|
 |
MEET ME IN
ST. LOUIS
|
Corporate
relocation specialists say St. Louis compares favorably to other
regions.
By William Poe
A new breed of professional is working hand-in-hand with local companies
to make St. Louis feel like home to employees moving to the area.
And it seems that St. Louis competes well with other cities for
the kind of talent employers need.
“St. Louis is one of the best kept secrets in terms of the livability
of the community,” says Mary A. Quigg, president of Vandover, a
St. Louis-based relocation transition firm. Quigg says she moved
here some 20 years ago, and “now it would be very difficult for
me to leave.”
Brenda R. Hampton, president of Hampton Corporate Suites, Ltd.,
says her clients find St. Louis is “great place to live. We
can live well and cheaply here.”
Bill French, head of Wm. French Buyer’s Real Estate Services,
Inc., agrees that his clients find St. Louis “compares favorably”
with other cities.
Quigg, Hampton and French personify a new service industry that
has blossomed during the tight labor market conditions of the last
few years as employers have found it more difficult to attract and
retain workers. Now, a relocation services package is an employee
benefit nearly as common as a health care plan and pension, Quigg
says.
Companies, Quigg says, “are asking service providers to form
partnerships with them as they face the challenges of our new economy.
Employees...especially new hires...are expecting and demanding more
services than ever before.”
Major employers, and some smaller ones, hire firms such as Vandover
in part “to offset the high cost of what might be a failed
relocation.” She says the employer costs associated with the
relocation of a typical employee and family range from $50,000 to
$100,000. Add another $100,000 if the relocation attempt fails.
“That’s their motivation,” she says.
The costs involved in employee recruitment, retention and relocation
are also motivation for professionals like Quigg, Hampton and French
to make relocatees and new employees from other areas comfortable
with St. Louis, even before they arrive.
“We will help them make the decision (to move) before they even
come to St. Louis,” says Pat Salam, manager of client relations
for Vandover.
“One of our goals is to remove the resistance to the move by demonstrating
that the resources they want and need are here,” Quigg adds.
French, whose company is one of the largest exclusive buyer’s agents
in the nation and does 90 percent of its business here with relocatees,
says his relocation specialists “promote the lifestyle benefits
of living and working in St. Louis” to overcome the transferees’
resistance to moving.
Before a visit by the new employee or relocatee, French conducts
an initial telephone consultation, prepares a personalized relocation
kit including lifestyle factors, researches living areas, previews
potential homes, and provides an analysis of the St. Louis marketplace.
At Vandover, Quigg says, “We look at the relocating employee’s total
life. What is the lifestyle in the old community; what are the needs
of the employee and the family as they consider a move such as schools,
healthcare, eldercare, spouses seeking employment, and special interests
that the family may have.”
French tells the story of a foreign physician, a religious Sikh,
who was being recruited by one of the city’s medical centers. The
doctor, French says, had expressed concern about fitting into St.
Louis culture. So, French identified a Sikh couple already living
here to act as local mentors and increase the physician’s level
of comfort with St. Louis. The physician moved here.
“St. Louis was able to satisfy his needs for a diverse environment,
and I think that speaks very well of our community,” French says.
He adds that his company represents relocating employees from “all
corners of the U.S. and the globe. It’s a huge change in the sense
that, when I first started this business, most were coming from
somewhere else in the U.S. Today, it’s a global influx.”
Hampton, whose company specializes in the leasing of furnished apartment
homes for periods ranging from 30 days to a few years, says she
often has to find housing to fit unique needs, such as for an extended
family that needs to be close to a hospital where a child is being
treated or for the federal Waco investigation team that had special
requirements.
Without exception, Quigg, Hampton and French say that St. Louis
can meet virtually any realistic housing need a person may have.
Whether the need is for historic housing in a racially mixed area,
a New York-style high-rise condominium, furnished or unfurnished
apartments, homes in older suburbs, homes in brand-new subdivisions,
planned communities, or country estates, St. Louis competes well
with other areas of the country, they say.
Despite all of the housing choices available here, French says he’s
“found people going into specific areas.” In a company study last
year of the zip codes of new arrivals, French found that 41 percent
moved into west St. Louis County, 32 percent went to St. Charles
County, 11 percent to central corridor suburbs, five percent to
south St. Louis County, four percent to north St. Louis County,
four percent to the City of St. Louis, and the remainder to other
areas.
French says his numbers illustrate the growth of jobs and housing
in St. Charles County, and he adds that St. Charles County growth
has largely been at the expense of St. Louis County, which is now
largely developed. Despite the small numbers for the City of St.
Louis, French says the city’s Central West End “has been and continues
to be a very important area,” and he says “we’re finding a fair
amount of interest in loft conversions in the city.” He also says
he’s seeing a higher percentage of people going to Jefferson, Franklin
and Warren counties and “a small but growing” number of people seeking
acreage properties as far out as Troy, Mo.
Purchase prices in 2000, French says, ranged from $40,000 to $1.7
million with the average sale price about $260,000.
Relocation professionals say St. Louis has plenty of quality housing
at affordable prices, compared to other areas.
“We have good quality and value,” Hampton says. “My goodness, I
know from my contacts all over the country that St. Louis definitely
offers value for the money.”
French says, though, that relocatees often spend more money on housing
here than they first thought they would.
“As people do self-study, they’re looking at an average sale price
for the general metropolitan area, but most really move to St. Louis
County, which runs higher,” French says. “They find themselves spending
more money than they might have anticipated.”
French also says the recent seller’s market here has driven up prices.
“People have the impression they can buy a lot more here than they
have been able to buy,” French says. “The good news is that from
a selling standpoint property has been moving extremely well. Selling
prices have been going up fairly aggressively. The negative side
is the availability of properties. We’ve not found over the last
year that there is an abundance of property. It takes digging to
find the right house, and there is frequently competition for the
same house.”
William V. Poe is principal of Poe Communications, a St. Louis
advertising and marketing communications firm. |
|
|
|
|
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
