Rams, ARPA cash could boost St. Louis convention expansion

ST. LOUIS — City officials are considering spending another $20 million to help boost a downtown convention center expansion beset by delays and cost overruns.

But it’s not clear everyone’s on the same page.

Draft legislation from the mayor’s office would pull $15 million from interest earned on federal pandemic aid money and $5 million from interest earned on the city’s $250 million share of the NFL Rams settlement. And Alderwoman Cara Spencer of Marine Villa, whose 8th Ward includes downtown, is listed as the prospective sponsor.

But Spencer said Wednesday that she still has a lot of questions about the plan, and has yet to review the draft legislation. “While funding the convention center is important, I have had only one brief meeting with the mayor on this subject, at which I had a lot of questions and concerns about additional funded needed,” she wrote in a text message. “It is premature and frankly irresponsible of the mayors office to circulate a bill with my name on it that I haven’t seen.”

The impending debate over the plan would be the latest in a chaotic few years for the expansion.

The more than $200 million expansion, called AC Next Gen, calls for 23 loading docks, more than double what exists now, and 73,000 square feet of additional exhibit space at Ninth Street and Convention Plaza, on downtown St. Louis’ northern edge.

The expansion will enable the convention to host at least three concurrent events — something the convention center has not been able to do before, officials have said.

Tourism officials said the region needs a newer, bigger facility in order to better compete with other cities that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to revamp their tourism infrastructure.

But the expansion here has hit hurdle after hurdle since it was first pitched in late 2018, and the project that will debut this year will be considerably smaller than what officials first envisioned.