$6M Earmarked for PowerPlex Has Not Been Spent
Date Posted: May 16, 2023
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis Business Journal: Funds earmarked by St. Louis County for the redevelopment by youth sports complex PowerPlex have not been used by the developer, and are still available if the project finds an alternate site, a county official said.
The St. Louis County Council agreed in February 2021 to use $6 million in hotel tax money, revenue brought in from sales taxes at hotels in the county, to back the proposed $55 million PowerPlex youth sports destination at the site of the former St. Louis Mills mall in Hazelwood.
But the project, which had been in the works for more than five years, will not be built at the mall site after a deal fell through between PowerPlex developer Big Sports Properties and the mall’s new owner. Big Sports, led by Dan Buck, said that the company is looking for alternative sites for the project.
An update from Big Sports on the status of its new site search was not immediately available Friday.
The $6 million earmarked by St. Louis County lawmakers is still in a trust fund set aside for convention funds that is overseen by the county and has not been spent, said county spokesman Doug Moore.
As long as the developer finds a new site in St. Louis County, the funds are still available and could still be used for the PowerPlex, Moore said. Buck had said in 2019 that the project could move elsewhere if it didn’t work at the mall.
At the time the council approved the funds, council member Kelli Dunaway said the county would be “last in line” to back the project, and Big Sports would have to secure financing first. Lawmakers hoped at the time that the money might bring other financiers to the table.