I do not want to belabor the point, but I am confident that outside of the construction, financial services, and politics industries one has great difficulty discerning the benefits of TIF financing to St. Louis City residents.
Culinaria–the new downtown Schnucks that simply replaced the old downtown Schnucks–is the exemplar of this reality, as the store is a beneficiary of more than $4 million in federal, state, and local subsidies yet refuses to accept WIC.
Today’s St. Louis Business Journal online details the troubling reality of Culinaria: it is an unfair competitor. Under the headline “Espresso Mod closes in downtown St. Louis,” the Business Journal reports, “since Culinaria opened [Espresso Mod's] sales were down 40 percent.” The article notes, “Brit Paul Charsley owned the 1,041-square-foot British-inspired coffeehouse, which also sold pastries, gooey butter cake, sandwiches and gelato.” Charsley’s only quote in the article?
“Culinaria killed us.”
Tags: Culinaria, Espresso Mod, Federal New Markets Tax Credits, francis slay, mayor slay, schnucks, TIF
October 30, 2009 at 8:19 pm |
This is so sad. They were so nice at Espresso Mod, and were real pioneers downtown, with THEIR OWN MONEY.
So Scott Schnuck closes the grocery store on Cass, sells the building to Paul McKee/Allston Alliance for some ridiculous sum so that McKee can drive down local property values by depriving the neighborhood of a store, then waits to be bribed with a $4M subsidy to come back and reopen as a tenant in his brother’s commercial space (also a gift from the politicians), while McKee’s payout is getting the south end of ONSL into his TIF footprint and getting to redevelop the old building that just HAPPENS to be at the foot of the new bridge, which Blunt, Blago and Lacy Clay just HAPPENED to drop onto McKee’s land. This is a pretty nice little grift with the Schnucks and McKees double-teaming the city, playing keepaway with taxpayer money.
The “no WIC” sticker on the front door is the height of fucking hypocrisy. Welfare for me, but not for thee!
November 21, 2009 at 7:48 pm |
[...] policymakers effectuate policies that empower small businesses to innovate and grow. Paul McKee and Culinaria exemplify all that is wrong with our City’s leadership under Francis Slay. Maybe, just maybe, [...]
February 5, 2010 at 12:04 pm |
[...] Culinaria, the grocery store in downtown that does not accept WIC, opened for business (as an unfair competitor). [...]
February 8, 2010 at 9:12 am |
[...] credits, tax abatements, and tax cuts accrue to the [...]
February 10, 2010 at 2:33 pm |
[...] The earnings tax is regressive, yes, yet its importance to the City’s budget is unquestioned. Those who actively seek its elimination are primarily non-residents and socially irresponsible high income earners, like Anheuser-Busch executives. The last time that the City reduced the earnings tax for these non-residents, Francis Slay, Lewis Reed, and Lyda Krewson argued that the tax’s elimination would help the city to “attract more good jobs for our citizens.” They were wrong. There are far fewer jobs in St. Louis City today than in 2000, and I should not need to remind you that our monthly unemployment figures are appalling. Any talk of making St. Louis “better for business” is proxy for destroying the social fabric of our community. [...]
March 8, 2010 at 1:19 pm |
[...] of Aldermen thinks that it is in the public interest to shovel public dollars into private pockets with no restrictions is beyond me. Furthermore, I have great difficulty understanding why we should permit such gross [...]