Forest Park delays vote on Gillum Logistics tax incentives; board presses for higher wages and local-hire commitments

The Forest Park Downtown Development Authority discussed a developer request for tax incentives tied to two buildings at the Gillum Logistics Center and agreed to return the proposal for a formal vote at the board’s November meeting.

The item, introduced during the meeting as “the tax incentive request for Gillum,” centered on two existing speculative warehouse buildings the developer is marketing to potential tenants: a roughly 106,000-square-foot building identified in the packet as “Gillum 651” and a roughly 570,000-square-foot building referred to as Building 600. Robinson Weeks Partners, the master developer and the presenter, laid out a 10‑year abatement structure that would begin at 50% in year one and decline 5 percentage points annually, and described proposed authority-fee and clawback provisions tied to job and wage commitments.

Robinson Weeks vice president Frances Jackson, who identified herself to the board as both the company’s vice president of asset management and the president of the Gillum Logistics Owners Association, summarized the developer’s case and the market rationale for an incentive. “We’ve brought Amazon, HD Supply, GXO, Boeing, really notable names, Kroger,” Jackson said, describing Gillum’s tenant mix and the role an incentive plays when recruiting large users against competing sites.

Staff and the developer presented financial estimates for the two buildings. For the smaller building (Gillum 651) the presenter reported a $12,000,000 assessed value (40% assessment shown as $4,000,008) and an example 10‑year abatement that would produce about $684,000 in tenant savings under the schedule shown. For…