ST. LOUIS — After decades of decline, north St. Louis will soon see more than a half billion dollars of investment from a foreign-based company.
ICL Group, which is based in Israel, recently announced it would begin work along the riverfront on a factory that's typically only seen in China.
“One of our five primary goals is growing the city's population,” St. Louis Development Corp. CEO Neil Richardson said. “In order to do that we must attract major employers that are able to create these quality jobs.”
North St. Louis city has been a particular area of interest for development.
“Property values are pretty low right now,” Richardson said.
“When you look at our region, we’re in the center of the country,” Tracy Henke said. “We have a low cost of doing business. We have a low cost of living.”
Tracy Henke with AMICSTL said St. Louis has one thing that nearly every employer looks for.
“We have a tremendous workforce here in the St. Louis Metro,” Henke said.
That’s why ICL Group, which has locations in south St. Louis, is investing $574 million into a new location along East Carrie Avenue.
“They will have service jobs, manufacturing jobs, and really focus on lithium parts that go into batteries,” Richardson said.
Once the new facility opens, ICL will add at least 150 full-time jobs.
“With an average salary above $85,000 it creates a new middle income that is not only going to drive job growth but also drive residential growth in North St. Louis City,” Richardson said.
“The great thing about ICL is ICL has been here for a while,” Henke said. “ICL has a tremendous workforce.”
Since a college degree isn’t required, Henke said that AMICSTL is positioned to provide training to prospective employees, but there’s one thing she believes the city needs to continue drawing this type of investment.
“We do need to work on retention and attraction of new people to our region,” Henke said. “That will help attract advanced manufacturing entities to the St. Louis Metro.”
The City of St. Louis provided ICL with a 15-year personal property tax abatement to secure the investment.
Work on the site is expected to begin in early 2025, with the doors opening sometime in the spring of 2026.