My thoughts in the last thread where 100% positive on this development. I acknowledged it was a moon shot, but that we were not hurt at all in trying. If the guy fails, no skin off our back. That airport is just going to continue to be undeveloped land anyway, so who cares if this guy takes a decade trying to make this work.



But, looking at the website, I think I will raise my projection on completion from 5% to 25%. I think the guy really does have a decent idea here and it does not surprise me that he has some interest from those companies listed. Perhaps some or all of those companies will not work, but the fact that they are at least showing interest speaks to the viability of the idea.



The other thing that raises my projection (I had already factored in Korte's participation) is the contracts he seems to be entering into with service providers. It looks as though he has already contracted (perhaps with escape clauses) with Sodexo for food and vending services. It seems that Rolls Royce is not just interested in purchasing space, but that there is also a contract for 15 Rolls Royce cars from a dealer in Chicago. One of which already looks to have been delivered to Korte's headquarters. There already seems to be some type of agreement with Alstom for the light rail service. And, while I do not think he has signed any contracts with Gulfstream and Sikorsky, he is obviously in talks with them.



What also factors in is that he is hiring. Since we last saw this guy he has hired a president for the coalition group (I guess Korte and other business partners form this coalition group) and is looking for more people.



There is a lot of info on the website and it is worth checking out. Finding a little nugget like "no sales tax is charged on construction materials for Airports in Illinois" gives us a bit of information on why the location was selected. And with careful review, I think we can get a much better understanding of this project.



Anyway, I still give this a 3 out of 4 percent chance at failure, but I am more impressed with this project now than I was before. I think it has a real chance at happening.

Hold that a second - looks like there's some progression here, as well as a raised investment figure, now SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 3:38pm CDT | Modified: Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 3:55pm

Martin Aviation awards Siemens contract for airpark

St. Louis Business Journal

Martin Aviation Group. awarded Siemens a $50 million contract to provide technologies and services for the construction of Martin America Airpark, a planned $7 billion office complex in Cahokia, Ill., next to St. Louis Downtown Airport.



Siemens, based in New York, is an electronics and electrical engineering company.



In addition to the formerly proposed 5 million feet of office space, Martin Aviation has added plans for more than 1 million square feet of residential condominiums, said Troy Martin, CEO of Martin Aviation.



He said he hopes to bring several hundred prospective office condo buyers together for an informational session this fall.



Sprint, Cisco, Rolls Royce, Gulfstream Aerospace, General Electric and Sikorsky Aerospace Services have committed to the project. Hewlett Packard and Dell pulled out after Martin Aviation changed its plans from turnkey, move-in ready offices to ones that require some build-out, Martin said.



The recession and tight credit markets haven’t hurt Martin’s dreams for a 100-acre office park, he said.



“Our financial structuring was laughed at a couple years ago because we aren’t attempting to get bank funding and instead we structured the project to gather escrow money from customers at the point of purchase to fund” the project’s construction, Martin said. “That was viewed as very unconventional. If we had structured [with bank financing], we would have been partially under construction with no funding or dead. Because we structured (a different way), the current economic climate has not affected us the way it has affected others.”

Source: http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... =printable



If this deal is still progressing, with maintained commitments by the named companies for occupation ... well, damn, it's progress on the biggest development in the entire metro area. By far. Yes, it may be a long shot, and this may be more smoke than fire, but the scale alone begs the attention.



Seven billion dollars for a single development. To put that in perspective, that's:

- Ten Ballpark Villages (fully built, with residential)

- Three Glen Carbon & Dupo planned developments apiece.

- Thirteen more 64/40 buildouts.

- Six New Mississippi River Bridges.

- 14% of the money Bernie Madoff stole (preliminary total).

^ Yep - this has largely been off the local radar, but it's not possible to state how significant this development would be for the region. Let's hope that St. Louis (and dare-I-dream, Missouri) are promoting this development. I hesitate to even utter this, but a potential China air hub, this development and HSR to Chicago could very well transform the region.

Another contract went out yesterday.

Thursday, March 26, 2009, 4:46pm CDT | Modified: Friday, March 27, 2009, 7:24am

Martin hires Concentric Security for planned airpark

St. Louis Business Journal



Martin Aviation Group said Thursday it awarded a $10 million contract to Concentric Security to provide products, technologies and services for the construction of Martin America Airpark, a planned $7 billion office complex in Cahokia, Ill., next to the St. Louis Downtown Airport.



Sykesville, Md.-based Concentric Security specializes in security planning, security engineering, technology selection, integration and construction.

Source: http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... ily69.html



After a long period of quiet, two eight-figure contracts going out in two days shows that there may be more life to this development than everyone's collectively believed. If Martin has been able to ride out the global economic quagmire and be able to progress soundly, then this project may actually take off. It's still quite early, and there's a whole lot of volatility out there for any sort of development, but these contracts going out are definitely positive news.



Say again:

SEVEN BILLION DOLLAR DEVELOPMENT

Anyone here at expertise regarding the liabilities these contacts produce? Are they a reliable indicator that a development is moving forward or are they simply a crossing the "t" step on the way to maybe, someday doing the development? Do these steps mean that Martin has a substantial financial liability if this project is not built?

Grover wrote:Anyone here at expertise regarding the liabilities these contacts produce? Are they a reliable indicator that a development is moving forward or are they simply a crossing the "t" step on the way to maybe, someday doing the development? Do these steps mean that Martin has a substantial financial liability if this project is not built?

I don't think there's enough info to fully answer your questions on the elements of the contracts. Fair to assume that Martin had to bid out the contracts, and that the competitive bids were engaged by companies who see this as more than a "pie in the sky" project. Therefore, I would expect at least partial payments, some recognized and tangible consideration from Martin to the contractees, for the contracts being assigned in re costs of the bidding process.



Considering that the project already has confirmed tenants, and considering the funding of the project (not based on bank loans), I would say that these announcements are forward progression. While these contracts don't make me think that ground will necessarily be broken in the very near future, they do make me think that Martin's funding strategy may have allowed them to sidestep the global economic collapses. If so, then this project may be able to move forward at or near the pace expected when first announced in July 2008.



Or, I think they're past just the "someday, maybe" stage and into prep for constructive buildout.



What we don't know are the anticipated occupancy rates they deem necessary for construction to start. What this does, though, is help them to sell the project to other potential tenants. Considering that many of their prospective tenant companies are foreign-based multinationals looking to establish executive hubs in the US, this may also be helpful, as dollar devaluation may be offset in the fundraising process.

That is a ton of parking. Clearly if the pull it off, they are expecting that the development will have a good number of employees.



One side note. If they are planning on having 13,000 parking spaces and building the internal bus or tram system to shuttle people from the parking areas to the office buildings, maybe it would make sense to connect this into the east-side Metrolink system. Seems like it would be good to anchor a major employment center into the system.

They should just run a shuttle from 5th and Missouri.



Anyway, either Martin thinks that they'll attract tenants by methodically announcing contracts or they already have tenants and they're about ready to build this thing. With the square feet and parking spots involved we're talking basically something the size of the entire BJC/WU medical complex. This. is. a. huge. deal.

Grover wrote:They should just run a shuttle from 5th and Missouri.



Anyway, either Martin thinks that they'll attract tenants by methodically announcing contracts or they already have tenants and they're about ready to build this thing. With the square feet and parking spots involved we're talking basically something the size of the entire BJC/WU medical complex. This. is. a. huge. deal.

Your post really hits on some of the major factors of this project, of what makes it unique.



First off, they'd want nothing to do with Metrolink. This whole facility is being designed for executive-level management, especially of foreign companies. They're looking to provide them with limos and Rolls Royces, with private Roger Moore-era James Bond self-incorporating transit systems, to the ultra-high-end satelite offices next to the private airport hangers for these companies' air forces. Think Monaco in a bubble in East StL. They sure as hell don't want to connect themselves with Metrolink going through their development, let alone connecting directly with the 5th and Missouri stop. Even the Vegas Monorail doesn't go down the Strip.



Meanwhile, the potentialities of this coming to fruition is directly related to their target market's abilities to withstand tough economic times and continue to pursue such projects. Whether it's based on their funding models, their preservation of initial capital, or their long-term strategic initiatives, they seem to have the ball rolling. Perhaps it is exactly because of the massive scale of this project will it actually be able to be built.



More than just being as sizeable an investment as BJC, this project, if built, would be fully transformative, turning Cahokia into a completely self-sufficient primary global business center. Like a standard business park, only the patrons commute in from Switzerland and Singapore on their G5s to their private fleet of Bentleys and uber-modern facilities. Based in East Saint Louis. Imagine that.

I'm imagining Clark Griswold getting lost in the family Truckster and ending up at the Martin Aviation Park.