How downtown St. Louis won—and lost—in Jefferson City

A solid hit and a whiff: That’s how boosters of downtown St. Louis saw the legislative session that wrapped last week in Jefferson City. 

A new entertainment district designed to beef up security and ensure event revenue was carved into statute—something that several of the biggest business names in town had pushed for. “We think it’s gonna be a game-changer,” says Bob O’Loughlin, CEO of Lodging Hospitality Management, which runs Union Station and other nearby hotels.

But at the last minute, language that would have subsidized office-to-residential conversions via tax credits was kept out of a larger bill. As a result, the developer Charles Goldman, managing partner of the Goldman Group, says that his plan to revitalize AT&T tower—which at 44 stories is Missouri’s largest office building—will “remain on hold.” 

District Drawn

Downtown is already home to a patchwork of community improvement districts, including the Downtown St. Louis CID.  They can levy taxes and property assessments in order to pay for things like flowers, street lights, and security. 

The new entertainment district is a bit different. First, its boundaries will encompass the entirety of downtown, stretching from Jefferson eastward to the riverfront and from Cole down to Highway 40. Second, it’s explicitly barred from levying any tax. 

But it can still hire “peace officers” who can “enforce laws and rules relating to curfews, unaccompanied minors, public spaces, the operation of motor vehicles.” And indeed, the prospect of a safer downtown is a key reason that Rep. David Casteel of Jefferson County championed the law in the Missouri House. Casteel, a Republican, predicts it will not only draw tourists but also create jobs. “Most of my constituency is in building trades,” he says, “and they’d love to feel safe when they travel downtown for Blues games and Cardinals games.”

To pay for this, businesses in the district can kick in private capital, yet that’s not all: The new law lets the district reach an agreement with Missouri so that a portion of the tax revenue sent by the district to Jeff City would come back as an appropriation. This refund, which can occur only after July 1, 2026, could be up to $2.5 million annually until 2031 and up to $4.5 million thereafter.

Yes, that money will be used for security, O’Loughlin says, but it will also be used to issue bonds that will guarantee minimum ticket sales—a sort of insurance policy wherein the organizers of national conferences, sporting events, or concerts could rest assured that if ticket revenue in St. Louis fails to rise to a certain dollar amount, the district will make up the difference. Cities such as Indianapolis have had great success with this strategy, he says, adding: “I think we’ll have a very attractive package.” 

Once Gov. Mike Kehoe signs the bill, O’Loughlin says, a meeting will be held to decide on district governance. The group that pushed for the district counted among its members Jim McKelvey, Andrew Taylor, Carolyn Kindle, Tom Stillman, and Bill DeWitt III.

Credits kept out

Meanwhile, a plan to make available each year at least $25 million in tax credits for converting to residential use office buildings of more than 750,000 square feet—a category that would’ve included downtown’s two biggest vacancies, the AT&T tower and the Railway Exchange Building—failed to cross the finish line for a second year. 

Sen. Steven Roberts (D-St. Louis), who carried the bill in his chamber, said that hope was still alive in the final week of the session. He believed that the language could get attached to a larger bill—that is, until Republican leadership used a rare parliamentary maneuver in an effort to undo two unrelated laws that Missouri voters approved last November: paid-sick-leave benefits and elective-abortion access. (The former policy was repealed; the latter will go back to voters.) 

Use of “the nuclear option” effectively killed any chance of compromise, Roberts said, which to him was a shame given that the tax-credit legislation had enjoyed bipartisan support in both chambers and from the governor’s office. 

Roberts, who also pushed the entertainment-district bill through the Senate, said that the failure to create the tax credits has imperiled the AT&T tower project. “I’m not sure they’re going to be able to make it work,” he said of the Goldman Group. Goldman himself said in an emailed statement that the project is “on hold,” adding: “We remain committed to working with both state and city leaders to find a path forward.” 

Roberts, when asked whether he would pursue the office-conversion tax credits next year, said, “I’ll do everything I can, but next session will be dysfunctional and extremely painful, because when that nuclear option gets used, there has to be a consequence.”