ST. LOUIS — A day after a key city board and a crucial aldermen fanned uncertainty over the Cortex tech district’s development incentives, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and Gov. Mike Parson spent Thursday morning in the employment hub to highlight its role building a potential competitive niche in drug manufacturing.
Flanked by Jones and business leaders, Gov. Mike Parson held a ceremonial bill signing in the Central West End district known for startups and technology companies.
“One of the things we learned in the pandemic, our economy has become too reliant on other countries to manufacture the things we need,†Parson said to the business and political figures gathered in Cortex’s 4240 building. “We are not waiting for global supply chains to return to normal, if they ever do.â€
Flush with cash from federal pandemic aid and rebounding tax receipts, Missouri lawmakers earmarked some $3 billion in the annual budget for construction projects and individual initiatives across the state. The $15 million grant program Parson was touting Thursday is expected to send about $5 million in grants to bolster semiconductor manufacturing supply chains in the state in addition to $10 million expected to flow to the API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) Innovation Center @Cortex.
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“We have a very fragile drug supply chain here in the U.S.,†said Tony Sardella, CEO and chair of the , which launched last year.
Initially, the center will use the appropriation to finish commercialization work using drug manufacturing technology developed by , an Indiana company that plans to relocate some of its operations to St. Louis to work closely with the API Innovation Center. The firm’s process, pending regulatory approvals over the next two years, is being used to make lomustine, a drug needed to treat glioblastoma but that has just one foreign-made source.
But, Sardella said, the continuous manufacturing process can potentially be applied to other generic drugs produced overseas, and the API Innovation Center is evaluating 10 other drugs that can use the process. Large-scale manufacturing will use excess capacity at local manufacturers such as Mallinckrodt Specialty Generics, which has a major manufacturing facility on north Broadway in St. Louis.
Cortex CEO Sam Fiorello said St. Louis’ pharmaceutical manufacturing infrastructure and workforce presents a potential competitive advantage for the region as it competes for talent and investment.
Jones said the grant to the Cortex center will continue “solidifying St. Louis as a leader in bioscience, health care and advanced manufacturing†and “will help create jobs for St. Louis working families, strengthening neighborhoods across our city.â€
Her comments came a day after a city hearing cast uncertainty over the fate of the incentive package used to build Cortex. The district, founded 20 years ago as a nonprofit between the region’s research universities and institutions, is often identified as one of the city’s premier success stories amid larger issues with business relocation and population decline. Thousands of jobs have come to the area, helping drive a resurgence in the city’s central corridor.
Cortex officials have used a $168 million development incentive package approved by the city in 2013 to lure developers and rebuild infrastructure. It needs the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to pass a bill preserving $79 million in tax increment financing incentives for future projects before they expire in February.
But Alderman Tina Pihl, elected to represent the area last year on a platform calling for reining in the use of incentives, suggested Wednesday that Cortex may have to renegotiate the package based on “present day†market conditions. She and the Jones administration reentered negotiations with Cortex shortly after they took office last spring, but Pihl needs to sponsor bills dealing with the district’s development and incentive package under the city’s tradition of “aldermanic courtesy.â€
Fiorello said Wednesday the Jones administration has been “readily at the table†in negotiations, but he’s unsure what Pihl wants to see.
Jason Hall, CEO of Greater St. Louis Inc., alluded to the uncertainty Thursday. Cortex and the area stretching to downtown will be critical for the entire bi-state region in the “innovation economy,†Hall said, specifically thanking Jones and Parson for “showing up.â€
“You don’t have a concentration of world class research, innovation, entrepreneurs, venture capital in such close proximity as in this area,†Hall said. “Anybody in this metro that wears the label of leader needs to be showing up every single day with urgency to ensure the 20 years that got us to this stage right now is not taken for granted.â€
In a short interview, Jones said she was “absolutely†satisfied that Cortex officials were working to broaden the economic benefits of the district to populations beyond the Central Corridor. And she pushed back on the idea of allowing Cortex’s TIFs to expire completely as Pihl had suggested.
“We have to look at how much Cortex is doing for the community, and if there is any restructuring, we probably just add more community benefits to that, but these (TIF funds) were agreed to well before either one of us was in office,†Jones said. “Without TIF financing Cortex wouldn’t be where it is today. But there are ways to restructure TIFs to make sure everybody benefits, not just the company that was awarded the TIF.â€
Posted at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 14.
