St. Louis officials hope to learn more about how impacted businesses are faring nearly six months after the May 16 tornado and what funding gaps the city can address.
The St. Louis Development Corporation, the city’s development arm, launched a follow-up survey last month to one conducted in the days after the EF3 tornado struck. The storm damaged or destroyed an estimated 10,000 properties and killed five people.
Mayor Cara Spencer charged SLDC in the days following the disaster with leading the recovery of the business community in north St. Louis.
The newest survey asks businesses in the area for details about their current status and insurance situations to get a better grasp on what potential support the city can lend, such as grants or additional loans.
“What it’s intending to focus on is understanding what the needs are for recovery,” said Russell Halliday, who is leading the survey effort. “The ultimate thing that we're trying to discover is where can the city potentially help with that funding gap.”
SLDC hired Halliday’s firm KEA Point Solutions to aid with short-, medium- and long-term recovery for the north St. Louis business community. The contract totals roughly $1.1 million over two years.
Halliday founded the firm in response to the tornado. Previously, he worked with SLDC on Project Connect, which focused on bringing development to the neighborhoods surrounding the newly completed National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s West campus in north St. Louis. Before that, he did similar recovery work after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake disaster in his native New Zealand.
Halliday said the newest survey will give the city a better idea of what funding gaps need to be filled and what ways — outside of more loans — the city and SLDC can help.
“The survey specifically is a component of a larger — a lot larger — picture, but I think it's an essential component to actually be able to quantify, as best we can, the magnitude of the impact to commercial property specifically,” Halliday said. “We're going to look at what are our options in the toolbox, and how can we help with that?”
The development corporation's first survey identified how many businesses were impacted, which had to shut down completely and which could reopen in a short period of time.
That survey led to St. Louis Local Development Company, an area nonprofit offering forgivable $5,000 loans to small businesses impacted by the tornado.
The first business impact assessment report received 1,035 survey responses from 788 businesses. According to SLDC’s report, 216 businesses received severe damage, and 149 reported significant damage. Sixty of those businesses reported a total loss.
The survey found the most pressing needs were roof and window repairs.
“While not a significant number of responses directly mentioned financial assistance needed, the implications of funding and working capital needs are immense,” the report read. “Physical repairs, loss of business, and the gloomy prospect of continuing to operate a business in a severely damaged area prove a clear and large need.”
Twenty-two of the businesses that reported a total loss were located in the Greater Ville and Lewis Place neighborhoods, according to SLDC’s report.
Halliday said SLDC will host town halls and meetings with local business owners in the near future. He said his firm's work on recovery is still in its early stages.
“This is going to go on for some time, but reaching out into the community is going to be the key there,” he said. “I'd like to get personal about the kind of challenges that people are going through.”
The second survey can be taken here: www.developstlouis.org/news-media/sldc-launches-new-business-recovery-survey
