For Great Rivers Greenway’s $245 million Brickline Greenway project to connect Forest Park to the Arch Grounds and Tower Grove Park to Fairground Park, the desired economic results of such a massive project are much more complicated than the iconic sentiment from Field of Dreams: “If you build it, [they] will come.”
During a Commercial Real Estate Women event on Tuesday focused on how greenway projects can spur inclusive economic growth at the local level, Great Rivers Greenway director of equity and impact T. Christopher Peoples and IFF Southern Region executive director Stephen Westbrooks described how the region can ensure it doesn’t overlook neighborhoods that have historically been left behind.
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“It’s kind of hiding in plain sight with this when you think about it as an infrastructure project or green development or linear park,” Westbrooks said during a panel discussion. “I think the stakes are actually so much higher for the region and for St. Louis.”
He cites the longstanding fragmentation of the St. Louis region as part of the problem, but lauds Great Rivers Greenway’s ability to unify a variety of people, organizations and sources of capital around a single large-scale project.
“I think a knee-jerk reaction to inclusivity is somehow that’s going to undermine the economic opportunity that might be available when we start making large investment in community or with infrastructure,” Westbrooks says. “This is such a striking opportunity for us to all come together in a new way and reimagine the way that we are together in this region.”
For Peoples, more of his day-to-day attention is going to the neighborhoods in North St. Louis where the Brickline is currently under construction to help them be in a position to capitalize once that portion of the project is complete.
“One thing I took away immediately [from listening to the community] and brought into this role when I transitioned into it was every segment of the Brickline needed something different and you just couldn’t take a holistic approach to how we were going to provide equitable economic development to these corridors,” Peoples said to the room.
He says there are parts of the city that just need more attention because they haven’t always had strong local economic development organizations, compared to parts of the city that have. Peoples contrasts the North St. Louis neighborhoods of JeffVanderLou, Grand Center, and St. Louis Place with Forest Park Southeast, where the latter has had a strong community development corporation in Park Central Development for years.
“Not having that there was really harmful to these communities,” he said. “They didn’t have an advocate. The simplest things like complaining to the city, looking for infrastructure projects, having the right zoning, all of these things that you take for granted from the economic development organizations that probably occupy the places that you either work or live in.”
Peoples says he researched different economic development models before landing on a community development corporation as the best approach. That led to the creation of the Brickline North Community Development Corporation, where he’s the current acting director.
“It gave the community a voice, it gave them an ability to participate in the process, but it also gives us governance, accountability, and ownership to city agencies,” he said. “As we’re going after funding or we’re advocating for these communities, the city listens to us.”
Peoples’ dual roles with GRG and the community development corporation are ones that he says he’s clear about in every interaction he has about the infrastructure project.
The new Brickline North Community Development Corporation just received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation six months ago, allowing it to actively seek investments for property acquisition and other development priorities along the greenway.
“Without a dedicated vehicle to actually ask for and receive patient capital, how do you do that?” Westbrooks said. “When you get that, you can make those strategic acquisitions and hold onto those [properties]. You can fend off speculation and now you’re setting the type of framework for the type of development that you actually want to have happen along the north connector.”
He says he’s excited by how the project can become an “investable opportunity” for the broader St. Louis community. In this instance, speed is critical before “the cat’s fully out of the bag and people see what the full economic opportunity may be” along the northern portion of the route.
The upside of the Brickline stands to be significant. An 2022 economic impact study by Greater St. Louis Inc. estimates some $126 million in aggregate residential property value increase and up to $82 million in associated annual local business activity.
Peoples says the CDC is targeting three types of sites for acquisition along the North Connector: parcels at major intersections they’d like to activate, including ones with historic buildings; what he describes as “nefarious sites,” like a motel the community would like to see transformed; and spots residents want to see turned into small parks or even orchards.
“I have a patient capital fund going to get those to do the predevelopment costs, to have asset management, so that when I get these properties, I’m getting them boarded up and protecting them,” he says. “Those are things I think that are critical.”
Compared to other greenway projects nationally—such as in Atlanta, where its Beltline development displaced people in predominantly Black and lower-income neighborhoods—Westbrooks says St. Louis’ approach is shaping up to be more decentralized and collaborative. It’s a less speedy option, he says, but is likely to yield better long-term results.
“If we’re serious about anti-displacement and making sure that people that live in the community around the Brickline get to participate in the upside of this investment, we’ve got to take our time and we’ve got to include their voice,” Westbrooks says. “And we know any democratic process just takes longer than something centralized.”
Peoples agrees.
“Yes, this bus is moving slower, but I believe the bus will get to its destination more successfully and more efficiently because we have community buy-in,” he says. “In the past, you would take a bunch of steps forwards, but [then] take a bunch of steps backwards because you didn’t get community buy-in, or they didn’t understand or appreciate what they received from government or private agencies.”
