Busch officials: 'Village' needs public money

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Cardinals executives want millions of dollars in public money to help build a development project around the new Busch Stadium. The six-block development -- dubbed Ballpark Village -- is planned to feature office buildings, hotels and restaurants. Cardinals owners have promised to pay $60 million for the project, but say they need more if Ballpark Village will reach its full potential. The total price tag could reach as high as $650 million, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. That's about $200 million more than the stadium itself.

Cardinals owners received tax breaks to build Busch Stadium, which was completed just before this year's season. In order to get the incentives, the owners promised to help develop Ballpark Village.

A look at similar projects shows that the taxpayers' burden could well exceed $100 million, according the Post-Dispatch.

Ballpark Village is slated to be built partly on the empty lot where the old Busch Stadium stood. The empty lot sits directly across from the current stadium.

Plans for the project include offices and condominiums that would overlook the outfield. There also could be a gourmet grocery store, restaurants and a bookstore such as Barnes & Noble.

The Cardinals hired Baltimore-based Cordish Co. to develop the site. The company has built similar projects in such places as Atlantic City and south Florida.

The Cardinals are obligated to develop the site of the old Busch Stadium. But officials say they'll need public money to make the development they now envision.

"We can do something without help -- and we can satisfy our development commitments without any help," said Bill DeWitt III, the team's senior vice president. "The question is, what are you going to get with that?"

Missouri Department of Economic Development spokesman Mike Downing told the Post-Dispatch the state was in "preliminary discussions" with the Cardinals to obtain similar benefits.

The assistance would be authorized under the 2003 Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus Act. The law lets developers in urban areas keep half of the new sales tax revenue generated by the project.

The money could help pay for basic infrastructure such as improving roads and sewers on the empty site of the old stadium.

Downing said the amount of money available for the Ballpark Village project will depend on sales tax projections for the development.

Developers are in discussions with Mayor Francis Slay's office about providing tax incentives potentially worth tens of millions of dollars.

The city already is giving the Cardinals a tax break for more than $3 million a year by waiving the 5 percent tax on ticket sales.

"We want the biggest, most exciting, most transformative project possible," said Jeff Rainford, Slay's top aide. "If we just said, 'We'll settle for mediocrity,' we would be done by now."

DeWitt said he hopes to break ground on Ballpark Village in the spring.

"When you see what we have planned for this thing, it's just going to blow you away," he said.

Fans say there's room for improvement when it comes to the vacant site of the old Busch Stadium.

"It certainly can't stay the way it is," said Paul McClelland, a Hannibal native who was waiting for a stadium tour Friday. "It's a huge eyesore."

---

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com