[Elvis]

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news ... ml?ana=twt

Mail to City Hall: Downtown stakeholders speak out on stadium

Everyone in the region seems to have an opinion about the proposed Mississippi riverfront stadium and the uncertain situation with St. Louis’ National Football League team, the Rams.

But what about the stadium’s neighbors?

Emails obtained this week by the Business Journal reveal the opinions of downtown stakeholders both big and small.

“As you know, several (Washington Avenue) restaurants close on game day because business is often down as a result of the game — game day folks tailgate, but non-game folks avoid (downtown) on game days,” Amos Harris, principal at Spinnaker St. Louis, wrote earlier this year to Mayor Francis Slay’s former chief of staff, Jeff Rainford.

Harris, who is developing the Mercantile Exchange (MX) entertainment district along Washington Avenue, said in an interview he does not support the stadium effort, announced in January, because other downtown tourist and visitor infrastructure needs money for upgrades.

Once the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County can stop devoting a 3.5 percent hotel tax to the Edward Jones Dome debt, in fiscal 2022, Harris said that money — some $8.5 million annually — could be used to repurpose the dome for additional conventions in the winter, when it is now occupied by the Rams.

“I understand the combined cost of the deferred maintenance and required enhancements to do this is close to $150 million — a lot less than what we will wind up spending on a new stadium,” Harris wrote Rainford, now a consultant for Downtown STL Inc., in January. Anthony Paraino, a spokesman for the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC), which operates the convention center and dome, said the CVC is conducting a competitive analysis of the facility and has no cost estimates for potential improvements.

Current Slay Chief of Staff Mary Ellen Ponder, who did not respond to a request for comment, has said the city will contribute $125 million, or 13 percent, of the stadium’s cost. The stadium would be funded with $250 million in city and state bond payments and $150 million in tax credits and other public funding mechanisms, such as a special taxing district. Slay spokeswoman Maggie Crane said she knew of only one note sent to the mayor’s office from a business owner expressing concern. On Monday, the Business Journal reported that the hotel tax is not covering current bond payments, and that a 1 percent restaurant tax and others are used to fill the gap. Further, the Rams generate less yearly city tax revenue than what the municipality currently pays annually on the bonds, about $5 million, though proponents say a Major League Soccer team and concerts at the new stadium would also generate city taxes.

Harris is not persuaded by the argument, put forth by Gov. Jay Nixon’s task force and Downtown STL Inc., that the stadium would help revitalize a depressed, or, in Nixon’s words, “blighted” area.

“I’m not sure why that matters if it does not add to the pie — but, more importantly, dedicating what should be prime riverfront to parking lots doesn’t make sense,” Harris wrote to Rainford. “As you probably know, Spinnaker has been considering a large (residential) project on (Laclede’s) Landing for some time... We think the proposed stadium location is far enough away that it won’t destroy that value, but it doesn’t add value.” Laclede’s Landing businesses have struggled in recent years.

Businesses within the stadium’s footprint have also raised concerns with the mayor’s office.

A theme among business owners there is confusion.

“I have been informed that my neighbors who border my property have been spared and have become part of the stadium project,” Pam Neal of Al’s Restaurant, 1200 N. First St., wrote Ponder in March. “All the while I have not been contacted.” Neal said in an interview she does not necessarily oppose the stadium development, though she wants her building and business preserved in any plan. Neal added she has not heard from Ponder.
The development footprint runs from Mullanphy Street to the north, Carr Street to the south, Broadway to the west and the Mississippi River to the east.

Developer Craig Heller is being paid up to $12,500 a month to assemble the land for the stadium, and the organization that hired him, Doug Woodruff’s Downtown Now!, is receiving an additional $7,500 a month from the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RSA), a state entity funded with tax dollars that is working to build the riverfront stadium. Downtown business associations led by Woodruff support the stadium plan.

Even a backup plan for the stadium site has drawn criticism. St. Louis Alderman Shane Cohn expressed to Ponder dismay that the city spent tens of thousands of dollars on a feasibility study for parks, trails and residential and retail buildings on the site. “I have been asking for at least two years, if not four, for a feasibility study/redevelopment plan for Cleveland High School” that would cost between $25,000 and $70,000, Cohn wrote Ponder in May. “I’ve been blown off multiple times stating that there is no money available for such a study, and yet we are able to find $82,000 for this project?”

Back at the proposed stadium site, a lack of information has weighed on Neal and others.
“(Al’s Restaurant) began as a woman-owned business founded by my grandmother in 1925...” Neal wrote Ponder. “100% of my employees belong to protected classes; 80% are African Americans and 20% are Senior Citizens... It has been suggested, and I now totally agree that we are being discriminated against as an easy push-over due to our demographics.”

Trigen and Shady Jacks, at 1 Ashley St. and 1432 N. Broadway, respectively, have been spared from demolition, Neal wrote. Calls to those businesses were not immediately returned. Trigen’s building appears in the RSA’s stadium renderings. Some businesses in the western and northern parts of the stadium footprint, who asked not to be identified, have not been contacted by Heller, and say they have been unable to get information from the RSA.

While restaurants and small businesses have expressed concern, some downtown corporate interests are on board with the stadium plan, led by Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz.

“We need to be an NFL city. I don’t care what people say,” Ron Kruszewski, chairman and CEO, Stifel Financial, told the Business Journal. “It would be a $400 million investment of outside money — outside money — from the NFL and ownership on the riverfront. Hello? Hello?”

[OldSchool]

Interesting article, I doubt it would make any difference to the people supporting the riverfront stadium though.