Business asks St. Louis not to ignore plan for Rams money

ST. LOUIS — One of region’s main business lobbies is worried that aldermen are ignoring its ideas for spending the Rams relocation settlement.

Greater St. Louis Inc. has sent a letter to city officials expressing “deep concern” that the aldermanic committee sifting through various plans to spend the $250 million windfall has yet to hold a hearing on using the money to improve downtown streets, sidewalks and other infrastructure. 

The organization, whose heavyweight board includes leaders of Enterprise Mobility, BJC Health Care and Washington University, submitted a proposal in October to put $98 million into projects downtown and at least $130 million into disinvested neighborhoods like those in north St. Louis.

The proposal said that downtown took it on the chin when the Rams decamped for Los Angeles in 2015 and then got hit again during the pandemic, which emptied offices, shops and restaurants that have been slow to fully recover. It argued that big investments in streets, housing, retail and development were needed to keep businesses and people working and living in the heart of the region, which generates significant tax revenue for city coffers. 

Then earlier this year, aldermen surveyed residents on their favorite ideas. And a plan to put money into downtown infrastructure, inspired in part by Greater St. Louis’ proposal, received the fifth-most votes, behind replacing water mains, traffic calming, increasing city worker wages, and free child care. 

An aldermanic committee led by Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier, of Tower Grove East, has since held hearings and heard from experts on each of the top four ideas and the sixth-most popular one — establishing a loan fund to spark redevelopment of struggling areas.

But it has not yet held one on the downtown topic. And Greater St. Louis Inc. said in its letter, dated July 11, that Sonnier indicated at a July 9 meeting on the child care and traffic calming topics that no further hearings on priority topics would be held.

“This is an unjust violation of the Committee’s purpose and publicly announced procedure that ignores the needs of Downtown as well as disinvested neighborhoods in North and Southeast St. Louis,” reads the letter, obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

Sonnier said Thursday that Greater St. Louis Inc. was mistaken. She said there will be other hearings. Another one is set for Sept. 10, she said, and aldermen aren’t close to a final decision on how the money will be spent. 

“It’s a little premature to say what they’re saying,” Sonnier said. 

Jay Nelson, chief of staff to Aldermanic President Megan Green, said the same thing.

“The process is not over,” he said. “Their priority will be heard just like the rest of them.”