Local and state elected officials gushed excitedly for more than an hour at a press conference on Friday, April 1 about the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s preliminary announcement to build its new $1.7 billion facility in North St. Louis.
“We won,” officials said repeatedly.
“This is a great day for St. Louis and a shining example of what is possible when Missourians work together across regional and party lines for the good of their communities,” said Gov. Jay Nixon.
In a hastily assembled press conference on March 31, when the news first leaked, Mayor Francis G. Slay credited the Metropolitan Clergy Coalition, St. Louis Regional Chamber, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The St. Louis American as “superheroes” for doggedly supporting the city’s effort to keep NGA.
U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay also credited developer Paul McKee Jr. for assembling the land in North St. Louis that made the city’s bid possible. McKee and Bob Clark of Clayco prepared the initial proposal for the North St. Louis site.
Nixon said that the competition was stiff, but that St. Louis – perhaps seen as the “underdog” – came out on top.
The competitive edge did come with a considerable commitment in local and state funds to entice the federal agency. The state has committed $131 million for infrastructure improvements – $95 million in Tax Incremental Financing and approximately $36 million in Brownfield Tax Credits.
On March 7, St. Louis city leaders announced that they would give the federal intelligence agency free land if NGA officials agreed to build its western headquarters in North St. Louis. The original price tag for the North City land was $14 million. The city also has committed to providing a $1.5 million annual contribution for up to 30 years.
The NGA’s current facility sits in Soulard near the Anheuser-Busch InBev Brewery. NGA leaders reviewed proposals of four sites for the facility’s relocation – including two in south St. Louis County and one in Illinois.
The North St. Louis site is 100 acres adjacent to the former Pruitt-Igoe public housing development. It includes 76 percent vacant land, 9 percent vacant residential lots (lots with vacant homes), and 13 percent owner- or renter-occupied residences, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Final Environmental Impact Statement published on April 1.
Along with a final environmental impact study, the NGA officially announced on April 1 that North St. Louis is its “preferred” site for the Next NGA West project.
“The St. Louis city site provides NGA with the most technological, academic and professional environment for this agency to develop the capabilities and solutions necessary to solve the hardest intelligence and national security problems entrusted to us by the American people,” said Robert Cardillo, NGA director.
Now begins the public comment period of the process, and the final decision will be announced in June. U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt said it’s like the part of the wedding where the officiant asks if anyone opposes the marriage. “You just hope no one stands up,” he said.
If the NGA chooses to move the agency’s facility out of St. Louis city, the city would lose $2.3 million in earnings tax revenue from the loss of those 3,100 jobs.
Blunt said the congressional delegation will continue to push for the North City site until the decision is final. Blunt is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
Inclusion goals double federal guidelines
Blunt also said that nearly 40 percent of all labor hours on the $1.75 billion construction will go to minorities, according to a February 9 letter to him from Jeff Aboussie, executive secretary-treasurer of the Building and Construction Trades Council of St. Louis (AFL-CIO). The letter summarizes a Community Workforce Agreement that Aboussie had sent on behalf of the council to Cardillo.
In the agreement, the council proposed that at least 37.81 percent of all labor hours on the facility would go to minorities, which more than doubles the 17 percent inclusion goals set forth in federal guidelines.
The council also proposed that at least 23.28 percent of all labor hours would go to St. Louis city residents, and 6.9 percent of all labor hours would go to women.
In February, Blunt said he asked Cardillo if this minority workforce commitment will aid St. Louis’ case.
“He said it absolutely helps,” Blunt said.
The city had to acquire 551 total parcels to secure the project site. Of those, 507 are under contract and 44 parcels are involved in an eminent domain process. Those include properties with title issues, absent owners and owners unwilling to negotiate, according to the city.
Clay said he wasn’t worried that the new facility, which will have security fences surrounding it, will uproot a community. “There’s no more neighborhood,” he said. “It takes neighbors to actually have a neighborhood.”
However, after the announcement, resistant property owners in the area released a statement that they did not feel like “winners” at hearing the news. They said their neighborhood was once home to many first-time African-American homeowners who were displaced by another federal project – the Pruitt-Igoe housing project – that was a dismal failure.
“We are troubled that St. Louis has not learned its lesson from these failures,” the statement read.
Clay said that NGA West is an opportunity for the federal government to atone to the community for past failures. He said he had conversations with President Barack Obama about choosing North St. Louis, and he felt the president listened to his concerns. And he said the government is upholding its commitment to areas with the Promise Zone designation. The North city site is the only one with that classification, which means it is an area that should get federal preference for redevelopment opportunities.
“After decades of disinvestment and depopulation, and after the national disgrace of Pruitt-Igoe,” Clay said, “the NGA has made a powerful, positive choice that will once again place North St. Louis at the center of jobs, innovation, technology, economic development and defending freedom.”
To comment to the NGA on its site selection, visithttp://nextngawest.com/site/index.php/comment.
“After decades of disinvestment and depopulation, and after the national disgrace of Pruitt-Igoe, the NGA has made a powerful, positive choice.” – U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay
