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 its proximity to the highway. Zach Wilson of the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) told the committee the redevelopment plan attached to the original bill contains a blight study (starting at the document’s A‑1) and detailed urban-design standards (beginning on page 21) and that page 16 calls out demolition of the structure.

Ryan McClure, executive director of the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, said the foundation went under contract to purchase the building in September and that it negotiated through an RFP process to select a private developer. “We put out an RFP after [the planning commission action]. Cordish came out on top,” McClure said, describing a proposed $670,000,000 project with about 1,300,000 square feet of residential, office, retail and cultural space. Zed Smith, chief operating officer for the Cordish Companies, said the firm views the project as an opportunity to extend downtown and the riverfront experience.

Committee members and several speakers at public comment pressed for worker protections and clarity about job estimates. Jamieson Ramirez of SEIU Local 1 noted a discrepancy between the blight study’s employment estimate (50 jobs) and the developer’s projection of roughly 1,000 jobs. Zach Wilson said blight-study employment numbers are typically conservative and that specific job commitments and any prevailing- or living-wage requirements would be written into a later redevelopment agreement and the compliance period for any incentives.

Contractor and demolition concerns came up in public comment. Tony Giordano, who identified himself as owner of Spiritus Wrecking, told the committee there are two different companies with similar names and that his firm — Spiritus Wrecking — is performing remediation and will not abandon the work. Committee members said Spiritus and other contractors were already performing abatement and remediation work ahead of demolition planning.

The committee adopted the committee substitute and then approved a do-pass recommendation for the bill to the full Board of Aldermen. Both motions were moved by Alderman Switzer and seconded by Alderman Keyes and carried on recorded voice roll calls that resulted in six “aye” votes and no “no” votes recorded in committee.

Next steps: the committee substitute and the redevelopment plan package will move to the full Board of Aldermen; a separate redevelopment agreement will be negotiated with the developer and will specify tax incentives (if any), job and wage commitments, the compliance period and other enforceable terms. Committee members and union representatives asked the city to use the redevelopment-agreement stage to secure labor commitments, living- or prevailing-wage enforcement where covered, and explicit job-number guarantees.