An artist rendering of the proposed site for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's west headquarters in north St. Louis city.
Update, 6/2: It’s official! The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will build its new west headquarters in—and bring thousands of jobs to—North St. Louis. The news follows a months-long final evaluation from the intelligence agency’s staff and input from the public.
Here’s the confirmation from Sen. Roy Blunt:
Our original story continues below.
North St. Louis will be the home to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new west headquarters—a decision heralded as a much-needed victory for a city better known for economic struggles, social and racial unrest, and the loss of its NFL team than for its decades-long relationship with the spy agency.
NGA Director Robert Cardillo called St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay Thursday with the news that St. Louis was his top pick for the new development. An NGA report names St. Louis is the “prefered” site for the new $1.75 billion facility on the 99-acre urban site at the intersection of N. Jefferson and Cass avenues, just north of the former Pruitt-Igoe housing development.
The decision isn’t technically final. (Update, 6/2: Now it is. See update above.) An official announcement will happen Friday, followed by a public comment period before the NGA publishes the final decision in June. But it’s likely the NGA will follow its director’s choice to continue to locate in St. Louis, where 3,100 employees are already working at the NGA site near the Anheuser-Busch brewery.
See also: St. Louis Clergy Coalition Launches Petition Drive for NGA West
“The St. Louis City site provides NGA with the most technological, academic and professional environment for this agency to develop the capabilities and solutions necessary to solve the hardest intelligence and national security problems entrusted to us by the American people,” said Cardillo in a statement.
Cardillo chose St. Louis over stiff competition from other sites, especially the old Chrysler plant site in Fenton and the St. Clair County site near Scott Air Force base. During recent negotiations, Slay pledged to give the NGA the land northwest of downtown at no cost to match the offer coming from St. Clair County.
“The construction of a state-of-the-art intelligence agency in north St. Louis would have an immense impact,” Slay said in a statement. “This preliminary decision is a victory for urban America. The many benefits to the future of both St. Louis and NGA are immeasurable, promising and exciting."
Officials around the region celebrated the NGA decision as a victory for St. Louis.
"History has come full circle in North St. Louis," said U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, whose district covers the new NGA site, in a statement to St. Louis Public Radio. "A great federal failure will now be replaced by a transformative federal success. After decades of disinvestment and depopulation, and after the national disgrace of Pruitt-Igoe, the NGA has made a powerful, positive choice that will once again place North St. Louis at the center of jobs, innovation, technology, economic development and defending freedom."
“The North St. Louis location will allow the NGA to continue its mission, and recruit the next generation of intelligence professionals seeking the type of urban, car-optional lifestyle the city provides,” U.S. Senator Roy Blunt said in a statement. “In addition, the North St. Louis site provides unparalleled access to graduate school opportunities and high-tech neighbors, is a designated Promise Zone, and is convenient to Lambert Airport and the NGA’s other facility in Arnold, Mo.”
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at LToler@stlmag.com or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
