Aldermen Pass Legislation to Approve 10-Year Tax Abatement for Strip Center
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen just “perfected” Board Bill #257 giving the suburban strip mall at 2000-2014 South 7th (aka Broadway to most of us) at Russell 10-year tax abatement. Basically the building, built as part of a prior redevelopment plan, was considered “blighted” because it was vacant.
Last month the project added a sidewalk connecting a portion, but not all, of the storefronts to the public sidewalk system. For more information click here.
Why does this project need tax abatement? Are the rents lower than the overall St. Louis retail market? Are the development costs higher? What is the justification for a city subsidy?
Isn’t this awful close to the the proposed new auto-centric stip mall on the other side of Broadway?
You have got to be effing kidding me! Tax-abated? This?! Insane!
Every business gets a tax break here… that’s the new motto, “Come to St Lou, get a tax break”. This island (floating in a sea of red ink) has even Clayton now offering them to be “competitive”! Centene employees will expect drive-thru conveniences, right?
This project is just a symptom. The problem is the assumption (and the precedent) that city governments MUST throw money at every development project or it “won’t happen”. We need leadership willing and able to grow some cojones and Just Say NO! This is a stupid shell game, where taxes never really increase and the only winners are the developers who have (and take) less and less risk!!! Check out Rock Hill’s latest “salvation” – there’s a Stein Mart, a Starbucks, an eyeglass store and a hardware store, plus vacancies well in excess of 50%, and it’s new! Now they want to move onto Phase II! “Build it and they will come” has limits – there are only so many dollars that can be spent, and a new building is no guarantee that increased sales (and sales taxes) will follow! Don’t get me wrong, I support appropriate development. But I have yet to see any government that’s as astute and tuned-into market realities as even any middle-of-the-pack developer is, yet just because they get elected, they seem to think they know what’s “best”, on every issue, especially when it comes to spending our tax dollars . . .
Open letter to A-B employees.
To everyone who is looking to grab a cup of joe on the way to work, or a sandwich at lunch. You are welcome.
The city of St. Louis.
A-B employees who like your coffee and sandwhiches overpriced and hard to pronounce, head on over to Russell and Broadway. Everybody else, you already know where to go to spend local money locally.
Starbucks getting a tax abatement is pretty sharp because that company needs to catch a break and grow some more and make their founders more money. It’s not like they can ever over fish the sea of coffee drinkers out there. Finally a beacon of strong commerce that will last for decades. Much rejoicing.
Well here I go throwing fuel on the fire.
I personally think the need for a TIF for this type of development is unnecessary.
Having said that, we can all scream no till we are hoarse but it won’t change until, thats a big UNTIL, the region as a whole unites and says no.
The developers will just go next door where that gov, (whether it be Rock Hill or St. Charles) will gladly hand out a TIF. And can you blame the developer? They want to get the project done as cheaply as possible, damn the long-term consequences of less tax income.
Anyone who says otherwise is just fooling you. Until we (the city) has enough density which translates into sales dollars that the developer would have no choice but to conform to the standards/demands/etc
An example would be Starbucks. Yes, expensive drinks, but many of us partonize them. They targeted the St. Louis region as their top growth area for the year. This gave us the leverage to demand more from them…if only we had banded together. What we really need is a regional-wide group that could be the front door for the developers so that if I said no to a TIF or demanded a certain type of structure, some weasel little suburb won’t come behind and say ‘but we’ll do it for you.”
Sadly, this dream would never become reality.
^ wrong. what they do in Rock Hill or Brentwood has nothing to do with giving tax abatement in the 7th ward. That’s about the only thing an alderman from a yuppie ward like the 7th has to offer a developer. “Let’s make a deal! You want tax abatement? I can make that happen for you.” You wanna change things? Show up at the LCRA and HUDZ committee hearings. Not interested? Then keep griping in the blogosphere – and make no difference. Look in the mirror. Yeah, that’s you!