County adds 2 enhanced enterprise zones
By Phil Sutin
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Wednesday, Jun. 13 2007

CLAYTON — St. Louis County is dangling seven years of state income tax credits
and a property-tax break to encourage offices and light industry in some of the
county's most economically depressed parts.

The County Council recently established two enhanced enterprise zones in north
St. Louis County after the municipalities in which they are situated agreed to
them. The Central County Enhanced Enterprise Zone in Wellston, Pagedale, Hills-

dale and Pine Lawn is likely to have more of an impact than the North County
Enhanced Enterprise Zone, which includes Kinloch and parts of Hazelwood,
Berkeley, Ferguson and St. Ann, Steven Anderson, vice president of business
development of the economic council, said last week.

The county hopes the incentives will encourage financial institutions and other
businesses to move their "back-office" operations, such as accounting and other
paper processing, to the Central zone, which is less than 10 minutes from
downtown Clayton, Anderson said. Three companies have talked to the economic
council about moving to the zone, he said.

The county also wants to attract light industrial, biotechnical and biologics
companies and distribution centers, he said.

"We are not interested in retail," Anderson said. "The incentives provide no
benefits for them." But he noted that stores would follow the people the
business activity would bring.

The zones, Anderson said, offer three major incentives to businesses:

— Seven years of state income tax credits in a format similar to a stock or
bond that can get money quickly into the hands of developers because the
credits are easy to use.

— 50 percent abatement of property taxes on the value of new development in the
zone. The abatement would last for 10 years. Companies would continue to pay
taxes on the value of property before development occurred.

— Ease of administration. Companies would get the tax incentives after they
show state and county officials that their projects qualified for them. The
companies do not have to ask the County Council or municipal aldermen or
council members for abatement as they do with other redevelopment incentives.

State law includes standards for areas to qualify as enhanced enterprise zones,
Anderson said. The zones, he said, must be in an area of:

— Blighted property.

— Pervasive poverty. One of the definitions of such areas is that 60 percent of
residents must have incomes of less than 90 percent of the county's median
income, or roughly $40,000 a year.

— High unemployment.

— General distress.

The North County Enhanced Enterprise Zone already has areas where developers
can obtain incentives: NorthPark, a 550-acre office and industrial project in
Berkeley, Kinloch and Ferguson, the closed Ford vehicle assembly plant and the
cleared Robertson redevelopment area in Hazelwood. The North County zone adds
incentives to make the sites more attractive, Anderson said.

But the zone includes two areas that have no previous development incentives:
the Burke City neighborhood in southeastern Berkeley and a portion of St. Ann
mainly north of St. Charles Rock Road but including an area generally between
that road and St. Henry Lane. St. Ann for several years has tried
unsuccessfully to redevelop an area south and west of hotels along a south
service road of Interstate 70.

psutin@post-dispatch.com | 314-863-2812