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SPECIAL
ADVERTISING SECTION
St. Louis:
Building on the Basics 
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In This Report: Missouri
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One of many decisions
that Aurora Foods Inc. had to make during the past few years was where to
locate the company headquarters. The choices came down to three locations. For
James T. Smith, the chairman and CEO who is leading the $1 billion company in
a turnaround, St. Louis was the best of the lot. Among the reasons cited by
Smith: “We felt it would be a lot easier to attract new people as we were
expanding the company.”
Said by some to be the westernmost of Eastern cities, St. Louis has a
cosmopolitan lifestyle that suits many young executives like it was
made-to-order in the fitting room. There are riverboat excursions on the
Mississippi, a symphony orchestra, an excellent art museum, a world-class zoo
and enough other cultural attractions and sights to fill in weekends for a
year or two. Then there are big league sports: the St. Louis Cardinals, the
St. Louis Rams, and the St. Louis Blues. Moreover, of the top 20 metropolitan
areas, St. Louis has the second-lowest cost of living. Suffice to say, 80 new
people have joined Aurora Food’s headquarters in St. Louis, bringing the
total number of employees there to 265.
Seven years ago St. Louis went on an economic roll that hasn’t yet stopped.
The region, says Richard C.D. Fleming, president of the St. Louis Regional
Chamber and Growth Association, had suffered job stagnation. “Trend lines
indicated no near-term up tick in the situation.” To turn things around, a
major campaign was mounted by Fleming’s organization and the Greater St.
Louis Economic Development Council to add 100,000 net new jobs to the economy
from year-end 1995 through 2000. The campaign called for capitalization of $10
million, but $12 million was raised. When all was said and done at the end of
2000, the city had actually netted 117,000 new jobs.
But neither St. Louis nor Fleming is resting on any laurels. Some $15 million
has been raised so that the St. Louis metropolitan area, home to 2.6 million
people and the 18th largest market in the U.S., can continue working on job
recruitment, expansion and the creation of the new economy. The city’s
traditional strengths, and a flurry of big-ticket enhancements to them, also
send a clear message that St. Louis is open for business.
Downtown, where the landmark arch symbolizes this city’s role as the gateway
to the West, there’s a flurry of hotel construction. By early 2003 downtown
St. Louis will 7,600 hotel rooms within a mile of the America’s Center
convention complex. Downtown will get another boost as a result of the St.
Louis Cardinals recently having reached an understanding with the city, county
and state regarding plans for a new baseball stadium as well as Ballpark
Village, a surrounding residential, office and retail area.
A catalyst for downtown development are incentives put in place by Missouri in
the form of state income tax credits for 25 percent of rehabilitation costs of
eligible historic structures. Another boost comes from a $1.4 billion downtown
revitalization plan, which calls for building 2,800 residential units in
addition to major upgrades and major construction projects.
But it isn’t only downtown that’s in the throes of redevelopment.
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is undergoing a $2.6 billion airport
expansion. “The single most important engine for economic development in a
metropolitan city is aviation,” says John W. Bachmann, managing principal at
Edward Jones, the privately held security firm. Bachmann, who is about to
serve his third term as chairman of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth
Association, was instrumental in resolving airport issues that had stalled
progress in the past. Bachmann went to work for Edward Jones while still in
college. In 1980, when the St. Louis-based securities firm had 304 offices, he
was given responsibility for the management of the business. Since then,
Edward Jones has grown to 7,500 offices.
Key to the strategy is the one-broker office pioneered by Edward Jones, which
increased revenues from $16 million in 1977 to more than $2.2 billion at
year-end 2000. Today, Edward Jones has more branch offices than any other
brokerage firm in the country Another of the area’s great resources is its
academic community, which includes a dozen colleges and universities as well
as a number of two-year and community colleges. Among these is Washington
University — officially Washington University in St. Louis — a world
leader in teaching and research. The university is one of three institutions
in the U.S. that worked on the human genome project.
Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with leading-edge institutions such as Washington
University in St. Louis are companies that quietly go about making our lives
easier. A case in point is Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal company.
America, Peabody likes to point out, finds the fuel for more than half of its
electricity in old king coal. In fact, according to Peabody Energy, coal fuels
more electricity than all other sources combined.
Peabody Energy should know. It is number one in sales, with volume 60 percent
greater than its nearest competitor. For the year ending March 2001, Peabody
sold 182 million tons of U.S. coal. Coal is an abundant fuel, and represents
more than 85 percent of America’s fossil fuel resources — approximately
six times all U.S. gas and oil reserves combined. It is mined in 26 states.
Peabody Energy holds the premier position in low sulfur, U.S. and world coal
sales. It sells its products and services to 280 power plants and industrial
facilities in the U.S. and 10 other countries.
The many and varied assets and resources seen as underlying strengths of the
St. Louis area are evident even to those who are not familiar with the region.
When Richard Fleming first came from Denver in 1994 to interview for the job
at the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, he knew little about
the region. But after an extensive interviewing session and introduction to
St. Louis, Fleming says he called his wife and told her, “I must say, this
city is really a very special place.” He’s since learned how right he was.
This special section was written by Edward J. Walsh and designed by John Browning for ROP, Ltd. Produced by James O. Armstrong, president of James Armstrong & Associates, Inc., jim@jamesarmstrongassoc.com.