If Friday was the proverbial first date in the new union of St. Louis City and County’s economic development agencies, they had a lot of enthusiastic friends in the room, hoping the relationship works out.
A slew of area business executives joined in at the news conference Friday that formally announced the partial merger of the city-run St. Louis Development Corp. and the St. Louis County Economic Council — a merger .
Their general message: It’s about time these two kids got together.
Honchos from Civic Progress, the Regional Business Council and the St. Louis Regional Chamber were on hand to bless the union. So were several area chief executives, who said merging the city and county’s job-creation and business development programs just makes too much sense not to do.
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“We’ve known this is the right thing to do for a long time,†said Scott Wilson, chief executive of S. M. Wilson Construction. “This is about propelling our region forward. This is about being a top-tier city.â€
Having one place to turn, one agency to talk with, about growing a business in both the city and the county is just simpler, said Carmen Jacob, CEO of IT staffing firm NextGen. And that’s especially true when dealing with companies from outside the region.
“When you talk to businesses around the country, around the world, they want simplicity,†Jacob said. “They also want leaders who work together. That’s what we have here.â€
The plan will unite business development and attraction, loan programs and entrepreneurship efforts in the city and county under one unit called the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership. SLDC chief executive Rodney Crim and ten of his staffers will relocate to Clayton, while about 50 SLDC staffers will stay in that agency’s downtown offices to run real estate programs and large projects in the city. The County Economic Council will retain its oversight of major projects in the county. Overall, no staff cuts or major budgetary changes are expected.
The Partnership must be approved by both the city’s Board of Aldermen and the St. Louis County Council; Crim and County Economic Council president Denny Coleman say they hope to complete the merger by July 1.
That’s where any concerns are likely to surface.
None did on Friday, when leaders from the two agencies celebrated their first date with lunch at the Cheshire Inn, on the city-county line, amid well-wishes from a room full of friends.