The controversial Northside Regeneration project moved, slightly, from vision to reality last week with the announcement of the first corporate tenant within the redevelopment area and the introduction of a new project agreement at the Board of Aldermen.
The new tenant is National Sales Company, a regional distributor that supplies the mechanical, plumbing, HVAC and industrial markets. It will relocate its new headquarters to an existing 56,000-square-foot building located between the intersections of Delmar Boulevard, 16th Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Paul McKee Jr.’s McEagle Properties acquired the property in 2010, late in McKee’s land-acquisition phase. It falls within the 5th Ward, where April Ford-Griffin is alderman.
Ford-Griffin said it was not a stretch to describe the addition of a corporate tenant to a building on the fringes of downtown as a step toward the redevelopment of North St. Louis.
“It’s north of Delmar,” Ford-Griffin said. “If something is north of Delmar, people say it is in North St. Louis. Carr Square units start just one block north of this building, and anybody would say that is North St. Louis.”
This is not new business for the City of St. Louis, as National Sales Company has been based in the city for over 65 years.
“Our new headquarters in the NorthSide Regeneration development gives us the opportunity to continue to support our customers and our city with an expanded and conveniently located facility NSC’s President Lenny Knese said in a statement. “Investing in this project serves as a great platform for NSC’s future growth.”
The existing office/warehouse building recently underwent a major renovation to the 6,000-square-foot office section as well as seeing many improvements to the existing 50,000-square-foot warehouse and the exterior of the building.
The NSC headquarters will house all office functions, will-call, counter sales and warehouse. The company will begin moving its 42 employees to the new location in February.
NSC has future plans for a $1.5 million expansion of the building that will increase the existing warehouse by 26,000 square feet. The company anticipates construction of the expansion space to begin within the next two years and anticipates adding 15 more employees upon final completion.
New board bill
Ford-Griffin also introduced the board bill on Friday that outlines new project proposals for McKee’s Northside redevelopment plan.
The Board of Aldermen adopted a bill to authorize a redevelopment agreement on October 30, 2009. However, the court struck it down. On July 2, 2010, Judge Robert H. Dierker Jr. of the St. Louis City Circuit Court sided with the redevelopment’s opposition that the plan lacked reference to a specific project.
The new bill will attempt to address Dierker’s concerns. The plan proposes a recycling center for building materials and building aggregates, called the “SMART Center,” infrastructure work for the project area near the Mississippi River Bridge.
Ford-Griffin said she intends to see that minorities and 5th Ward residents to benefit from this construction work.
“As each pieces moves, we need to see minority inclusion and people from these neighborhoods getting jobs,” she said.
Ford-Griffin said she intends for these projects to be the beginning of the massive redevelopment outlined in McKee’s now-voided redevelopment agreement.
“But it is going to take time, so now is the time for people to be preparing for the jobs when they do come,” she said.
“I am always telling my constituents there are many organizations that will help you with everything from how to dress, how to speak properly, up to more advanced job skills.”
She said her constituents tend to calm their fears when presented with documents that describe what McKee has proposed to do.
“The people want development. I know, because I hear that all the time, especially around election time,” she said.
As for McKee, she said their working relationship is itself a work in progress. “We are not long-time buddies, so there is a getting-to-know process and a gaining of trust,” she said. “Everybody wants to get everything in writing, and that’s how it should be.”
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