Ahh, yes. "Plans." "Good ideas."
And typical St. Louis realization of same:
(From 1999)
And typical St. Louis realization of same:
(From 1999)
ST. LOUIS MUST PAY BACK OLD DEBT OVER A PARKING GARAGE IT NEVER BUILT
In 1993, the city got state tax credits to help finance an underground garage downtown. It now must pay back about $3.6 million.
St. Louis never followed through with an idea in 1993 to build an underground parking garage as part of the Gateway Mall, the stretch of green space downtown between Market and Chestnut streets. So on Friday, the Board of Aldermen agreed to pay a $2.7 million promissory note to the Missouri Development Finance Board because the city defaulted on its plan.
Aldermanic President Francis Slay said that with interest, the $2.7 million promissory note from six years ago had grown to $3.6 million.
"The ball was either dropped or the plan for the garage was shelved," Slay said in an interview.
Mike Jones, Mayor Clarence Harmon's deputy mayor for development, said the idea for a 600-space underground garage was finalized hastily in 1993 by then-Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. in the final days of his administration.
"It was put together without any details, and it landed on Mayor (Freeman) Bosley's lap, and by the time we (Harmon's administration) got here, we didn't have the mechanism to do it," Jones said. "It was too expensive. The garage was never designed or anything."
Jones said the cost to build an underground parking garage would be roughly $30,000 per space, while construction costs for above-ground lots average about $10,000 per space.
The city is in desperate need of parking, Jones said. An above-ground lot probably will be built in the next few years as part of the downtown development plan, he said.
The idea in 1993 for the underground lot was included in a deal in which the state issued tax credits so the city could fully develop the Gateway Mall. Jones said the project paid for the purchase and demolition of property on two city blocks to make way for part of the Gateway Mall, which nominally stretches from the Gateway Arch grounds to 21st Street by Union Station.
The Development Finance Board had given the city five years to get started on construction of the underground garage. With nothing under way, the promissory note became due, Slay said. Jones said the city always had to pay the debt, but that if the garage had been built, it could have spread the debt over 35 years.
