Posted May 13, 2024, 11:53 PM
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Detroiter4life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Back home in Georgia!
Posts: 4,106
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$1.2B downtown project meets financing deadline, adds local partner
Quote:
As the $1.2 billion construction innovation district planned south of the Gateway Arch moves closer to construction, the project's developer said it has met city requirements for financing of its $200 million first phase.
The developer, St. Louis-based Good Developments Group, has also added a local partner in the joint venture pursuing the Gateway South project: Robert Millstone, president of the Millstone Cos., a real estate and private equity investment firm, and the former CEO of the construction company now known as Millstone Weber.
Good Developments Group, which is spearheading plans to create the roughly 100-acre Gateway South district that would be located in the downtown and Kosciusko neighborhoods along the Mississippi River, is working to finalize tenants ahead of the start of construction on the project’s first phase. The area is often called by the unofficial name of Chouteau's Landing. In an interview last week, Good Developments Group CEO Greg Gleicher said his firm has secured the financing for the first phase and will submit the written commitments to the city ahead of a June 30 deadline to disclose financing details. A master development agreement GDG reached last year with the St. Louis Port Authority and the city's Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority required the developer to submit proof of financing for 450,000 square feet of private development.
The project’s initial phase would create a new construction-focused manufacturing site centered around the long-vacant and historic Crunden-Martin factory complex at 760 S. Second St. that spans South Second Street and takes up more than a full city block. The idea is to transform the area into an incubator for ideas for producing modular construction parts to streamline the building process and make housing and other projects more affordable. A spokeswoman for the St. Louis Development Corp., which staffs the LCRA, said the project's development team is "diligently working to comply with all requirements and finalize financing."
Gleicher declined to provide details on project financing, but said "we have term sheets from a handful of lenders, which is great."
Even though funding is committed, Gleicher said GDG won't close on a construction loan until closer to when the work is to begin, a standard practice to avoid paying interest on the loan longer than is required.
Construction could begin later this year, and environmental abatement of the historic buildings could begin sooner, Gleicher said. The developer projects a 2026 date of operation on the Gateway South website.
The firm’s applications for tax credits and incentives are also all on track, he said. The project is pursuing historic tax credits and brownfields tax credits through the state. An update on the status of those tax credits was not yet available.
A new partner; prospecting tenants
Millstone, who is also managing partner of Millstone Capital Partners LLC, a private equity firm, joins a project team that also includes Houston-based Vault Partners, led by Michael Rubenstein, the founder and CEO of the St. Louis-based Wally’s mega-gas station chain.
The massive brick Crunden-Martin buildings would be adapted into manufacturing, a museum and office space for various tenants under the plan, which has public incentives in place for the first phase. The site, surrounded by long-underutilized industrial properties, has "unparalleled" national transportation connections available since it has long served as a hub of factories and industrial uses, GDG said on its website for the project.
In order to move forward, talks between the developers and the possible manufacturing tenants will have to move from letters of intent to signed deals, a process that is currently underway, Millstone said. The firm is not yet revealing details of any of the prospective tenants. Developers have previously said that two companies could locate manufacturing operations there, including a San Francisco-based firm.
The development will also have coworking-style space for other construction-related companies to operate, plans filed with the city show.
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https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/...ict-goals.html
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