There’s close to $1 billion — and probably more — ready to pour into development in midtown and neighborhoods to the south.
With a new $550 million ºüÀêÊÓƵ University Hospital planned by SSM Health in the Tiffany neighborhood and major developments proposed on the edges of ºüÀêÊÓƵ University’s campus, SLU is moving to get ahead of the development that appears likely to transform another portion of the region’s central corridor.
The university is asking the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ to give it more control over the zoning and tax incentives that will determine what is built on 395 acres near its medical center and north campus.
Just to the west, the city granted similar powers to the Cortex technology district and Washington University. Investors are now looking farther east, to the area surrounding another one of ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ anchor institutions.
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“We now have another major institution lending their name to the redevelopment of about 400 acres around their campus,†said ºüÀêÊÓƵ Alderman Joe Roddy, who is co-sponsoring legislation to give SLU the ability to control development near its campus.
Leading the effort for SLU is the university’s chief financial officer, , who called the effort “a terrific opportunity for the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ.â€
“You can’t ignore the impact of a half-billion-dollar investment on your campus,†he said.
A development plan for the area around the planned new hospital and its campus is nearly finalized, Heimburger said, but he declined to share specific details until it is submitted to the city early next month. The plan is expected to lay out proposed uses within the area and the amount of property tax abatement that will be offered to developers.
SLU’s push for the new development powers follows the university’s decision to and link up with SSM. Last year, SLU bought back the hospital from for-profit Tenet Healthcare Corp. and deeded it to SSM in exchange for board seats and a minority stake in the Catholic health care provider.
Unlike Tenet, SSM was willing to invest in the academic medical center, near the old one along Grand Boulevard.
The change in leadership at the university three years ago after the quarter-century reign of the Rev. Lawrence Biondi also played a part.
“He had the campus master plan in his mind, and it wasn’t shared broadly,†Heimburger said at a ºüÀêÊÓƵ Board of Aldermen committee hearing last week.
Not since 1989 had SLU developed a campus master plan, and “one of the first things (new SLU President Fred Pestello) did was to develop a strategic plan at the university,†Heimburger said.
Over time, the hope is that development can connect SLU’s north campus with the medical institutions farther south on Grand Boulevard.
“If we can somehow give it a feel that it’s one campus, that would be a tremendous thing for our students,†Heimburger said.
Blighting Midtown
SLU, and now SSM, own about 53 percent of the land in the 395-acre redevelopment area.
The university envisions new academic and medical buildings along with private investment on some of that real estate.
To guide the private investment that comes in, even on land it doesn’t own, SLU is asking ºüÀêÊÓƵ to let it form what’s known as a Chapter 353 redevelopment corporation. The entity would be controlled by SLU and likely include partners such as SSM and other developers.
It’s the same path Washington University took 40 years ago when it created a similar entity.
“Our institution made a very conscious decision back in the 1970s to stay in the city,†said Brian Phillips, executive director of the Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. “And that decision coincided with an effort to stabilize those areas.â€
It gave the university the ability to guide development by offering tax abatement to investors who followed its development plan and to set zoning and use categories around the institution.
“You become kind of like a city administrator,†Phillips said.
SLU cleared a key early step in the process Wednesday, when a Board of Aldermen committee voted unanimously to advance a measure blighting the area. Later, the full board will have to approve the measure as well as a redevelopment plan that coincides with the blighted area. Heimburger said the university hopes to have that ready to present at the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Planning Commission’s Nov. 2 meeting.
Still unclear is how much tax abatement will be offered to developers in the area. State law allows a redevelopment corporation to grant up to 25 years of property tax abatement.
Other incentives could be offered, too. Don Roe, director of ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ planning department, said the whole area is unlikely to be part of a tax increment financing district, as Cortex is. But it could include smaller TIFs in certain areas to entice developers.
“It’s a large geography,†Roe said. “Different places will have different challenges.â€
Soccer stadiums and affordable housing
This isn’t the first time SLU has led the creation of a 353 plan. In the late 1970s, it launched the formation of the Midtown Medical Center Redevelopment Corp. with several banks.
The entity’s redevelopment standards in neighborhoods around Tiffany and Terry Park riled some longtime residents. Some homeowners who wouldn’t negotiate with the entity had their houses condemned. There were protests and pickets. Some 50 families, mostly poor and black, were forced to move out.
This time, SLU is being careful to emphasize it won’t have the power of eminent domain that other 353 corporations use. However, the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Board of Aldermen could still use eminent domain on property within the redevelopment area through a separate measure, according to the statute.
“Unlike the Cortex plan, there is no eminent domain,†Heimburger said. “We’re not planning on using eminent domain in any way.â€
For now, residents in the portions of the neighborhoods included in the redevelopment area — Tiffany and the Gate District — are open to the plan, said Alderman Marlene Davis, who co-sponsored the legislation. SLU says it wants to see infill housing develop on the property it bought in those neighborhoods.
“They were very excited that the lots that (SLU) owned within the Gate District West neighborhood, that there are going to be homes built on those lots,†Davis said.
Sarah Coffin, an urban planning and development professor at SLU, said she thinks the plan is a “smart idea†and is optimistic it will lead to the development of affordable housing within the footprint.
“With all the investment that’s happening around the central corridor, affordability is really starting to become a problem,†Coffin said. “If there’s some development pressure that comes in that might affect affordability, the university can step in and guide that investment.â€
Two major private developments within the redevelopment area are already in the works.
Green Street Properties this summer acquired with plans for an entertainment venue.
And just east of Cortex. The City Foundry project, as it’s called, would include a food hall, offices, retail and apartments.
The Lawrence Group’s chief executive, Steve Smith, said he’s all for the plan, and he’s in the process of negotiating a development agreement with SLU. Smith has indicated he wants the full amount of tax abatement available over 25 years, and his agreement with SLU would spell out the amount offered.
“Our investors and our lenders can have much more confidence that they’re investing in an area that’s going to grow over the next decade,†said Smith, who has worked with SLU in the past.
There’s still likely to be some opposition. For instance, Heimburger indicated the remaining and near the southwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Chouteau Avenue are probably not going to be preserved.
“We haven’t finalized the plan, but it’s likely those buildings are not to be kept intact,†he said.
As issues arise, Heimburger said the university wants to work with the community.
“I’m sure there will be differences of opinion, but as those come up, I assure you we will do our best to work through them,†he said.
And as for a Major League Soccer stadium on the northwest corner of Chouteau and Grand? The development plan was in the works long before news arose that an ownership group was interested in the site, Heimburger said. MLS still needs to pick an ownership group.
“We’d be happy to talk, and that’s the extent of it,†he said.