By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – St. Louis County Executive Buzz Westfall says a nearly 500-acre tract of land near Lambert Airport represents one of the most exciting economic development opportunities in the region's history.
Westfall says the property will be developed for manufacturing, warehousing and distribution use. When completed, the project is expected to have an economic impact of more than $7 billion.
Westfall says officials have had no trouble attracting local developers. "We've got hundreds of acres of land that are ideally situated for a proposal of this sort and it could create as many as 15,000 jobs, which is just spectacular particularly in this economy," said Westfall. "And what makes it particularly exciting is that we have developers ready and raring to go. I mean, local developers with deep pockets and great track records and they're ready to go."
As the development encompasses three separate North County municipalities, Westfall says he hopes an intergovernmental agreement will be in place by the end of the year.