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BIG BUCKS DOWNTOWN!
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New security measures at Federal Reserve Bank are money in the bank for downtown St. Louis.
By William Poe
Each day, the Federal Reserve Bank of
St. Louis stores within its massive vault tens of millions of dollars in cold cash, and it processes three million check transactions.
Each hour, the Fed’s Eighth District headquartered at 411 Locust Street processes an average of nearly 350,000 Federal Reserve notes.
And on an ongoing basis, the St. Louis Fed’s Banking Supervision and Regulation Division supervises 639 bank holding
companies and 75 state member banks doing business in the region.
As one of 12 Federal Reserve districts, the St. Louis Fed is the financial nerve center for eastern Missouri, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, southern Illinois, southern Indiana and northern Mississippi. The bank here also coordinates the Federal Reserve System’s financial services to the largest user of those services—the U.S. Treasury Department.
It’s easy to understand in this hair-trigger post-9/11 world that a calamitous disruption in the St. Louis Fed’s services could be
devastating to the region and to the nation’s banking system. That’s why the federal government is beefing up security around the regional Reserve banks and why, incidentally, the new security enhancements are actually very good news for downtown
St. Louis.
As a result of the new security mandates, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has embarked
on a $77.8 million renovation and expansion program due for completion
in 2009, according to
W. LeGrande Rives, first vice president and COO of the St. Louis Fed.
 W. LeGrande Rives, first vice president and COO of the
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. |
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Under the construction direction of Volk Construction Company and McCarthy Building Companies, the St. Louis Fed project includes the construction of an off-site materials screening facility, a landscaped pedestrian plaza on the now-vacated 400 block of Locust Street, a new high-security visitor entrance, the purchase of an existing parking garage, and a new five-story addition encompassing 100,000 square feet of offices and an unloading facility. Wrapping it all up will be exterior upgrades emulating the original building’s slate grey 1920s-era limestone façade.
Although the project represents a significant new construction investment and is now seen as a confidence booster for downtown St. Louis, the St. Louis Fed could have pulled up stakes in downtown, the bank’s home since 1926.
“After 9/11, the federal banking system developed a host of new security requirements that all regional Reserve banks had to comply with,” says Rives. “It became obvious that we needed substantial improvements in this facility if we were going to meet those rules.”
Those rules included building setback requirements to create a security zone and stringent new procedures for screening people and materials entering the bank, says Rives. Because the bank looms over an old city block just a few feet from surrounding streets, bank officials seriously considered building a new facility elsewhere.
“We looked very quietly at other sites in the city, including building a new complex on the city’s north riverfront area, but those alternatives were very expensive,” says Rives. “We also felt that we wanted to be a good corporate citizen and remain here.”
“After thoroughly analyzing its options, the Federal Reserve Bank made the decision to reinvest in downtown, and its commitment to downtown remains very strong,” says Walter L. Metcalfe Jr., chairman of the board of
directors for the district and chairman of Bryan Cave LLC.
Rives says the bank understood that with 800 employees working in the heart of downtown, the bank’s exodus “would have left a big void. If we had abandoned the site, we would have had a negative effect on a lot of our neighbors. We were determined to stay if we could meet the security requirements.”
That’s where Volk Construction and McCarthy lent their expertise. And the security plans required some concessions by the City, which was asked to vacate Locust Street between Fourth Street and Broadway and surrender one traffic lane each on Fourth, St. Charles Street and Broadway.
The lane closures were necessitated by the new security zone requirements, and Locust was needed to make way for a new entry vestibule where visitors could be screened before they enter the bank building itself.
The Fed also wanted a garage, which came in the form of the adjacent Marquette Building garage owned by the City. The Fed was giving up some on-site parking, which was being lost to the new unloading facility.
In return for the loss of the Locust Street thoroughfare, downtown workers and residents are gaining a pedestrian plaza complete with patterned walkways, fountains, flower planters, benches and probably old-fashioned street lights that may extend around the block, says Eric Zimmerman, project manager for Volk Construction.
“It’s a definite aesthetic upgrade,” says Zimmerman. “While the plaza is a security enhancement for the bank, it’s also a beautification project for that part of downtown.”
Downtown will also benefit visually from the five-story building addition, which will make the north end of the bank complex blend with the original building, says Kris Anderson, a McCarthy vice president.
“When people go by the Fed and see the new facades and re-cladding, it’s really going to be an interesting place,” says Anderson.
Every bit as interesting as the renovated bank, but located west of the downtown core is the Fed’s new $2.6 million remote screening facility, which Volk recently completed on the site of an old trucking terminal at 1421 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. The facility serves as the Fed’s mailing destination and provides for the electronic screening of all incoming mail and packages. Even cash trucks that ultimately unload millions of dollars of at the bank are “inspected inside and out” before being escorted to the bank itself, says Rives.
| Rendering of the updated and more secure Federal Reserve Bank in downtown St. Louis. |
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Rives, a commercial banker who has been with the St. Louis Fed since 1996, says that the remote screening facility and the entrance vestibule under construction demonstrate how bank security has changed since the events of 9/11.
“Security traditionally was focused on preventing people from taking things from the bank (such as its millions of dollars) rather than on what they might bring in,” says Rives. “You used to be able to just come in the front door and sign in. Now the security environment is completely different.”
And Rives says that is not all bad for downtown St. Louis.
“This is a major commitment on the part of this board (of governors) and this bank,” says Rives. “And our investment is already having a positive impact on nearby properties where there are already new building activities." |
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