BELLERIVE — A long-promised north St. Louis County track and field facility can’t be built, said County Executive Sam Page, because there’s not enough money for it.
Page spokesman Doug Moore said late Friday that the $40 million set aside for the facility, part of a 2022 deal to pay for the expansion of the St. Louis downtown convention center, won’t be nearly enough to cover costs now.
“The council has a lot of great ideas, but with each of those great ideas, they must find the funds to fully support the idea,†Moore wrote in an email to the Post-Dispatch. “This is an example of an idea without adequate funding.â€
Councilwoman Rita Heard Days, a Democrat from Bel-Nor, insisted two years ago that the council wouldn’t approve funding for the convention center expansion without the track and field project. It represents a key investment in North County, she said, which lacks a facility capable of hosting regional and national meets.
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She has resurfaced the issue publicly in recent weeks after Page began pushing the council to approve a new or renovated county headquarters. She wondered why the administration was “slow-walking†her project while working with urgency on new headquarters.
“I’ll be up in two years or so for reelection,†Days said. “Maybe they’re working toward me not being successful.â€
The county must move or renovate its downtown Clayton headquarters by 2028 to comply with city code.
The track and field project started in 2019 as a much bigger idea. The late Councilwoman Hazel Erby envisioned a recreational complex for North County with multiple sites. She negotiated for the project to be included in the county’s deal to pay for the expansion of America’s Center.
Days took up the torch after Erby’s death in summer 2021.
The city and county initially agreed to split the estimated $210 million expansion cost, using hotel tax revenue freed up after the retirement of debt issued to build the Dome at America’s Center, where the NFL’s Rams played before moving to Los Angeles in 2016.
But Days held up county funding for months, until the following spring, when tourism officials and council members agreed to finance the track and field facility.
In the meantime, interest rates doubled, adding more than $88 million in interest over the life of the 25-year bond — a cost over which Days faced criticism.
In February, St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission chief Kitty Ratcliffe said it would cost tens of millions of dollars more to finish a new lobby and plaza between Ninth and 10th streets in downtown St. Louis. A new ballroom would cost even more.
In March, St. Louis aldermen approved a plan to put another $15.3 million toward finishing the expansion.
This month, the visitors commission blasted the county council for its role in the delay.
“This holdup to the project by the council resulted in an 11-month construction delay which escalated costs, despite repeated warnings that such delays would do just that,†the commission wrote in a letter to council members dated April 4. “The delays are not the fault of the CVC. If the bonds had been issued by the county as requested in July 2021, the project team believes that the project would have been completed on budget and on time. Now it is neither.â€
Meanwhile, estimates for the North County track and field facility have come in way over $40 million, a price tag local developer Larry Chapman came up with in 2022.
The county’s architectural contractor, global firm WSP Inc., proposed ideas last summer.
Its suggestions ranged from $90.5 million for a facility big enough to host local track meets, to a two-story, $195.8 million complex for national meets.
The county won’t sell bonds to finance the project until concrete plans are in place.
But Days isn’t giving up.
She has a spot picked out — the University of Missouri-St. Louis tentatively agreed to provide space on campus next to the UMSL-North MetroLink stop.
“It just really fits in with the climate of community, communication, the arts. I just think it’s kind of perfect,†Days said.
She has asked the county to find out what it can get for $40 million.
“This is not a mini-convention center,†Days said. “We just want something where our kids can come and run track.â€
And no, there’s no way she’d consider giving the money to the America’s Center expansion.
“That $40 million could pull it out of the hole, couldn’t it?†she said Friday. “But I am very leery of that. If you don’t have additional revenue but continue to spend, somebody has to say no.â€