With a tip of the ball cap to W.P. Kinsella, we might suggest a guiding principle for the redevelopment project that is Ballpark Village in downtown St. Louis: If you don’t build it, a time will come when someone better can build something more valuable.
We recall the original confetti thrown in the air for this project, because we helped to distribute some of it. In defense of the cheerleading we and many others did back then, it was a different time. Centene seemed poised to relocate to downtown. John Steffen was still in business and had many people believing in his comprehensive ideas for downtown development. The new Cardinals baseball stadium was projected with strong commitments to substantial minority inclusion.
Then Centene built its new headquaters building in Clayton. John Steffen went out of business (but, we are relieved, does not seem destined for prison, after federal charges of bank fraud were dismissed by a judge). The Cardinals’ stadium now does more to raise bile for the bullying manner in which the team owners do business, with hints of taking away St. Louis’ most beloved franchise if their demands are not met.
Now, in a changed landscape, Ballpark Village as a projected incremental commercial/entertainment district downtown seems like a very bad idea. Amenities like entertainment are the easiest thing to realize if there is demand. What is missing at this time is more demand for increased business activity downtown, because there is insufficient job growth in downtown St. Louis, nor enough residents to build and sustain sought-after “buzz” status. The problem with downtown St. Louis is not scarcity of commercial real estate, it is scarcity of demand for it.
This would be fine, if the Cardinals and their primary development partner, Cordish Co., were prepared to bet only their own money on Ballpark Village. As Bill McClellan pointed out in a stinging and insightful Post-Dispatch column on Monday, the Cardinals are only willing to wager taxpayer money on their scheme. As McClellan also points out, this is not only because they are risk-averse. It is also because they face a penalty for accepting previous tax breaks and not fulfilling their development commitments. Why pay the city for defaulting on a previous agreement, when the Cardinals have such a winning record in getting the city to agree to sweetheart deals contingent on public subsidy?
At this point, the city should not deal, not on these terms. The prudent course would be to enforce the previous agreements with the Cardinals and land-bank this potentially valuable property until a better deal comes along. Downtown St. Louis does not need a new publicly subsidized entertainment district, even if it includes some limited office space. There are existing opportunties for various rumored development projects in downtown St. Louis, should someone want to assume the risk to redevelop other prime available land.
What is scarce downtown, however, is a major chunk of contiguous property that is swept free of debris and shovel-ready. The property that could have been Ballpark Village fits that bill. It should be banked for a genuinely impactful, concentrated development that will bring jobs – or entrepreneurs – to the heart of this promising but struggling downtown. In fact, tax subsidies like those requested for Ballpark Village should be dedicated to new entrepreneurial efforts and not dubious, run-of-the-mill development projects.
Ballpark Village, as the Cardinals are proposing now, is the wrong project at the wrong time with the wrong price tag by the wrong development partners. The city should tell the Cardinals: We had a deal – if you don’t build it as promised, we will come and exact a penalty. That time has come.
