JEFFERSON CITY — It’s an election year and Missouri’s coffers are flush, giving vote-hungry politicians the seed money to fund billions of dollars in construction projects.
But some of the money earmarked for the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region as part of the new state budget isn’t necessarily targeted at building new stuff.
A Post-Dispatch analysis of the $51 billion spending plan awaiting action by Gov. Mike Parson shows an estimated $64 million is headed to the metro area for deconstruction projects.
There’s a $7 million allocation for ºüÀêÊÓƵ Lambert International Airport to begin demolishing abandoned and underused buildings on the edges of the tarmac in preparation for a major rebuild of the facility’s passenger terminal.
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The budget includes $14.8 million in matching funds for the City of ºüÀêÊÓƵ “for the purpose of removing condemned city-owned, vacant properties.â€
Some of the $40 million dedicated to the University of Missouri-ºüÀêÊÓƵ will be used to tear down buildings as part of a remake of the campus.
And, $4 million is included in the spending plan to bulldoze abandoned buildings in Kinloch, located in north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County near Lambert.
Parson, who has made infrastructure a key piece of his tenure as chief executive, is expected to take action on the spending package in late June. It includes money to build new police training centers, a push to widen busy sections of Interstate 44 and a sprinkling of other community improvement projects around the state.
For the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area, the amount of spending being funneled toward demolition is a reality faced by other Rust Belt cities.
Factors driving the need to bring out the wrecking ball include postwar population loss, suburbanization, flat regional population growth, older housing stock and racial bias.
In ºüÀêÊÓƵ, which has seen a dramatic population lost since its postwar high of 856,000 residents, there are an estimated 25,000 abandoned properties. More than 7,000 of those are vacant buildings, including about 4,000 that have been condemned, according to city officials.
At the airport, Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said the $7 million is part of a $2.8 billion plan to upgrade and transform the passenger terminal.
It will be used to flatten unused structures near the terminal in preparation for the changes.
“We have to take down a ton of buildings that are adjacent to the terminal,†Hamm-Niebruegge said.
She said the state’s involvement is a signal to the airport’s partners that officials are serious about improving the city-owned facility.
“We’re just working with our airlines to show we’re looking at every opportunity that is out there,†Hamm-Niebruegge said.
Sen. Brian Williams, a University City Democrat who works on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he is in support of the Lambert project and that he knew Hamm-Niebruegge was working to secure state funding to help negotiate with airlines.
“It’ll be big. It’s in my district and I’m really excited about it,†Williams said.
In Kinloch, which is east of the airport, the $4 million in funding will help demolish abandoned homes and clean up trash that has accumulated in the village, which is Missouri’s first and oldest Black town.
Jack Suntrup of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.