In
any number of respects,
2006 has proven to be a landmark year for both the St. Louis
region and the RCGA. The RCGA, through its members and its powerhouse
Board of Directors under the leadership of Chairman Scott Schnuck,
helped generate strong job growth throughout the region this
year; played a major role in the passage of key economic development
and business legislation in Springfield, Jefferson City, and
in Washington, D.C.; broadened the region’s recognition on the
world stage as the BioBelt; positioned the region through the
new regional brand; and strengthened the region’s physical infrastructure
capacity. These are just several examples of the progress that
made indelible marks on the St. Louis region in 2006.
Early in the year, the region rolled out the national execution
of its regional branding strategy through an aggressive national
media relations and advertising campaign. The objective of this
effort is to significantly “raise the bar” in the RCGA’s communication
of the region’s attributes and in positioning the region’s brand,
Perfectly Centered. Remarkably Connected.
“Results have been impressive, with over 140 million national
media and advertising impressions thus far. In recent months,
St. Louis has enjoyed national news coverage in such media as
USA Today; NPR; Reuters, Dow Jones, The New York Times;
The Washington Post; and The Wall Street Journal—as
well as ongoing national advertising on NPR, CEO Magazine,
Bloomberg Markets, Sirius and XM radio,” noted RCGA Board
Chair for Economic Development Rich McClure.
The ultimate objective is to “fill the pipeline” for economic
developers in the bi-state region for growing jobs, talent,
and venture investment.
“Since the launch of the national media and advertising campaigns,
we have tripled the number of inquiries coming into our economic
development website,” noted RCGA Senior Vice President for Economic
Development Steve Johnson. “Over the past year, we have doubled
the number of active projects in our pipeline—which now numbers
some 80 projects representing over 10,000 potential jobs and
$2.5 billion in capital investment,” he added.
This year alone thus far, Johnson and the RCGA marketing team
have had more than 60 one-on-one meetings and have held an additional
117 meetings in 18 different U.S. markets, as well as in England
and Japan.
In response to a national Council on Competitiveness panel recommendation,
the RCGA also set out at the beginning of 2006 to enhance the
region’s capacities to nurture and stimulate entrepreneurial
growth in the region. Two noteworthy accomplishments here: one,
the launch of Innovate St. Louis; and two, the establishment
of the new position of Vice President for New Ventures and Capital
Formation. The RCGA’s eight-year-old Technology Gateway Council
was recast and replaced by a new 501(c)3 freestanding entity,
Innovate St. Louis. Chartered by business, civic, university
leaders and the RCGA, and in partnership with the region’s leading
industries, economic development organizations, foundations
and other not-for-profit entities, Innovate St. Louis is designed
to enhance the region’s entrepreneurial culture and to catalyze
the emergence of the region as a global hub of innovation and
entrepreneurial activity. Chaired by RCGA Board member Dr. William
Peck, Director of Washington University’s Center for Health
Policy, Innovate St. Louis has begun two initial efforts:
• The Information Technology Coalition, chaired by Monsanto
Chief Information Officer Mark Showers, parallels the previously-established
Plant and Life Sciences Coalition chaired by former Washington
University Chancellor Dr. Bill Danforth. The new Coalition is
designed to advance job and wealth creation in the IT sector;
• The MIT Venture Mentoring program, which Innovate St. Louis
is working to replicate in this region to help prospective entrepreneurs
develop the skills needed to begin and sustain a successful
business. Innovate St. Louis is working in partnership with
the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington
University and other area universities, as well as with the
Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, on this
initiative. The Kauffman Foundation has selected St. Louis as
one of only three regions nationally for funding.
Within the RCGA’s economic development team, the new position
of Vice President for New Ventures and Capital Formation was
created, with Missouri native Jay DeLong being recruited from
Active Capital in Irvine, Calif., to spearhead RCGA’s entrepreneurial
development and venture capital efforts.
Also, over the past 24 months, the RCGA has assembled a unique
civic collaboration of scientists, business, academic, economic
development and civic leaders—chaired by DuPont Chief Biotechnology
Officer Dr. Kish Kishore—to chart the St. Louis region’s and
the BioBelt’s role in the rapidly emerging biofuels industry.
The RCGA and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center jointly
commissioned Dr. Jim McLaren, a nationally-recognized bioenergy
expert, to develop a strategic “roadmap” for the region’s unique
niche in this field. Launched in early October, the St. Louis-based
Center For Evergreen Energy is one of the recommendations
in this roadmap.
CE2, as it is also called, operates as a national
clearinghouse that incorporates both technical and policy aspects
of the bioenergy sector. CE2 was announced in October
in conjunction with the “Advancing Renewable Energy: An American
Rural Renaissance” Conference, presented jointly by U.S. Department
of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and U.S. Department of Agriculture
Secretary Michael Johanns, for which the RCGA served as local
host. The conference was attended by over 1,500 public and private
sector bioenergy leaders from throughout the country. President
Bush was the closing speaker at the conference.
In another 2006 initiative, the RCGA has partnered for the past
year with the City of St. Louis and a group of regional business
leaders to identify specific ways to restore direct air service
to London as a prelude to developing direct international service
to other key locations around the world.
Likewise, RCGA has continued to pursue the critical issue of
a new Mississippi River bridge downtown, an RCGA infrastructure
priority for over a decade. Federal funding totaling $239 million
was committed in August 2005. As major a step as that was in
the project, a gap remains, and the RCGA has partnered with
Mayor Francis Slay, Civic Progress, RBC, and the States of Missouri
and Illinois, in identifying alternative ways to fund and build
the bridge. Construction of this new bridge is a top infrastructure
priority, and is not only critical to the infrastructure future
of the St. Louis region, but to the nation’s heartland overall.
The civic effort on bridge financing has helped to develop a
set of financing scenarios that range from traditional public
works funding, to public/private partnerships involving tolling,
to other innovative financing mechanisms between the two states.
Missouri and Illinois are now intently focused on identifying
a mutually agreeable financing option. It is hoped that this
will result in a long-awaited resolution of the remaining funding
and that the project can go forward.
An in-depth study by RCGA’s Chief Economist Bryan Bezold on
the economic impact of the new eight-lane bridge found that
each dollar invested in the facility promised a return of up
to 27-to-1 in new economic activity—or a remarkable $25 billion
over the life of the structure. A new, eight-lane bridge would
reduce congestion resulting in net travel time savings of up
to 16,000 vehicle-hours per day, an annual savings of $56 million
to motorists.
At its peak construction period, Bezold noted, the bridge will
generate 3,300 new full-time jobs and an average of between
2,000 and 2,700 full-time, post-construction jobs throughout
the life of the project.
Regarding transportation overall, the RCGA continues to advocate
for the St. Louis region’s fair share in State funding, as well
as working with statewide elected leaders on the longer term
needs of resourcing transportation statewide. RCGA has worked
for several years with the Missouri Department of Transportation
(MoDOT) in finalizing their recent commitment of over $500 million
of State transportation resources to the reconstruction of Interstate
64/Highway 40, as well as working closely with MoDOT and its
eventual contractors in the design/build to plan for how to
deal with the impacts of Highway 40 construction.
Also in the public policy arena, throughout the 2006 Missouri
legislative session, the RCGA—in partnership with the Home Builders
Association of St. Louis, the Missouri Growth Association, area
developers, utility companies, Forward Metro St. Louis partners,
as well as the RCGA’s economic development partners in the City
of St. Louis and St. Louis County—worked for an appropriate
and moderate reform of the eminent domain statutes in Missouri.
“The final eminent domain bill passed by the General Assembly
and signed by Gov. Blunt achieved a balance between stronger
private property rights and the ability to revitalize older
urban areas and downtowns,” noted RCGA Board Chair for Public
Policy Steve Lipstein.
RCGA continued to advocate and support Gov. Blunt’s efforts
to dedicate 25 percent of the tobacco settlement revenue to
establishing the Life Sciences Trust Fund, and continued to
work with a regional and statewide coalition on retaining the
highly successful Historic Preservation Tax Credits. Developers
in Missouri, for example, invested more than $357 million in
buildings certified for federal historic preservation tax credits
in fiscal 2005, and Missouri continues to lead the entire nation
in private investment in historic preservation.
“The Historic Tax Credits have been instrumental in rehabbing
historic buildings in downtown St. Louis, ranging from loft
projects along Washington Avenue to rehabilitation of historic
warehouse structures in Cupples Station and Laclede’s Landing,”
noted RCGA Senior Vice President for Public Policy Tom Irwin.
“The developers who were bringing back the historic Paul Brown
Building were taking tremendous risks—likewise for the Marquette
Building. We were able to provide those important Historic Tax
Credits to minimize some of those risks,” Irwin added.
The Historic Preservation Tax Credits clearly are a major force
in generating what is now some $4 billion of new investment
in the St. Louis region’s center city alone since 2000.
On the education front, the RCGA continues to work with school
districts throughout the region to sustain an equitable funding
formula for public schools. RCGA also successfully worked with
higher education institutions and the Legislature to preserve
and increase funding levels for public higher education institutions
in the region.
RCGA played an active and successful role both in the development
and advocacy of two statewide ballot measures. Passage of Amendment
2—The Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, is critically
important to all St. Louis area employers and their employees,
as it will ensure a level playing field with other states as
the region competes for scientific talent and for life science
business and investment. Most importantly, it will ensure that
St. Louis area families will continue to have access to the
best medical care our nation and region have to offer.
RCGA also supported Amendment 3, the tobacco tax initiative
to address the medical needs of the uninsured, which unfortunately
did not succeed.
The RCGA continued as an active civic partner in the Downtown
Now! effort in 2006, including the successful completion of
the Old Post Office, efforts to develop a master plan for the
southern edge of downtown in the form of the Chouteau Lake District,
and the Center for Research Technology and Entrepreneurial Exchange
(CORTEX) technology district.
CORTEX, chaired by John Dubinsky, is the public-purpose nonprofit
established four years ago by BJC; Washington University; Saint
Louis University; the University of Missouri at St. Louis through
the Center for Emerging Technologies; and the Missouri Botanical
Garden, along with the City of St. Louis, the RCGA, the Coalition
for Plant and Life Sciences, and Civic Progress.
The RCGA continued its active support of the City of St. Louis
and the Downtown St. Louis Partnership in the further development
of market rate housing.
In addition to the some 150 new restaurants, shops, and boutiques,
thousands of new residents have made downtown their home over
the past several years. In fact, the residential population
of downtown—some 8,500 in 2000—is projected to reach 18,000
in 2008. Likewise, between 2000 and 2005, downtown added 1,594
residential units, nearly all of them lofts. This year alone
downtown will nearly double that number.
In March, Mayor Francis Slay and his Downtown Now! partners,
consisting of the City of St. Louis and its St. Louis Development
Corporation, the RCGA, the Downtown St. Louis Partnership, St.
Louis 2004, and the non-profit organization Downtown Now!, were
honored in Washington, D.C., with the National Entrepreneurial
American Leadership Award for the successful revitalization
efforts in downtown St. Louis.
Commenting on the St. Louis region’s efforts, Partners for Livable
Communities President Bob McNulty noted at the event, “St. Louis
was almost given up years ago for its morbid and difficult downtown
area. We want to recognize the private and public sectors that
have turned what was seen as one of the most difficult downtown
revitalization projects into one of the stars of this country.”
In November, RCGA Chairman Scott Schnuck, along with RCGA Board
members Tracy Hart, David Steward and Don Suggs, led some 90
St. Louis regional leaders to Atlanta for the RCGA Annual Leadership
Trip. The St. Louis delegates met with 25 of their Atlanta counterparts
during the three-day Trip, which was covered by the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch and by both KMOX radio and public radio station
KWMU.
“St. Louis leaders observed how Atlanta is working to address
many of the same issues and opportunities facing St. Louis—such
as public education reform, congestion and transportation infrastructure
needs, leveraging higher education and top research institutions
as economic development drivers, making diversity a quality
of life asset, parks and trails, transit and transit-oriented
development, and many other parallel issues,” noted RCGA Chairman
Scott Schnuck.
St. Louis should view Atlanta as a role model for having made
dramatic progress over the past several years in school governance
and student achievement in a challenging urban public education
environment. In other areas, St. Louis can serve as a role model
for Atlanta.
“St. Louis’ life sciences initiatives are in many ways ahead
of those in Atlanta, and while downtown Atlanta currently has
some $2 billion of recent investment in its downtown, St. Louis
has more than twice that amount being invested in its
downtown over a similar period,” added RCGA President and CEO
Dick Fleming.
In 2006, the RCGA and the St. Louis region continued to build
a strong, growing business environment. The region’s focus was
in 2006 what it will continue to be in 2007—aggressively attracting
new jobs and retaining and growing the businesses already here
in St. Louis. As 2007 dawns, the RCGA sees a new year filled
with both opportunities and promise for the St. Louis region.
