The operator of the 9 Mile Garden outdoor food truck garden in Affton is working to bring an outdoor marketplace to the downtown St. Louis riverfront.
But advocates for the project say that securing money for the riverfront from the Rams settlement bill is crucial to readying the swath of riverfront that entrepreneur Brian Hardesty hopes will be home to his Merkury Marketplace.
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According to a presentation created by Hardesty, his proposed riverfront marketplace would sit at Porte Cochere, which in the past was the docking site for the Admiral and President casino boats. It has sat empty in recent years under city ownership. Hardesty, who previously founded the since-shuttered Guerrilla Street Food restaurant chain, said in a previous presentation to city officials that the project will draw more than 70 “makers, entrepreneurs, and artisans” complemented by entertainment, food and beverage offerings. Hardesty’s presentation indicates the operation could be up and running as early as the end of this year and generate $16 million in a conservative annual retail sales projection.
But the project is dependent on the city getting Porte Cochere back into operational status, according to Gretchen Minges, co-owner of The Advantes Group, a developer with a significant presence in Laclede’s Landing, immediately south of Port Corchere. Right now, the bill directing how the city will spend $230 million in Rams settlement funds includes $2 million in deferred maintenance on the port. “Without that money, there’s no way for the city to put the port back into operational status in order to secure a lease with Hardesty and his group,” Minges tells SLM.
Minges was one of dozens of city residents and leaders who spoke at the Rams settlement bill’s first committee hearing Tuesday.
As of right now, that bill calls for $110 million for the area of North City affected by the May 16 tornado, $30 million for water infrastructure, $30 million for streets, sidewalks and other public infrastructure, $5 million for vacancy reduction, and $55 million for downtown. Additionally, $25 million would remain in reserves, accruing interest. The pot of money for downtown includes a $15 million Riverfront Fund, part of which is money for deferred maintenance on the port.
The Tuesday hearing was the first for the Rams spending bill proposed earlier this month by Mayor Cara Spencer and Aldermanic President Megan Green. It was an at-times contentious gathering, with everyone weighing in from Spencer herself to a resident who called Spencer an “agent of terror.”
Minges, for her part, urged the committee to preserve the riverfront dollars.
“We’ve been developing on Laclede’s Landing for 10 years. We’re the only ones who have put our money where our mouth is. We lost millions of dollars on the AT&T Building, yet we keep developing in this city because we believe in it,” she said. “We’re not living high on the hog.” She added that it’s not just “big fat cats” downtown and that she herself currently has a disconnected gas due to an unpaid bill.
But her testimony was met by scattered jeers from the crowd, which said that funding for the tornado-affected area of North City needs to be prioritized. Testimony from Marc Schreiber, president of the St. Louis Commission, was met with even more hackles from portions of the crowd. He’d spoken on the Rams money’s ability to draw more high-profile events to the city.
That dynamic summed up the friction at the Housing and Development committee hearing and likely previewed the discord in the weeks to come. Activists want at least $40 million more for tornado recovery on the Northside. Some want all $230 million for the Northside. The city’s downtown boosters and business groups want to hold the line at $55 million for downtown. In general, those advocating for downtown dollars went out of their way to stress that they also supported the more than $100 million going to the Northside. For the most part, that sentiment did not travel both ways.
“Are we giving money to people wearing ill-fitting Brooks Brothers suits and tired Ann Taylor Loft outfits who are here to keep their six-figure jobs?” asked Karen Yang. “Or to real residents who have made their homes here, whose grandmothers kept walls of real, printed photos?”
Another speaker said that those speaking in favor of the $55 million for downtown were representing “elites” who were members of the Veiled Prophet Society, “probably.”
At another point, Jeff Mazur, with Greater St. Louis Inc., was answering questions from Alderman Rasheen Aldridge about the proposed private sector match for downtown dollars: Was it 3 to 1, 2 to 1? “We believe we can find, and facilitate, private sector match for that $55 million investment in downtown,” Mazur said. The peanut gallery pounced on the hint of speculation in his phrasing. “You think?” one woman shouted.
This was about three and a half hours into the affair.
Minges wasn’t alone in speaking in favor of the riverfront money. Ryan McClure, executive director of Gateway Arch Park Foundation, said that he was very much in favor of the current version of the bill and the spirit of compromise in which it was drafted. About the riverfront funds, he said, “Many of us remember when there were at least eight attractions on the riverfront in the ’70s through the ’90s, between Eads and Poplar alone, including the famed McDonald’s riverboat. We now have only two attractions in that space. It is time for that to change, and it can change.”
In the middle of the four-hour long hearing, Alderman Rasheen Aldridge held an impromptu scrum with the media announcing that he was offering an amendment to the bill that would move $5 million from the money earmarked for reserves to Northside tornado relief. Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer has her own amendment moving $10 million from the reserves to the pot of money for water infrastructure. Those amendments, however, were not addressed at Tuesday’s meeting.
The hearing featured testimony from a host of the city administrators who, if the bill passes, will be tasked with turning the allocations into real world benefits for the city. Stephen Westbrooks, president and CEO of the St. Louis Development Corporation, said the downtown portion of the money would turn derelict buildings like the vacant Railway Exchange from barriers to investment into catalysts for it, as well as improving pedestrian access to the riverfront and amenities on it. Westbrook said the end goal of the Rams money vis a vis downtown is to “create a downtown environment where people want to spend time”
The city’s Public Utilities and Water director Niraj Patel said that he had more than 30 projects related to fixing water mains and other infrastructure that could be put into action immediately. Streets Director James Jackson talked about the good the money would do for sidewalk repairs and street repaving. Forestry Commissioner Alan Jankowski said his agency would spend the money clearing the backlog of 2,700 trees and 6,500 stumps that have all been slated for removal.
