Ballpark Village developers and the St. Louis Development Corporation still won’t provide contract amounts for the undisclosed millions in construction costs that are not being monitored when it comes to inclusion of minorities and women in workforce and contracting.
Developers Cordish and the St. Louis Cardinals contracted PARIC to complete the $21.65 million “outer shell” and exterior infrastructure on the $91.3 million first phase of the retail and entertainment complex. However, that is the only contract the city is monitoring for minority participation on the project’s contract spending and workforce.
Ballpark “tenants” – including Cardinals Nation, Fox Sports Midwest Live!, Budweiser Brew House and PBR – have been completing millions of dollars in construction costs inside the building. None of the work is being monitored by the city for inclusion. Without the Board of Aldermen’s knowledge, the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) negotiated a development agreement that allows developers to leave millions in interior construction costs unmonitored for minority participation.
Both SLDC and the developers have refused to provide contract amounts for the millions of tenant construction costs.
The St. Louis American submitted a Sunshine Law request to SLDC on Jan. 24, asking for the project’s budget and contract amounts for the all the general contractors on the project. SLDC provided the information on Feb. 18 and only provided PARIC’s contract amount. When questioned about the tenants’ general contractors, SLDC spokeswoman Ivie Clay stated in an email, “Our legal team determined that the information we sent you was responsive to your request.”
According to the budget provided to The American, SLDC vaguely states that “user improvements” in the “retail element” totaled $23 million. When The American tried to confirm that these were the total construction costs for the tenants, Clay said there was no one at SLDC available to speak before press time.
SLDC’s executive director Otis Williams is a mayoral appointee and reports directly to the mayor’s office. Mayor Francis G. Slay said he did not know about SLDC’s negotiations with Ballpark Village leaders regarding inclusion. He said he first found out on Jan. 30, the same day that The American requested comment from the mayor. He didn’t respond to the American’s questions regarding his knowledge of SLDC’s negotiations until Feb. 19.
Slay said he has directed SLDC leaders to determine “how that happened.”
As the project has received a generous amount of local and state subsidies, developers are required to abide by certain minority participation requirements.
The city’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Office is responsible for making sure the developers meet the city’s goals – awarding 25 percent of all contracts to minority-owned business enterprises (MBEs) and 5 percent to women-owned business enterprises (WBEs).
The St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE) is in charge of reviewing minority workforce participation, and this project’s goals for “boots on the ground” are 17.7 percent African-American workers and four percent other minorities.
Several members of the Board of Aldermen expressed frustration that they were uninformed of the SLDC’s negotiations when they voted to pass the city’s development agreement with the St. Louis Cardinals and Cordish. Several aldermen – including board President Lewis Reed and Alderman Terry Kennedy – are working on passing legislation that would prevent SLDC from allowing another inclusion loophole to get signed into law without informing the aldermen.
“The developers do not represent the interests of the taxpayers – that is the job of SLDC,” Reed said. “In this case, SLDC failed in its duty to the Board of Aldermen and the citizens they represent to sufficiently communicate the participation goals of the agreement in its entirety – and that cannot happen again.”
‘Contractually obligated’
According to a letter obtained by The American sent from developers to SLDC, Ballpark Village developers have promised to obligate the tenants’ contractors to abide by the city’s inclusion laws.
In their Feb. 5 letter to SLDC, Cordish Vice President Blake Cordish and Cardinals President William DeWitt III wrote that “our agreement with the city does not set forth any M/WBE participation or workforce goals for tenant improvements.”
However, the leaders state that they have “contractually obligated” the tenants’ contractors to comply with the city’s MWBE participation goals.
They also state that they will also hire a third-party consultant to review and report the tenants’ minority participation to SLDC.
Zed Smith, director of asset management for the Cordish Company, did not respond to questions regarding when the developers signed “contracts” with tenants’ contractors regarding M/WBE participation goals.
In an email to The American, Smith stated, “The tenants of Ballpark Village have voluntarily agreed to participate in an effort to achieve the inclusion and participation goals set forth by the city.”
Smith also stated that the developers have hired MOKAN, Inc. as the third-party monitor. MOKAN will “work with our tenants to review minority contractor participation, provide recommendations to improve participation levels, and monitor workforce participation moving forward,” he stated.
Smith did not respond to questions regarding whether or not MOKAN’s reports would be shared with the public. MOKAN is currently the developers’ outside monitor for PARIC’s workforce goals, and previously Smith said he was not required to provide MOKAN’s reports to the public.
The advocacy group Congress of Racial Equity (CORE) helped lead protests at Ballpark Village for weeks after learning about the lack of inclusion monitoring on the tenant finishes. Eddie Hasan of CORE said he and others – including state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed – met with the mayor’s office on Feb. 10 regarding inclusion on the project. The mayor’s staff provided the group with the developer’s letter to SLDC.
“Wherever the blame is, the result is less jobs for African Americans and greater chance crime in the community,” Hasan said. “We want to make sure they are employing the people whose taxes are supporting this project.”