Committee clears path for Millennium Hotel demolition, strips proposed 20-year abatement

The St. Louis City Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee voted 6–0 on July 7 to adopt a committee substitute to Board Bill 39 that clears the way to pursue a Chapter 99 redevelopment plan and a blight study for the long-vacant Millennium Hotel and to preserve the city’s authority to use eminent domain for the site.

The committee substitute removes a proposed 20‑year, 90% tax abatement that had been included in the original bill and leaves the redevelopment plan and blight-study authority in place. Alderman Aldridge, who introduced the bill in committee, said the immediate priority is safe demolition and remediation of hazardous materials at the site.

“Since it has been vacant, it has truly become an eyesore to the downtown area,” Alderman Aldridge said, adding that the structure has “a lot of mold, asbestos” and other contamination and that demolition will have to proceed “from top down” because of…