An aquarium, a 20-story residential tower, a massive underground parking garage built in the hole left by the old Busch Stadium. Nearly a half-million square feet of top-notch office space. Streets lined with stores and restaurants unique to the region. A development that could exceed $600 million, creating hundreds of new jobs and the jolt sorely needed to revitalize downtown.
A 24-hour place to live, work and play.
Story by Doug Moore in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch here. Sports stadiums are frequently pitched as boons of economic development, a sort of "if you build one, it will come" promise. So what happened?
However, when it came time to bring baseball's best together in St. Louis, all the Cardinals could offer was a softball field and a parking lot to greet fans.
Nothing happened. But guess what?
But to the surprise of city leaders, the developers were back at the table before a city board earlier this month, saying financing is in place and tenants are ready to move in.
All we need, they said, is the money from the taxes to make the project come together.
If the village is going to be that great of a place, it doesn't need subsidies to get off the ground. The developers should have no trouble making a pitch to private investors.
Here in Minnestoa, the Metrodome in Minneapolis has collapsed due to the weight of the snow from yesterday's Snowmageddon. I'm sure we'll hear the same pitch about how the city needs a new stadium not for the obvious reason but because of the economic development. That was one of the selling points of the Cards' stadium and it hasn't panned out.