urbanSTL

dredger wrote:^ While I give Slay very poor grades on leading on infrastructure downtown and even poorer marks for letting Rex dictate the earnings tax debate at the moment. I do have to defend or least give him the benefit of doubt on corporate jobs downtown. Simply put, how does Slay as a mayor compete with a state like Texas that offers millions for corporate relocations or essentially buys them? how does Slay compete against a no state income taxes let alone the city earnings tax when talking to Corporate Executives? This is on top of the fact that corporate consolidation has hit St Louis city corporate hard whether it Union Pacific buying Missouri Pacific a while back to Macy's buying Famous Barr to CongaAgra purchase, so on. Simply put more competition in the corporate world that offer less jobs not more by more players offering more incentives on the state level.

As far as jobs, CORTEX is bringing jobs to the city. As far as tech & start up scene, it is bringing jobs downtown with T-Rex and the likes.

I understand what you are saying about companies bolting for states without an income tax. St. Louis just isn't going to compete for a company who desires something like that.

What I am talking about is taking an initiative to draw some of our corporate base back into the city. At least publicly, there are crickets coming from City Hall when it comes to recruiting local companies. The St. Louis region is a great market. As was mentioned during the Rams debacle, we have a ton of fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies. Where are they? Why is there not an aggressive campaign to get them back into the city? Slay passes this off as completely out of his hands, and that its just not going to happen unless companies take the initiative, and want to move downtown.

This is true to an extent, but so much more can be done! We were ready to give an arm and a leg to the Rams to get them to stay in the city. Same with the NGA! Where is that kind of aggressive commitment to recruit local companies?? Why is it that we can't give some tax abatements or land to local corporations as an incentive to come back downtown? These are the things I'm talking about. And what makes me think Slay has become very complacent and, frankly, incompetent.

dredger wrote:^As far as development downtown
- Two more boutique hotels in the works
- Arcade now open followed with a legit proposal on the huge Jeff Arms space, movement appears for Chemical Building
- SLU Law School and expanded Webster Campus downtown
- Arch Grounds rehab and an expanded Western Expansion museum, Blues museum with residential and hotel rooms on top
- LHM/Union station next phase coming up on top of Peabody coming back a few years ago.
- Steady increase in residential population and continued rehabs
- Looking like a legit MLS proposal coming together for downtown
- Finally discussion on CVC ballroom expansion and upgrades, Scottrade upgrades.

All these things are great. But look at our peer cities. Development like this is happening everywhere, and frankly, I feel like it is happened in spite of slay, not because of him.

More students Downtown? Facilities being consolidated Downtown from Wildwood?

Slay should be out there pushing for businesses to relocate downtown every single day. In the least he could be an advocate, announcing all the positives about it. I've never heard him say a single thing, or at least not that I remember. This should also be true on the state level. If the city ends up with a vacant AT&T tower, it should be an effort from Jefferson City to backfill that tower and keep their largest CBD robust.

^100% agree. We need a mayor that is aggressive in courting businesses and promoting our CBD.

robertn42 wrote:We need a mayor that is aggressive in courting businesses and promoting our CBD.

Any thoughts from anyone who might be in the pipeline to fit the bill?

^ Dude, Olgivie doesn't even have a outside chance and I do not think he would make a good mayor.

goat314 wrote:^ Dude, Olgivie doesn't even have a outside chance and I do not think he would make a good mayor.

Why not?

^ this, outside a few hipster types...Olgivie's appeal in most parts of St. Louis, especially North of Delmar is near zilch. By the way, I'm no fan of Antonio French. I used to like Lewis Reed a little bit, but recent antics have also disgusted me.

to change gears but political relevant is to see what CVC upgrades, ballroom expansion and plans put forth for the Edwards Dome which includes the county in on whatever is proposed but immensely important to downtown & continued convention traffic, hotel business. Will it be a huge plan put forth with lots of dollars but limited buy in from the county or a more phased approach?

IMO Ogilvie is a representation of what we want St. Louis to be. I like how he has always kept a respectable distance from controversy, while still letting us know how he feels. From what I've seen, he thinks we can develop smarter and more efficiently for citizens instead of tourist. I think he would get a majority of 18-30 and a solid portion of 30+, especially those who believe a fresh new leadership is needed.

I don't see many aldermen with a pro downtown agenda.

^ I think a big part of that is the fact that you got relatively high number aldermen and they look towards their respective wards before setting some higher standards or policy goals for the city itself. Like having a downtown that can lure jobs is a big plus and will eventually benefits their wards

Cargill is looking to move its headquarters out of Wichita thats a total of 900 jobs i wonder if St.Louis is in on swooning them here..I think our region would be perfect for them preferably downtown.

^ that seems like a no brainer for Missouri to go after whether it be KC or St. Louis. St. Louis with Bunge, NA,. Monsanto & plant science center as well as epicenter of agriculture commodities going down Big Muddy seems like a great fit. Lambert with its expanding Southwest presence and rebound in direct domestics connections must be a good selling point relative to other dehubbed airports. Imagine Kansas pushing hard for Overland park, KS to get it into the KC metro area as alternate as Illinois pushed Chicago did when ADM was mulling a HQ move if not mistaken (or maybe ADM did move corp suite up to Chicago).

I believe real estate broker quoted in article about 10 largest office vacancies stated a possible large office tenant move. Pure speculation, but it would be nice if the comment is about St. Louis could snagging a corporate relocation outside of the region for downtown.
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^ It would be nice to have some spec. Class A space at Ballpark Village to offer companies like this.

I want BPV as much as anyone on here, but lets focus on dt north of market. We need to fill the vacant space we have before we demand new space be built. That eastern stretch of Olive looks worse than that empty parking lot. 1000 employees around there would mean far more to downtown than 900 employee at BPV.

Gov. Brownback is working on trying to keep them in Wichita but from the sounds of it cargill is wanting to move regardless but you never know. I do think St.Louis makes a ideal location with logistics among other things..

roger wyoming II wrote:

addxb2 wrote:I want BPV as much as anyone on here, but lets focus on dt north of market. We need to fill the vacant space we have before we demand new space be built. That eastern stretch of Olive looks worse than that empty parking lot. 1000 employees around there would mean far more to downtown than 900 employee at BPV.

I think there are two issues.... one is filling up the core CBD and the other is having new Class A on the market. Having top of the line space provides an opportunity to lure new marquee tenants to downtown and retain current companies that might be seeking such space. (We can't afford to lose any more Armstrong Teasdale's due to lack of new space.) So while I agree in general of the need to fill up the core north of Market, I believe a new construction office building south of Market, whether in BPV or nearby could be very beneficial to downtown. Ideally it would be anchored by a tenant new to downtown and have available space for others.

And if we did land a marquee new tenant because of new office, I think that would serve to get the ball rolling on more moves to downtown, which would help fill up space throughout the area.

I agree. It's important. I'd rather see a retrofit instead of new construction, that's just me. I understand it's very important to have. I have a friend who works at KPMG, they have heard talks about the company trying to decide whether to retrofit or move to Clayton. That decision is a few years out I'd expect.

I thought Cargill's headquarters were in the Twin Cities.