Senate committee backs MSP land transfer

The city hopes to see the red brick building, shown above in this March 2017 photo, developed in the 32 acres of the old MSP grounds.
The city hopes to see the red brick building, shown above in this March 2017 photo, developed in the 32 acres of the old MSP grounds.

Missouri senators soon could be debating the idea of the state giving Jefferson City's government almost 32 acres of the old Missouri State Penitentiary.

The Senate's General Laws Committee heard testimony on Sen. Mike Kehoe's bill Wednesday afternoon, then recommended the full Senate pass it.

"Gov. (Jay) Nixon did enter into, but did not sign before he left office, an agreement with the City of Jefferson to take that 32-acre footprint and give the city a long-term lease," Kehoe told the committee members. "The city and county, in talking to potential developers - which could include a hotel site, a convention center, an AAA ballfield, etc. - have found out that developers are a little bit leery in agreeing to spend large amounts of capital on a site that has a lease on it, even though it would be long-term."

So, the Jefferson City Republican explained, "Our proposal - that we've been talking to the Office of Administration about - is that they would convey the roughly 32 acres over to the city and the county.

"In exchange, we would take care of any remediation or demolition that still remains on the site, which is very little. We would, with our dime, put the money in to develop the infrastructure of the parkways."

Of the 128-acre MSP redevelopment site, Kehoe said, the state still would control about 95 acres to the east, which the state would continue to develop.

Jefferson City Mayor Carrie Tergin noted city, county and state officials have been waiting for this opportunity for nearly 20 years - since state officials during then-Gov. Mel Carnahan's administration began talking about replacing the oldest-operating prison west of the Mississippi River with a newer, more modern facility in the eastern end of Cole County.

MSP operated as a prison from 1836 until Sept. 15, 2004, when more than 1,300 inmates were transferred in one day from the old prison to the new Jefferson City Correctional Center.

"Missouri State Penitentiary has served our state well for all those years - its history (and) its architecture are irreplaceable," Tergin said. "Its stories and mystique have brought thousands to visit its ominous walls, and learn about all of those who served time there."

Since 2009, when Jefferson City's Convention and Visitors Bureau began offering tours of the old penitentiary, the number of tour-takers has grown from approximately 3,000 the first year to 33,000 last year.

CVB Director Diane Gillespie told the senators some of the people taking those tours have been former inmates.

"It kind of blows my mind, but they want to come back and see where they lived," she said.

The CVB signed a long-term lease with the state Office of Administration to show off what's called the "historic campus," including several residence halls and the gas chamber - which is down the hill from the main compound and actually is a part of the land the city would acquire.

Tergin told the News Tribune last week the city expects to protect the gas chamber from future development, leaving it on its current site but continuing its accessibility for the prison tours.

Redeveloping the old prison grounds is her "number one top priority" as mayor, Tergin told the committee.

She noted other places have had success offering prison tours.

"Eastern State in Pennsylvania has 350,000 tourist," Tergin reported. "Alcatraz draws 1.3 million visitors.

"(MSP is) 100 years older than Alcatraz."

Also, she claims Jefferson City is the only city in the country offering visitors the combination of a capitol, retired penitentiary and a river.

Last year alone, the MSP tours attracted visitors worldwide for a nearly $3.065 million economic impact.

As Kehoe noted, Tergin said Jefferson City and Cole County governments will spend local money to build a road through the MSP site, giving access to the prison tours, expected new commercial and entertainment development - and to land the state might wish to develop in the coming years.

Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce Director Randy Allen said his organization also supports the proposal.