By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – A judge has cleared the way for an $80 million expansion project at the Federal Reserve Bank in downtown St. Louis.
The bank plans to demolish a parking garage at Locust and Broadway and replace it with a more secure lot. The project will also create more space for workers.
Officials plan to start on the expansion early next year and finish it in 2006.
The Federal Reserve also plans to match the exterior of the building to the limestone of the original bank building and add a new vestibule for metal detectors.
Owners of a nearby building had objected to the sale of a parking garage to the Federal Reserve. St. Louis Circuit Judge
Steven Ohmer denied the claim, saying the sale would not affect a renovation planned by that building's owners.