Committee approves sale of fenced plaza next to Saint Patrick Center for redevelopment, sponsor to provide legal opinion on park status

St. Louis City aldermen voted to advance board bill 82, allowing a negotiated sale of the fenced plaza adjacent to the former Post-Dispatch building and the Saint Patrick Center to an ownership group that plans to convert the site into a regulated surface parking lot.

Alderman Joe Aldridge, sponsor of the bill, told the committee the site — referred to in testimony as Interco/Innoco Plaza and currently fenced off — has long been underutilized and that the comptroller’s office supports the sale. “This has been an ongoing conversation for several years to be able to purchase this area that has not been utilized to actually, revitalize it and to bring some actual use to it,” Alderman Aldridge said.

The ownership group for the former Post-Dispatch building, represented by John Berglund, said the group purchased that building in 2018 and has invested about $75,000,000 in it. Berglund said the group bought a 70-by-30-foot section of the plaza in 2020 and wants to purchase the remaining parcels so it can improve the property and provide parking for…