erina wrote:Lame. 400 new jobs nowhere near the city.

400 jobs 20 minutes away from the city? Pretty sweet if you ask me

rawest1 wrote:

erina wrote:Lame. 400 new jobs nowhere near the city.

400 jobs 20 minutes away from the city? Pretty sweet if you ask me

What's sweet? Our region's continued failure to build a true centralized business district? Or that these 400 employees are now stuck on interstates twice a day, and they'll be dependent on a car to go eat lunch outside of their office park?

wabash wrote:How disappointing. Don't they understand that their employees may not want to commute out to Chesterfield to a soulless corporate campus? Downtown or Clayton are really the only two sensible options. They'll be a much happier 400 with Metrolink, Food trucks, and City Garden right outside their lobby and Ballpark and Arch views out their windows than they will be in the middle of a 500 year flood plain. The GenAm Building (built for another insurance company) is only 128,500 square feet. Too bad that's far smaller than what they're looking for @ 400,000.

Last I heard, the GenAm building is being rehabbed into a smaller-sized convention center (one that wouldn't really compete with the CVC).

I agree with you, though. Every time I drive out on 64 or 270, I see those giant office parks and think: why can't that be a 20-40 story tower downtown? However, I'm sure I greatly underestimate peoples' fears of the city. That, or maybe it's just that much cheaper to build on the side of an interstate, regardless of acreage.

newstl2020 wrote:I'm glad that more jobs will be in the region as a whole, but as stated it really does suck that these companies are so short sighted they cannot see that it is critical for them to move towards transit and CBDs. The point is not what their employees are doing now, it is what they will be doing in 20 years.

In 20 years they'll be living with families out in Chesterfield McMansions anyway.

Look, I don't care if a company wants to locate in the suburbs, but Chesterfield is not a considerate location if you care at all about the regions future or sustainablity. Not to mention there are a lot of people who commute from the city and god forbid if you actually acknowledge your Illinois employees.

Very "small time."

^You get taxed if you work or reside in the City of St. Louis.

RuskiSTL wrote:What downtown building is of comparable size? How big is the Forest Park hospital site?

For downtown, a comparable sized building would be the Laclede Gas Building @ 8th & Olive. It has 31 stories and over 430,000 square feet. It also has a Metrolink stop below it, and dozens of restaurants within walking distance.

newstl2020 wrote:^Good points.

Additionally, I continue to be amazed at the utter lack of civic pride the majority of the metro has regarding the city. Detroit, Cinci, Pittsburgh, etc are turning the corner and expanding due to the renewed emphasis their entire metro areas are placing on their downtown's. It is amazing and very clear to see. Are St. Louisans as a whole so xenophobic that they literally do not bother to experience or pay attention to anything outside our metro area?

This company could probably lease 800K sq ft downtown in a building for less or equal to what they are paying to be in Chesterfield. This means they could have occupied a brand new 500' plus tower Downtown. In order for the metro as a whole to grow, companies HAVE to move downtown. It is the most visible portion of the city, the physical representation of the entire metro area, and the single largest driver of residents and visitor's perceptions of our city.

Is the measly 1% earnings tax really that big of a deterrent?

I cannot seem to remember, does anyone know if the earnings tax only applies if you live in the city proper? Or does it not apply if you work downtown but live in Chesterfield? (Off topic, just forgot the way it works)

I was going to say the same. Once again, St. Louis is behind the curve. Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincy and let's not forget Chicago - are all seeing a resurgence in corporate relocation interests to their central business districts (CBDs).

Motorola Mobility is looking for 500,000 square feet for a possible move to downtown Chicago bringing 3,000 jobs.

While Chicago's interstate traffic is HORRENDOUS, Chicago does have a decent public transit system with multi-modal options such as heavy, multi bus transit systems, commuter rail, etc. They've upgraded transit stations. Chicago is also in the process of expanding Rapid Bus Transit too.

I think this is what needs to happen in St. Louis for its CBD to become more of an accessible viable option to employers and employees. And St. Charles County doesn't help matters with its unwillingness to participate in Bi-State Transit and for failing to create a sound transit system. If Madison County can do it, why not St. Charles County?

Further, with mega projects such as the Page Avenue Extension and others, these added highway miles are nice and smooth, but they don't help to concentrate jobs and residents. If the St. Louis job market was faster growing, I could see the need to plant huge buildings in far-flung suburbs because every job cannot be in the CBD. However, while there have been some CBD success stories, the region's corporate bigwigs should focus more on downtown St. Louis. The overall economic health of the region depends on health of the CBD, and corporate leaders in other cities are realizing this.

The CBD is the heartbeat of every region. The earning tax is probably a minor problem - if at all. St. Louis' paltry 1% is good compared to other cities.

City Income Taxes - U.S. Cities That Levy Income Taxes

My question though is.......have city leaders asked corporate CEOs in metro St. Louis what are the obstacles to locating in downtown St. Louis? What's the problem. Identify them. Then work hard to fix them. Seems to me that some of the local corporations could at least put one of their divisions downtown - if not the corporate HQ.