In St. Louis, Dr. MLK Business 

Park Dreams Renewed 

St. Louis, Missouri 

In St. Louis, Missouri, the 26-acre, 16-block Dr. Martin Luther King 

Business Park had been reduced to a few crumbling, abandoned buildings 

and an unofficial storage lot for used tires over the course of a few 

decades. Committed to renewing hope in this area located north of 

downtown, the City of St. Louis looked to EPA for help. EPA funding, 

along with local private and public investment, helped clean up and turn 

around a 6-city block, 20-acre property within MLK Park. The end result 

was the creation of one large, campus-style business park, known as the 

St. Louis Commerce Center, which has provided local companies a place 

to build and provide jobs within the city's urban core. 

Throughout the 1900s, the future MLK Business Park property was 

initially used for residential and eventually commercial and industrial uses, 

creating hundreds of vital jobs. But as St. Louis began to grow, 

businesses and industries slowly migrated to the suburbs, and by the 

1990s, the area had suffered from this urban decay. The city had lost half 

of its jobs and two-thirds of its population since 1960 to outside areas 

while being saddled with thousands of abandoned or publicly held sites, 

including the MLK Business Park property. 

A $200,000 EPA Brownfields Assessment Pilot grant awarded in 1996 

made it possible for the city to perform an environmental investigation on 

a six-block area within the MLK Park, where a large pharmaceutical 

company, a foundry, automotive repair shops, dry cleaners, and other 

industrial and commercial businesses had once operated. Both soil and 

groundwater were found to be polluted with benzene, petroleum, and 

other highly toxic substances. 

Cleanup required the removal of more than 20,000 tons of soil. More than 

50,000 square feet of asbestos-containing materials were also removed. 

The city excavated more than 20 underground storage tanks from the site 

and surrounding properties. In addition to hazardous waste removal, other 

cleanup technologies such as capping and groundwater treatment were 

used. Soil and groundwater remediation and asbestos abatement costs 

totaled more than one million dollars. The state's brownfield remediation 

tax credit of about $1 million, combined with a contribution from the city's 

economic development agency, paid for the cleanup. 

Balke Brown Associates, a local developer, worked with EPA and the 

City of St. Louis during cleanup of the parcels. "We took a derelict, 

abandoned piece of property with a lot of environmental problems and 

St. Louis Commerce Centers I and II 

JUST THE FACTS: • An EPA Brownfields Assessment Pilot grant 

enabled the city to perform assessments on a sixblock area within the Martin Luther King 

Business Park, where a pharmaceutical company, 

a foundry, automotive repair shops, dry cleaners, 

and other industry had once operated. 

• Cleanup required the removal of more than 

20,000 tons of soil, more than 50,000 square feet 

of asbestos-containing materials, and 20 

underground storage tanks. 

• A state brownfield remediation tax credit of about 

$1 million, combined with a contribution from the 

city's economic development agency, paid for 

the cleanup. 

• Cleanup was followed by development of a large, 

campus-style business park known as the St. 

Louis Commerce Center, which has provided 

local companies a place to build and provide jobs 

within the city's urban core. 

"We took a derelict, 

abandoned piece of property with a 

lot of environmental problems and 

transformed it into a productive commercial 

property. It has already started to encourage 

surrounding brownfield redevelopment 

in the area." 

—Don Land, SeniorV. P.of local developer 

Balke Brown Associates 

continued 
CONTACTS: 

For more information contact 

U.S. EPA-REGION 7 

(913) 551-7003 

Visit the EPA Brownfields web site at: 

http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/ 

GPX, Inc. Distribution Center, Located in 

Commerce Center II 

transformed it into a productive commercial property," said Don Land, Senior Vice President of Balke 

Brown Associates. "It has already started to encourage surrounding brownfield redevelopment in the 

area." 

Balke Brown Associates designed the St. Louis Commerce Center in two phases, 

completed in February 2000 and March 2002, respectively. Phase I is 150,000 

square feet of office and industrial space while Phase II is significantly larger, 

with 336,000 square feet of similar usage. The combined 486,000 square 

feet of much-needed, north-side space is currently 100% 

tenants, including: Gateway CDI; Killark Electrical Products; Swank 

Motion Pictures; McLeod USA Telecommunications; Sigma-Aldrich, GPX; 

and Bryan Cave. 

In addition to creating more than 210 new jobs, the Commerce Center is a 

major revenue producer that has added a new sense of hope in this area of 

St. Louis. The Center's success has stimulated nearby brownfields 

redevelopment, including the newly-built St. Louis Gateway Classics Sport 

complex and neighboring single and multi-family housing units. "Sometimes it 

takes just one project to do it," remarked Kevin McGrew, Brownfields 

Coordinator of the St. Louis Development Corporation, on the area's revitalization. 

By transforming 20 blighted acres into a premiere business park, the City of St. Louis has set a new 

standard. The large scale and vision of this project have changed regional attitudes toward brownfields 

redevelopment and set a precedent for other projects in the city to follow. 

leased to seven 

Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA 560-F-04-261 

St. Louis Missouri and Emergency September 2004 

Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/