The second phase of The Boulevard, in Richmond Heights across from the Galleria and south of The Boulevard–St. Louis is back on track. The recession — beginning in 2007 — had postponed the project.
Representatives of Brentwood-based developer Pace Properties presented the plan on Monday at The Heights for a 5-acre development to Richmond Heights’ tax increment financing (TIF) commission.
The commission voted 8-2 to recommend a $15.3 million TIF for phase 2 to the Richmond Heights City Council, which is to hear about the plan on December 21, with a vote expected in January, city manager Amy Hamilton told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The $78.9 million expansion would add approximately 90,000 square feet of retail space, 28,550 square feet of office space, 165 apartments and nearly 900 parking spaces.
The only objecting votes to the TIF on the 10-member commission came from two Clayton School District board members: Susan Buse, the school board president, and Jane Klamer. The 23-year TIF would divert tax dollars away from the school district and toward paying off the TIF financing.
“When you add residences, which tend to attract students, especially in the Clayton district, and he’s getting higher rents because he’s in the Clayton School District, then we have students coming, and they’re not coming with the revenue to support their education, and that’s why we get into trouble with this kind of financing,” Buse said after the meeting.
Buse and Klamer were the only ones to vote in favor of an amendment to the recommendation that 50 percent of the taxes would ‘pass through’ — not go to paying off the TIF, but go to all taxing entities including the school district.
Other Clayton residents — parents with students in the district and others — opposed the TIF based mainly on the length and the effect it would have on schools.
Clayton resident Mellisa Pillot said the sales tax on furniture and other retail goods would be “unbelievable.”
“We have TDDs (transportation development districts) that are up to 10.613 percent. In this area the sales tax is 9.613,” she said. “People do make decisions with their feet, and when the differences are so stark. To see those sales taxes jumping is disturbing to me. You have two major furniture stores in Boulevard north… and I’m really excited about Ikea being in the city taxing district.”
Robert Sherwood of Pace Properties said if approved construction would start in 2016 and open in 2018.
Read the full article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
