For the past few months, the question for CORTEX, a research park in the Central West End, has been: how do you plan on employing taxpayers – especially minorities, women, city residents and students – on your $2.2 billion, 200-acre redevelopment project over the next 20 years?
On Dec. 12, CORTEX leaders will ask for $157.7 million in public financing from the St. Louis City Tax Increment Financing Commission (TIF).
The research park postponed its last TIF Commission appearance on Oct. 31. Prior to that, legislators and community leaders criticized CORTEX and its founding institutions (BJC Healthcare, Missouri Botanical Gardens, Washington University, Saint Louis University and University of Missouri – St. Louis) for having no inclusion plan in place before asking for public funding.
In an interview with The American on Wednesday morning, CORTEX CEO and President Dennis Lower said that he will present an inclusion policy before the TIF Commission on Dec. 12, which is still getting the approval from stakeholders. CORTEX collaborated with the St. Louis City NAACP to draft the policy.
First, Lower said CORTEX will create transparency in its inclusion numbers by hiring a third-party monitor to collect data of constructions jobs and permanent jobs on all projects. This information will then be posted on the CORTEX website. CORTEX will also post job openings from all enterprises and companies that set up shop in CORTEX’s buildings, Lower said.
CORTEX will work with SLATE to meet the objectives in the First Source Jobs Policy – a city ordinance that requires companies that receive tax incentives to provide entry-level jobs for low-income residents. CORTEX will also expand on those objectives to go beyond entry-level jobs, Lower said.
However, as far as construction workforce goals, Lower said CORTEX will not set a designated goal. He said his team will analyze the workforce “capacity” on each project by speaking with union leaders and other groups to determine a workforce goal. They will then put that goal into the parcel development agreements (PDA), which CORTEX signs with every developer on every project.
‘Playing catch-up’ on inclusion
In July, CORTEX signed a PDA with BJC for the new administrative building. BJC’s workforce goals are 15 percent minority, three percent women, eight percent apprentices and six percent city residents. As far as putting minorities and women to work, BJC’s goals mark the lowest on a St. Louis city project of this scale in the last several years.
These goals also fall far below city ordinance 68412 (also referred to as Board Bill 75), which sets workforce goals on city-funded public works contracts of 25 percent minority, five percent women, 20 percent local workforce and 15 percent apprentices.
June Fowler, spokeswoman for BJC, said the organization is exceeding the goals but could not provide overall workforce numbers by press time. Lower said that because the BJC project was already underway, it is now playing “catch up” on its inclusion goals and policies.
Lower said he will soon sign a PDA with Wexford Science and Technology for the redevelopment of the historic 190,000 square foot Heritage warehouse property on Duncan and Boyle Avenues. Wexford’s construction workforce goals will be 23.8 percent minority, 5.8 percent women, 5.8 percent apprentices and 7.1 percent city residents. Compared to the city ordinance for workforce, Wexford’s goals for apprentices and city residents fall significantly lower than what the city would like to see on publicly funded projects.
In October, Comptroller Darlene Green told The American that if CORTEX wants public tax financing, they should also have to follow the Board Bill 75 and promote diversity on its large construction projects.
“The CORTEX Project has been riffed with controversy regarding land acquisition issues, and it would seem that not adopting Board Bill 75 is yet another poor example for CORTEX, setting a negative tone,” Green said.
Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed also said he sent a letter to project leaders asking them to increase their minority workforce participation goals on the project, along with state Senator-elect Jamilah Nasheed.
Fowler and Lower said it is the “will” of the project owner, not legislators, that will make the program successful. However, Reed and Green – two of the three Board of Estimate & Apportionment members – can make CORTEX comply with the city’s goals by leveraging their support. Whether or not the TIF Commission approves CORTEX’s TIF application, the project will still have a number of ordinances that must pass before the Board of E&A, from zoning to permits. The TIF is just the first step.