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O'Fallon economic-development team reports high occupancy, new HQ and active business outreach
Summary
City economic-development staff told the council O'Fallon’s commercial-occupancy rates remain above 90%; staff highlighted Gateway Fiber’s planned headquarters move (about 120 jobs), ongoing recruitment efforts, and constraints from ceiling heights and limited industrial land.
O'Fallon economic-development staff told the City Council on July 10 that the local market remains strong even as the city works to replace a recent closure and to recruit new employers.
"Our occupancy rates continue to remain high, well above 90% in all three sectors," said Patrick, the city's economic-development lead, noting CoStar data and a steady ribbon-cutting pace. He said Sinlar will close at the end of the month, resulting in about 90 lost jobs at that site, but stressed a net gain for the year overall and pointed to incoming employers.
"Gateway Fiber is moving their headquarters operation into O'Fallon... they're gonna be bringing about a 120 employees to that location," Patrick said, describing the move as a sign of healthy demand.
Megan Baucham, the city's business recruiter, described targeted outreach to brokers and site selectors and walked council through the city's response to requests for information (RFIs). "Last year we had a total of 40 requests come through. This year, we're at 27," she said, adding that of those leads the city submitted information on 14 locations last year and six so far this year. She attributed the drop in viable submissions to technical constraints such as ceiling heights: many industrial prospects now require 25–26 foot clear heights while local buildings often have 20-foot ceilings.
Baucham described active strategies to attract tenants: relationship-building with commercial brokers, trade-show missions to cities such as Dallas and Chicago, a monthly Mailchimp newsletter and a new video outreach tool (Vidyard) that lets staff send property videos and see viewer engagement. "I am actively looking and searching every day," she said, describing that mix of in-person and digital outreach.
Patrick and Baucham also described locally created projects intended to generate hotel and tourism demand, including an O'Fallon Playfield sports-tourism concept and redevelopment efforts at the Regal Theater and the Mercy/Desco property. Patrick cited an external ranking in making the case for promotion: "O'Fallon came out number 1 in Missouri, number 29 in the U.S.," he said, and described a coordinated PR push.
Council members asked for specifics about a high-profile retail parcel where a Burger King/Starbucks prospect had been discussed. Baucham said the broker remains committed to purchasing the site and that Starbucks has paused some projects nationally; she said staff remains confident the parcel will attract a national tenant or another strong user.
The update closed with council praise for the department's outreach and festival-related work. Staff said they will continue to target large-lot opportunities (including a roughly 100-acre tract off Hoff Road) and to report back on prospects and responses to RFIs.
