commission approved Pinnacle's proposals in September.

The county government also will continue to promote the county as a hub of the life sciences industry, he said.

The St. Louis County Economic Development Council is moving forward with plans to develop a new post-incubator, multitenant lab/office facility on eight acres adjacent to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center campus. The council is funding the facility in part with a $2 million grant it received from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration and is still seeking additional funding for the project, Dooley said.
© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com