Northpark

Ferguson, Missouri

Berkeley, Missouri

Kinloch, Missouri

In the 1980s, the S.t Louis Airport Authority initiated a noise-abatement buyout program of residential property to the east of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to facilitate needed runway expansion. By the mid-2000s hundreds of acres had been vacated. What remained was an outdated and deteriorating infrastructure that was not capable of supporting modern commercial development that could constructed per FAA regulations.

Development Strategies was hired to prepare a TIF redevelopment plan that was designed to place this large underutilized area, with exceptional Interstate highway and airport access, back into productive use. Also included was an analysis of TIF potential using State of Missouri tax increments in order to test the ability to accelerate upfront construction.

Commercial redevelopment of the area, now known as NorthPark, has been successful and the original 550-acre redevelopment area is in the process of being expanded by 70 acres utilizing redevelopment powers of Chapter 353 RSMo, for which Development Strategies is providing the blight analysis. To date nearly 1.5 million square feet of commercial development has been constructed, including the headquarters and a distribution center of Express Scripts, a branch of Vatterott College, A Hilton Garden Inn, and a state-of-the-art office and business center. In addition, Sweden –based SKF recently announced plans to build a 310,000 square foot engineering and manufacturing campus at NorthPark. When built out, NorthPark in expected to provide more than 12,000 jobs.