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Developer seeks TIF for project in Clayton
By Margaret Gillerman
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/15/2006
A developer is proposing a $100 million hotel, office and retail village on the last remaining piece of property in the area surrounding the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Clayton and is seeking $15 million in tax increment financing to help pay for it.
If Clayton agrees to a TIF, it would be the municipality's first, Clayton officials said.
"I would certainly carefully consider supporting a TIF if that would become necessary to bring about the project. But before doing so, I want to get all the facts and information," Mayor Ben Uchitelle said.
About three years ago, a different developer discussed a TIF, but Clayton officials and residents responded coolly to the idea.
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Jim Mello, a lawyer with the Armstrong-Teasdale firm, told city officials that the developer, Mark S. Mehlman Realty Inc., wanted to be upfront about the need for a TIF. "The unavoidable reality is that it can't be done without a public-private partnership,'' Mello said.
Mello estimated that the TIF would probably last 18 to 20 years. The $100 million price tag tentatively would be made up of $80 million in private financing, $15 million from the TIF and $4 million from a community improvement district.
The remaining $1 million could be raised from a hotel tax, with the city funneling half the tax generated by the boutique hotel back into the development, Mello said.
The plan has not been formally proposed. Included in the preliminary plans presented Tuesday to the Board of Aldermen are:
— A 100-room boutique hotel
— 100,000 square feet of office space.
— 100,000 square feet of retail space
— An underground garage with 755 spaces on five levels
The development, called Carondelet Village, would be on about two acres between Forsyth Boulevard and Carondelet Plaza. For almost two decades, the land has been vacant. It is part of what some refer to as the "Clayton Hole" or "Clayton Lake." Buildings there were torn down for a development that was never built.
The new development is east of the Crescent condominium property being built by Mehlman, and west of the site of the planned Clayton City Condos, a $150-million development of condominiums, offices and shops by Orchard Development Group.
Tyler Stephens, an architect in Schweyte Architects, said the part of the development along Forsyth would include shops on the ground floor and offices above. The hotel and two floors of retail would front on Carondelet with the anchor store at the corner of Forsyth and Carondelet.
A covered arcade along Forsyth would encourage people to walk to the new MetroLink stop, said architect Thomas Schweyte.
Mark Mehlman, the developer, said that this was "the final piece of the puzzle" for the area around the Ritz. "This will be a perfect fit,'' he said. "It will be a destination."
Developer seeks TIF for project in Clayton
By Margaret Gillerman
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/15/2006
A developer is proposing a $100 million hotel, office and retail village on the last remaining piece of property in the area surrounding the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Clayton and is seeking $15 million in tax increment financing to help pay for it.
If Clayton agrees to a TIF, it would be the municipality's first, Clayton officials said.
"I would certainly carefully consider supporting a TIF if that would become necessary to bring about the project. But before doing so, I want to get all the facts and information," Mayor Ben Uchitelle said.
About three years ago, a different developer discussed a TIF, but Clayton officials and residents responded coolly to the idea.
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Jim Mello, a lawyer with the Armstrong-Teasdale firm, told city officials that the developer, Mark S. Mehlman Realty Inc., wanted to be upfront about the need for a TIF. "The unavoidable reality is that it can't be done without a public-private partnership,'' Mello said.
Mello estimated that the TIF would probably last 18 to 20 years. The $100 million price tag tentatively would be made up of $80 million in private financing, $15 million from the TIF and $4 million from a community improvement district.
The remaining $1 million could be raised from a hotel tax, with the city funneling half the tax generated by the boutique hotel back into the development, Mello said.
The plan has not been formally proposed. Included in the preliminary plans presented Tuesday to the Board of Aldermen are:
— A 100-room boutique hotel
— 100,000 square feet of office space.
— 100,000 square feet of retail space
— An underground garage with 755 spaces on five levels
The development, called Carondelet Village, would be on about two acres between Forsyth Boulevard and Carondelet Plaza. For almost two decades, the land has been vacant. It is part of what some refer to as the "Clayton Hole" or "Clayton Lake." Buildings there were torn down for a development that was never built.
The new development is east of the Crescent condominium property being built by Mehlman, and west of the site of the planned Clayton City Condos, a $150-million development of condominiums, offices and shops by Orchard Development Group.
Tyler Stephens, an architect in Schweyte Architects, said the part of the development along Forsyth would include shops on the ground floor and offices above. The hotel and two floors of retail would front on Carondelet with the anchor store at the corner of Forsyth and Carondelet.
A covered arcade along Forsyth would encourage people to walk to the new MetroLink stop, said architect Thomas Schweyte.
Mark Mehlman, the developer, said that this was "the final piece of the puzzle" for the area around the Ritz. "This will be a perfect fit,'' he said. "It will be a destination."
