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In St. Louis, Dr. MLK Business
? Park Dreams Renewed
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St. Louis, Missouri
J_n St. Louis, Missouri, the 26-acre, 16-block Dr. Martin Luther King
Business Park had been reduced to a few crumbling, abandoned buildings
and an unofficial storage lot for used tires over the course of a few
decades. Committed to renewing hope in this area located north of
downtown, the City of St. Louis looked to EPA for help. EPA funding,
along with local private and public investment, helped clean up and turn
around a 6-city block, 20-acre property within MLK Park. The end result
was the creation of one large, campus-style business park, known as the
St. Louis Commerce Center, which has provided local companies a place
to build and provide j obs within the city's urban core.
Throughout the 1900s, the future MLK Business Park property was
initially used for residential and eventually commercial and industrial uses,
creating hundreds of vital jobs. But as St. Louis began to grow,
businesses and industries slowly migrated to the suburbs, and by the
1990s, the area had suffered from this urban decay. The city had lost half
of its jobs and two-thirds of its population since 1960 to outside areas
while being saddled with thousands of abandoned or publicly held sites,
including the MLK Business Park property.
A $200,000 EPA Brownfields Assessment Pilot grant awarded in 1996
made it possible for the city to perform an environmental investigation on
a six-block area within the MLK Park, where a large pharmaceutical
company, a foundry, automotive repair shops, dry cleaners, and other
industrial and commercial businesses had once operated. Both soil and
groundwater were found to be polluted with benzene, petroleum, and
other highly toxic substances.
Cleanup required the removal of more than 20,000 tons of soil. More than
50,000 square feet of asbestos-containing materials were also removed.
The city excavated more than 20 underground storage tanks from the site
and surrounding properties. In addition to hazardous waste removal, other
cleanup technologies such as capping and groundwater treatment were
used. Soil and groundwater remediation and asbestos abatement costs
totaled more than one million dollars. The state's brownfield remediation
tax credit of about $ 1 million, combined with a contribution from the city's
economic development agency, paid for the cleanup.
Balke Brown Associates, a local developer, worked with EPA and the
City of St. Louis during cleanup of the parcels. "We took a derelict,
abandoned piece of property with a lot of environmental problems and
St. Louis Commerce Centers I and II
JUST THE FACTS:
An EPA Brownfields Assessment Pilot grant
enabled the city to perform assessments on a six-
block area within the MartinLutherKing
Business Park, where a pharmaceutical company,
a foundry, automotive repair shops, dry cleaners,
and other industry had once operated.
Cleanup required the removal of more than
20,000 tons of soil, more than 50,000 square feet
of asbestos-containing materials, and 20
underground storage tanks.
Astatebrownfieldremediationtaxcreditofabout
$1 million, combined withacontributionfrom the
city's economic development agency, paid for
the cleanup.
Cleanup was followed by development of a large,
campus-style business park known as the St.
Louis Commerce Center, whichhasprovided
local companies a place to build and provide jobs
within the city's uiban core.
"We took a derelict,
abandoned piece of property with a
lot of environmental problems and
transformed it into a productive commercial
property. It has already started to encourage
surrounding brownfield redevelopment
in the area."
Don Land, Senior VPof local developer
Balke Brown Associates
continued
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transformed it into a productive commercial property," said Don Land, Senior Vice President of Balke
Brown Associates. "It has already started to encourage surrounding brownfield redevelopment in the
area."
Balke Brown Associates designed the St. Louis Commerce Center in two phases,
completed in February 2000 and March 2002, respectively. Phase I is 150,000
square feet of office and industrial space while Phase II is significantly larger,
with 336,000 square feet of similar usage. The combined 486,000 square
feet of much-needed, north-side space is currently 100% leased to seven
tenants, including: Gateway GDI; Killark Electrical Products; Swank
Motion Pictures; McLeod USA Telecommunications; Sigma-Aldrich, GPX; J
and Bryan Cave.
In addition to creating more than 210 new jobs, the Commerce Center is a
major revenue producer that has added a new sense of hope in this area of
St. Louis. The Center's success has stimulated nearby brownfields
redevelopment, including the newly-built St. Louis Gateway Classics Sport
complex and neighboring single and multi-family housing units. "Sometimes it
takes just one project to do it," remarked Kevin McGrew, Brownfields
Coordinator of the St. Louis Development Corporation, on the area's revitalization.
By transforming 20 blighted acres into a premiere business park, the City of St. Louis has set a new
standard. The large scale and vision of this project have changed regional attitudes toward brownfields
redevelopment and set a precedent for other projects in the city to follow.
CONTACTS:
For more information contact
U.S. ERA-REGION 7
(913)551-7003
Visit the EPA Brownfields web site at:
htlpy/www.epa.qov/brownfields/
GPX, Inc. Distribution Center, Located in
Commerce Center II
Brownfields Success Story
St. Louis Missouri
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105T)
EPA 560-F-04-261
September 2004
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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