ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones is pushing a plan to spend another $20 million to rescue a downtown convention center expansion beset by delays and cost overruns.
But it’s not clear everyone else is on the same page.
Draft legislation circulating in City Hall says there’s enough money in interest on federal pandemic aid and the city’s share of the NFL Rams settlement to cover the injection. Kitty Ratcliffe, president of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Convention and Visitors Commission, said the cash would pay for a new lobby and public plaza between Ninth and 10th streets that have been deemed essential to attracting more conventions, but are currently beyond the project’s $240 million budget.
“This will help us accomplish a big piece of the project,†Ratcliffe said. “Any improvements we can make to this building help us be competitive.â€
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But members of the Board of Aldermen said they still have a lot of questions about the proposal. Aldermanic President Megan Green said she and others still need to meet with Ratcliffe to ensure all other ways of paying for the project have been exhausted. And Alderman Cara Spencer was taken aback when she heard that her name was on the draft legislation circulated by the mayor’s office.
“It is premature and frankly irresponsible of the mayor’s office to circulate a bill with my name on it that I haven’t seen,†she said.
The conversations Wednesday signaled the beginning of yet another debate over money for a convention center billed as critical to attracting visitors, filling downtown hotels and restaurants, and burnishing the city’s national brand.
Officials have been working on the expansion since at least 2018, when city and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County leaders came together to back a plan they said was necessary to keep the America’s Center complex on Washington Avenue competitive with its rivals in cities like Nashville, Tennessee, and Indianapolis.
The project called for 92,000 square feet of new exhibit space along Cole Street, a 65,000-square-foot ballroom along Ninth Street as well as the public plaza with green space on what is now a parking lot.
The city and county agreed to split the $210 million expansion cost, using hotel tax revenue freed up after the retirement of debt issued to build The Dome at America’s Center, where the NFL Rams used to play.
But the project has faced resistance at nearly every step. The city took months longer than expected to issue bonds for its half of the cost while leaders gauged the pandemic’s impact on city finances. Then county officials outdid them, waiting until April 2022 to green light their own bonds.
All the while, costs skyrocketed amid inflation in the construction market. When the city’s Board of Public Service, which is overseeing the project, requested bids for the expansion, it got one for the first half that was roughly $40 million over budget, and none at all for the second half.
The first phase, which includes a new wing with additional exhibit space and loading docks, went ahead in May 2022. And officials have said that will still improve the complex, allowing it to host three events at the same time where it couldn’t before.
But Ratcliffe said a few months later that the second phase, with the ballroom and the public plaza, couldn’t go forward without additional money.
Leaders initially responded by setting aside $30 million from the $790 million Rams settlement to help with the project.
Ratcliffe said Wednesday more is needed. Even if city officials approve using the extra $20 million for the plaza and lobby, she’ll still need more to do the ballroom.
But, she said, officials could come back to that later.