Walmart, TIF and More Muscial Chair Development May Devastate St. Ann
{existing Walmart in red, proposed Walmart Supercenter in blue}
Why should a Walmart moving 1.5 miles down a road matter much more than to those who may have a slightly shorter, or slightly longer drive to pick up 64 rolls of toilet paper for $12.87? It shouldn't, but in the St. Louis world of everyone-gets-their-own-municipality whomever has the most to give away gets the Walmart (or car dealer, or Target, etc.).
The small municipality of St. Ann is struggling enough with the challenges presented by Northwest Plaza. The announced closing of the Macy's there is just the latest of a long series of closings. Now Walmart wants to move from one side of the St. Ann-Bridgeton border to the other - taking it's tax revenue with it. Currently 10% of sales tax revenue from the Walmart goes to St. Ann as the current store sits mostly in Bridgeton already.
According to St. Ann City Administrator Matt Conley, as reported in the Post-Dispatch, the Walmart is the second-largest source of sales tax revenue in St. Ann. I'm not sure what the largest source would be, Northwest Plaza? Car dealerships? Bridgeton appears ready to give $8M in the form of TIF to Walmart to lure them down the road. The money is a gift to keep Walmart in Bridgeton.
The problem is that Walmart would have a store somewhere in the vicinity of St. Ann and Bridgeton with or without a TIF. Maybe it would be across the border with Maryland Heights, and this is the fear, losing tax revenue. St. Louis County municipalities need not be one political unit to remedy this (though it would certainly help), the several communities of northwest St. Louis County simply need to say "no" to TIF. Walmart will not abandon any area with 50,000 customers or more.
The argument made by TIF proponents seems to often focus on a particular development site and it's simply stated that the particular lot will not be redeveloped with TIF. When businesses know that the next town will give millions then of course a particular site won't be developed without a like amount TIF. It's just one more reason that the TIF musical chairs in St. Louis County needs to stop.
Gentrification: "... welcome by some and feared and loathed by others, and even dreaded and welcomed at the same time by the same people." Lance Freeman's pursuit of this duality makes the book strong-he's willing to admit that gentrification is both a pleasure and a problem, rather than setting up camp on one side.
St. Ann is a craphole, but this is bad news for sure.
St. Ann used to be a very nice community, but they, like others, were intent on chasing tax dollars. Maybe there's no other option, but they're now dying. Imagine if Northwest Plaza had the revenue of the Galleria and the Walmart were entirely in St. Ann.