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Missouri board hears plan to aid area near Cardinals' stadium
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By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press Writer
State economic development officials are recommending Missouri provide slightly less financial aid than sought for a proposed retail and entertainment district near the St. Louis Cardinals' ballpark.
A delegation of developers, baseball executives and St. Louis officials, led by Mayor Francis Slay, presented their Ballpark Village plan Tuesday to the Missouri Development Finance Board, which approves state tax incentives for projects.
The board is expected to vote next month on whether to supply financial aid.
The first phase of Ballpark Village is projected to cost $280 million for construction and is targeted to be largely completed before the adjacent Busch Stadium hosts the Major League Baseball All-Star game in July 2009. Public aid is projected to account for almost $99 million of that construction cost, with the state's share at just over $25 million and the rest coming from the city and special sales tax districts.
The St. Louis project would be just the second in the state - the first was in Kansas City - to be funded through a downtown economic stimulus law enacted in 2003.
Under the plan, St. Louis would issue revenue bonds to finance the infrastructure for Ballpark Village, including a parking garage, utilities, streets, sidewalks and trees. The state then would redirect half of the new sales and payroll withholding taxes received from businesses in Ballpark Village to help pay off those bonds. The city would do the same.
But the state aid would be less than originally requested.
Ballpark Village proponents had assumed 90 percent of the sales taxes generated from the district's businesses would be new tax revenues, with just 10 percent coming from sales that would have occurred anyway.
The Department of Economic Development concluded that new sales would amount to 75 percent of the sales taxes collected.
That puts the net present value of the state aid, when construction and debt financing costs are included, at nearly $27 million instead of $32 million as originally sought.
Projected over 25 years, the state would divert nearly $71 million in tax revenues to help pay off the bonds, instead of $85 million.
St. Louis officials said Tuesday that they believe the project's financing can still work, even though the state aid would be less.
Slay promoted Ballpark Village as a “transformative project” for St. Louis.
“This will help make our downtown more attractive, more active” and create 1,650 jobs at the businesses that would locate there, Slay told the finance board.
The Department of Economic Development said the project also would benefit the state. An economic analysis forecasts it will generate nearly $83 million in new taxes for the state's general revenue fund over 25 years, with a personal income benefit of $2.1 billion over that time.
The finance board also heard a request Tuesday for $1.3 million in tax credits to help finance a $15 million fundraising campaign to expand the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. The board is expected to vote on that project at its August meeting.
Mark Bryant, president of the museum's board of directors, said the project would convert a nearby vacant building into a baseball academy and learning center, where youths could use batting cages and develop math and science skills by calculating such things as the speed of a pitched baseball, swung bat or base runner.
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On the Net:
Missouri Development Finance Board: http://www.mdfb.org
A delegation of developers, baseball executives and St. Louis officials, led by Mayor Francis Slay, presented their Ballpark Village plan Tuesday to the Missouri Development Finance Board, which approves state tax incentives for projects.
The board is expected to vote next month on whether to supply financial aid.
The first phase of Ballpark Village is projected to cost $280 million for construction and is targeted to be largely completed before the adjacent Busch Stadium hosts the Major League Baseball All-Star game in July 2009. Public aid is projected to account for almost $99 million of that construction cost, with the state's share at just over $25 million and the rest coming from the city and special sales tax districts.
The St. Louis project would be just the second in the state - the first was in Kansas City - to be funded through a downtown economic stimulus law enacted in 2003.
Under the plan, St. Louis would issue revenue bonds to finance the infrastructure for Ballpark Village, including a parking garage, utilities, streets, sidewalks and trees. The state then would redirect half of the new sales and payroll withholding taxes received from businesses in Ballpark Village to help pay off those bonds. The city would do the same.
But the state aid would be less than originally requested.
Ballpark Village proponents had assumed 90 percent of the sales taxes generated from the district's businesses would be new tax revenues, with just 10 percent coming from sales that would have occurred anyway.
The Department of Economic Development concluded that new sales would amount to 75 percent of the sales taxes collected.
That puts the net present value of the state aid, when construction and debt financing costs are included, at nearly $27 million instead of $32 million as originally sought.
Projected over 25 years, the state would divert nearly $71 million in tax revenues to help pay off the bonds, instead of $85 million.
St. Louis officials said Tuesday that they believe the project's financing can still work, even though the state aid would be less.
Slay promoted Ballpark Village as a “transformative project” for St. Louis.
“This will help make our downtown more attractive, more active” and create 1,650 jobs at the businesses that would locate there, Slay told the finance board.
The Department of Economic Development said the project also would benefit the state. An economic analysis forecasts it will generate nearly $83 million in new taxes for the state's general revenue fund over 25 years, with a personal income benefit of $2.1 billion over that time.
The finance board also heard a request Tuesday for $1.3 million in tax credits to help finance a $15 million fundraising campaign to expand the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. The board is expected to vote on that project at its August meeting.
Mark Bryant, president of the museum's board of directors, said the project would convert a nearby vacant building into a baseball academy and learning center, where youths could use batting cages and develop math and science skills by calculating such things as the speed of a pitched baseball, swung bat or base runner.
---
On the Net:
Missouri Development Finance Board: http://www.mdfb.org
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