The AT&T tower and Railway Exchange building in downtown St. Louis could see a makeover in the coming years due to new state development legislation approved Thursday.
The Missouri House voted 119-24 to pass a large economic development bill that includes incentivizing the conversion of vacant or underused properties into new housing.
The Senate passed the same bill earlier this week. Because the House took up the changes the Senate made without requesting a compromise, the legislation now goes to Gov. Mike Kehoe.
Proponents of the legislation say it contains a mixture of tax cuts, tax incentives and deregulation to lure growth to the state, including downtown St. Louis.
Rep. Brad Christ, R-St. Louis County, the sponsor of the legislation in the House, said this bill will "ignite a tremendous return on investment, good-paying jobs and growth in the state."
"We know that no individual project is enough to revitalize a community or state, which is why this bill is so much more," Christ said. "It creates an entire new ecosystem of certainty and predictability to those that want to invest in Missouri's growth, public safety and our people."
The bill is partially aimed at flipping some of the larger underutilized or vacant buildings in downtown St. Louis, like the AT&T tower and the Railway Exchange, to create more housing.
Sen. Steve Roberts, D-St. Louis, said the city is struggling with developing some of these buildings because of how expensive it would be.
"After meeting with different local leaders, members from the business community and my colleagues, we created this bill to help specifically focus, for our purposes, on downtown St. Louis and revitalizing that area," Roberts said.
Roberts believes this legislation will ultimately bring more people downtown.
"It's very exciting, because there's no reason why St. Louis can't have a vibrant downtown community," Roberts said.
In a statement released after the House voted the bill out, Greater St. Louis Inc. applauded its passage.
"The Missouri legislature recognized the critical importance of Downtown St. Louis to the state's economy and, in bipartisan fashion, stepped up to catalyze hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment in the economic engine of the state," said Ron Kitchens, managing partner of Greater St. Louis Inc.
Not everyone spoke in favor of the legislation. Rep. Ben Keathley, R-Chesterfield, said while the state should be looking for ways to grow Missouri, this is not the way to do it.
"We should be looking at reining in these types of things that have put us in this mess, not creating super TIFs (tax increment financing) and super tax credit tools that have only failed over and over again," Keathley said.
Through the legislation, cities could apply for an area to be a Missouri innovation zone and be able to use incentives distributed by the state Department of Economic Development.
Cities must include proposed district boundaries, identify vacant and underutilized properties as well as provide projections of anticipated housing and employment growth in their application. Cities may only establish one of those districts.
Additionally, the legislation allows for up to $50 million annually in tax credits toward the conversion of buildings into residential spaces.
Beginning in January 2027, the state will offer tax credits equal up to 25% of the cost for converting buildings in those districts to residential spaces if the building is at least 25 years old.
Tax credits worth up to 30% of costs would be available to similar projects in smaller towns and cities.
Half of that $50 million will be reserved for qualified converted buildings that are larger than 750,000 square feet.
Keathley also spoke against the cost of the tax credits as the state is currently facing tougher budgets in years to come
"This is your funding to education, this is your funding to health care services, this is your funding to all of that stuff where we've had the biggest arguments," Keathley said.
Speaking on the legislation in the Senate last week, Sen. Kurtis Gregory, R-Marshall, said the bill is not a blank check.
"This bill does not spend a dollar of state money up front, not one. The incentives in this package only trigger after private investors put up real money, take real risk and finish the job," Gregory said.
The legislation is HB 3231.
St. Louis Public Radio's Lilley Halloran contributed to this report.
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