Switzer factory developers to get Brownfield credits
St. Louis Business Journal - by Margaret Jackson
The Missouri Department of Economic Development has approved up to $200,000 in remediation tax credits through the Brownfield Redevelopment Program for renovations to the former Switzer Candy factory.
InSite Real Estate Development of Chicago purchased the building, 1600 N. Broadway, in July and plans to redevelop the property as a telecom hotel. But finding tenants is expected to be more difficult than when the building was purchased.
Because of the volatile stock market, companies are re-evaluating their expansion plans, said Angie Stanton, of Jones Lang LaSalle.
"We had all these companies in a major expansion mode about six to 10 months ago," she said. "When the NASDAQ started tanking, they lost their money for expansion. You really don't have any activity in the city at any of the telecommunications hotels."
However, Stanton is optimistic that businesses will show a renewed interest in expansion by the second quarter. "We're starting to hear some of the people who pulled back saying, `Hey, second quarter, we'll start looking again.' "
The Switzer building project is eligible for Brownfield Redevelopment Program benefits in part because it contains asbestos contamination, and the site has been accepted into the Department of Natural Resources' Voluntary Cleanup Program.
Because the developer received Brownfield tax credits, the building also may be eligible for a 15 percent reduction in electric rates over a five-year period under the AmerenUE Economic Development Rider, said Susan Gallagher, AmerenUE's general manager of corporate communications. "It must be a new company or an expansion of an existing facility."
To qualify for the rate reduction, companies must get economic incentives from a local, regional or state development agency and have an average monthly demand of at least 200 kilowatts for the five-year period in which the economic development rate is applied.
Hershey Foods most recently occupied the 220,000-square-foot candy factory, but because of a decline in production in the mid-1990s the building was underused.
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