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Surprising North County
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An economic
powerhouse can be found north of Interstate 70.
By William Poe
Only in one part of the St. Louis region do you find:
- The
world headquarters of one of the country’s largest multinational
corporations, Emerson, with $15.5 billion in revenues.
- The
military aircraft division headquarters of one of the
nation’s top aerospace companies, the Boeing Co.
- The
nation’s 14th busiest airport, Lambert–St. Louis International
Airport, currently constructing a $1.1 billion runway
expansion.
- St.
Louis County’s largest remaining tract of undeveloped,
non-floodplain land.
- Two
of the area’s largest business parks, Earth City and Park
370.
- A
major high-education center, University of Missouri–St.
Louis, has 15,000 students and more than 1,000 faculty.
The University’s students represent 27 percent of the
entire student population of the University of Missouri
statewide system. The school’s campus is also the site
of the area’s fourth largest construction project, with
its new Millenium Student Center and its Performing Arts
Center.
- One
of three campuses of St. Louis Community College. The
Florissant Valley campus is developing a new two-year
program in bio-technology and an Advanced Manufacturing
Center for technology training and education.
- A
national chain casual dining restaurant, Applebee's on
North Lindbergh in Florissant, with the highest net sales
of the 300 company-owned stores two years in a row.
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The area, which
the title reveals, is North St. Louis County. Although other areas
of the region, such as West County and St. Charles County, get a
lot of ink, North County takes a back seat to no other area in terms
of its regional economic impact.
Upwards of 370,000 people make their homes in North County, and
tens of thousands make their living there, too. Its future looks
bright.
“I haven’t seen a boom like this since the late 1950s or 1960s,
“observes Florissant Mayor Robert G. Lowery, who heads the most
populous city in the county.
“We’re seeing a redevelopment renaissance up here,” says Rebecca
Zoll, executive of North County Inc. “We’re definitely primed for
progress.”
St. Louis County Executive Buzz Westfall says North County is more
than prime. “The opportunities are golden and part of my goal is
to take advantage of those opportunities.”
Adds Denny Coleman, head of the St. Louis County Economic Council,
“The opportunity for sustained economic growth in North County is
excellent. We have the opportunity through some creative and adaptive
reuse projects to bring thousands of jobs to North County.”
Officials point to GKN Aerospace Services as an example of job-generating
creative adaptive reuse. The aerospace parts manufacturer employs
1,500 in Hazelwood and plans to invest $40 million there over the
next two years.
GKN, North County boosters like to say, is the biggest company no
one has heard of. “GKN is based in the United Kingdom, has more
than $8 billion a year in revenues and chose to move their North
American headquarters from Connecticut to Hazelwood,” says Hazelwood
Mayor T. R. Carr.
GKN moved here in the wake of Boeing’s decision to sell its fabrication
business and shut down part of its Hazelwood operations. But that
decision spawned new, expanded opportunities here for GKN, which
bought the Boeing space and equipment and initially employed some
1,100 former Boeing fabrication employees—and has grown to its current
1,500 employee level in just 12 months.
North County has grown and shown its resiliency in spite of several
major corporate announcements over the past several years. Five
years ago, the largest company in St. Louis and by far the largest
employer in North County, McDonnell Douglas Corp. announced that
it was being absorbed by Boeing. This year, Ford Motor Co. shocked
the region when it said it would close its Hazelwood assembly plant—and
terminate nearly 2,600 workers—by 2005.
Despite the loss of Mac as a separate corporation, most analysts
say Boeing is now employing about as many workers as the old company
would have.
And Hazelwood’s Mayor Carr says that “everything is on the table”
in an effort to keep Ford here. Carr is teaming with the Governor,
the county, the RCGA and others on the Ford effort. Even if the
plant were to shutter, adds Carr, “we have a lot of options, including
alternative manufacturing uses.”
Officials believe North County’s large and highly skilled workforce,
along with its unparalleled infrastructure and attractive sites
for infill commercial development, bode well for its economic well-being.
Coleman points out that four interstate highways—I-70, I-170, I-270,
I-370-cross North County and that the area is equally well served
by rail and river transportation. And, of course, Lambert is perhaps
the region’s highest-revving economic engine and continues to generate
commercial and industrial activity along its borders in North County.
These factors helped make North County the major job center it already
is. Business giants are Boeing, which employs 15,200 locally; Emerson,
which employs 2,800 in the area, and the Ford plant. There are plenty
of other big boys in North County, too. Major employers, to name
a few, include Tyco Healthcare Mallinckrodt Inc., IBM Corp., United
Parcel Service, Christian Hospital Northeast-Northwest, DePaul Health
Center, and GKN.
Some of those and other employers are in North County because they
want to be close to the airport. And now Lambert is poised to be
the birth mother of one of the region’s biggest development projects.
Clearing residential areas mostly east and southeast of the airport
for noise abatement purposes has created nearly 500 contiguous acres
just waiting for commercial and industrial development.
“This is a huge tract of land when you consider that it is already
in a built-up area,” Coleman says. “It could be a huge development.
No other single project in St. Louis County has more potential than
this project.”
If fully developed, the noise abatement area in Berkeley, Ferguson
and Kinloch could create 18,000 permanent new jobs, generate $320
million in tax revenues and result in a total economic impact of
$7.1 billion over 14 years, Coleman says.
Hazelwood has its own noise abatement property northwest of the
airport, and a 200-acre area along with Trammell Crow Co., will
soon be developing Hazelwood Commerce Center, a $200 million office,
light industrial, manufacturing and warehousing complex.
Developers are plenty interested in North County. Lawrence R. Chapman,
Jr., senior vice president and principal of TriStar Business Communities,
says the commercial development company is busy with several North
County projects now and is looking for more. “There are some really
good opportunities in North County. The slingshot that took everyone
west is coming back. There are some good tracts of land, and you
just need to find the market that wants to be there.”
And lots of people want to be there. Consider just some of the new
development projects in North County:
- The
new $17 million St. John Crossings shopping center on
St. Charles Rock Road in St. John.
- The
$59 million redevelopment of Florissant’s old Cross Keys
Shopping Center into The Shoppes at Cross Keys, anchored
by Schnucks Markets and Home Depot.
- The
planned $40 million redevelopment of the old Northland
Shopping Center to be anchored by a new Target Greatland
store.
- The
coming conversion of the former River Roads shopping center
into a 200-home residential and neighborhood retail “new
urban” community by respected St. Louis homebuilder Taylor-Morley,
Inc.
- The
planned commercial and industrial development of Promontory
Point, a 214-acre tract in Bellefontaine Neighbors at
the southwest intersection of I-270 and Highway 367.
- $70
million in planned improvements to Highway 367 north of
Interstate 270
- $42.5
million in capital improvements within the next year or
so at Christian Hospital Northeast-Northwest, one of the
area’s largest employers.
- Development
at West Florissant Avenue and I-270 of the North County
Festival Shopping Center, including a Wal-Mart and Sam’s
Club stores.
- Rejuvenation
of downtown Ferguson, highlighted by the transformation
of the old Norfolk Southern train depot into a city museum
and the Whistle Stop frozen custard restaurant.
- A
mixed-use development coordinated by the University of
Missouri–St. Louis that could stretch 100 acres east along
highway 70, beginning at the Hanley Road MetroLink Station.
It will include a hotel, conference center, parking garages,
office and technology buildings.
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Housing values
are rising, too, and new homes are being built and are selling before
they’re finished. “McBride sold 13 homes in two days in the $200,000
price range in the new Riverwood Estates community,” Carr says.
He was referring to McBride & Son Homes Inc., one of the area’s
oldest and largest homebuilders with a long history in North County.
McBride’s chief executive officer, Rick Sullivan, says, “We’re optimistic
about North County. We will sell more than 100 homes this year alone
in our North County communities.”
Ferguson city officials are so confident of residential housing
values in their city of 22,400 that the government guarantees new
homeowners maintenance of their initial equity stake, according
to City Manager Allen D. Gill. “It’s an example of the high level
of confidence we have in the future of Ferguson,” says Gill, who
adds that the city actually added a couple hundred to its population
in the last 10 years.
North County has not forgotten small business either. North County
Inc. is supporting small business expansion, and the jobs they create,
with a $500,000 loan fund that will be available once Neighbor Assistance
Program tax credits are sold, Zoll says.
In Florissant, Director of Economic Development Bob Russell reported
that the city had a net gain of 110 new businesses in just the last
year.
Mayor Lowery credits a can-do attitude at City Hall for helping
to lure new businesses. “We’re now extremely friendly to business.
I had one developer tell me he got his approvals in 60 days when
it used to take months. We’re even giving business people resident
cards, so they can use our municipal golf course, our community
center, our swimming pool, and other services.”
Florissant, says Lowery, is aggressively courting new businesses
by hosting developer open houses and by reaching out to potential
homeowners through a regional radio and television advertising campaign.
“We’ve got new development going on all over the city, and, for
the first time I can remember, every store in Old Town is filled.
We’ve got people moving back from St. Charles, and I’ve got two
people to handle the telephone inquiries. Everybody’s excited. There
is a new spirit and a feeling that we’re not only progressing, but
doing it quickly.”
As Zoll puts it, “People think that everything is happening in the
far reaches of west St. Louis County and St. Charles County, but
we’re starting to see people and businesses moving back in.”
William V. Poe is principal of Poe Communications, a St. Louis
advertising and marketing communications firm. |
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