CLAYTON, Mo. — St. Louis County residents may need to vote on a new property tax in the upcoming election … It’s all to pay for a new St. Louis County administration building or the significant repairs to keep the current one.
The St. Louis County Council just heard the latest round of proposals on Project Cornerstone to either repair or replace the Lawrence K. Roos Government Building in downtown Clayton.
“This LK Roos administration building, the police headquarters and the TPW site, these buildings range from 40 to 70+ years old and are dealing with $45 million in deferred maintenance,” Jason Mayfield, WSP engineering consultant, said.
The repair or replacement of the building has to happen due to a city ordinance requiring fire suppression sprinklers installation by 2028.
“In order to do that work you’re going to end up with new ceilings and light fixtures because you have to take it all down in order to install the sprinkler system. You’re going to have to abate all of the hazardous material at the ceiling level and above in order to attach the sprinkler systems and its support infrastructure,” Mayfield said.
While it's one of the cheaper options to simply repair the current building, it's still going to cost $88 million to $276 million, pushing council members like Rita Heard Days to question how best to do this.
“[Therein] lies an issue for constituents and they’re looking at the fact that we’re $41 million in the hole and yet we’re going to undertake this and looking at what is the cost-benefit,” councilwoman Days said.
County Councilman Ernie Trakas said he’s in favor of a new building located in Clayton.
The parking lot across from the current one is an option as the county owns that property.
“The county residents should be concerned because you want a government that's able to function as efficiently as possible. That's probably not the case anymore with the Roos building,” Trakas said.
But estimates show a new main building in Clayton with a midtown satellite location could cost anywhere from $560 million to $612 million, which could be paid for in a variety of ways.
Most of the options would have to be approved by taxpayers, like a bond issue paid for by a property tax of an additional $3-$8 per month.
“I think the other area that has to be explored and I don't know that they touched on this sufficiently in their presentation is the concept of a public-private partnership. So, for instance, a new building that would house County Government Center, county council, police department but also had commercial space for everything from restaurants to other commercial to office space,” Trakas said.
But he is concerned about the estimates as several previous projects have been way over the budget.
“I want to be sure that whatever decision we make, we have realistic numbers in terms of ultimate cost,” Trakas said.
The next big step is to decide how they're going to pay for it so that, if they need to, the necessary paperwork can be filed to get this issue on the ballot for voters.
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