CREVE COEUR, Mo. — A Monday night meeting in Creve Coeur allowed neighbors to voice their concerns about a proposed mixed-use development.
The development would be built on the former 96-acre Bayer campus on the southwest corner of Olive and North Lindbergh boulevards.
At the public hearing, Creve Coeur city leaders were deciding how to use millions of dollars in real estate taxes as well as a special sales tax to help developers with this project to turn it into apartments, town homes and retail shops.
The project comes with a price tag close to $985 million dollars for the Olia Village at Bayer's former North American headquarters, and adding luxury hotels and office buildings may require the city council's help to foot the bill.
On the table was approving an abatement of $86 million to reduce property tax payments to help developers, and a 1 cent sales tax for up to 25 years was proposed by Fireside Financial.
Representatives from the private equity real estate firm Jack Matthews Development tried to help explain how these steps and recommendations for cost control came about.
"To get to this meeting, it's taken us 18 months," President of Jack Matthews Development Matthew Pfund said. "This plan requires incentives to offset the extraordinary cost and the project can't move forward without them."
Some members of the community were still hesitant.
"The problem is that it's being presented as, 'Let's take what the developers offered or we've got nothing because we've got a vacant piece of ground,'" said Linda Rezny, who is a neighbor to the Bayer campus development site. "But, this is a prime piece."
"There was more than one developer that was trying to get it in the first place," Rezny said. "There are other options."
Creve Coeur City Council members are expected to discuss and take a final vote on April 8.
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