Mar 17

Mar 17 The Faces of Change

Upping Our Game

Written By Craig Kaminer

Photos courtesy of Greater St. Louis, Inc.

It’s hard to accurately count the headlines about our feuding city and county, our antiquated and fragmented regional government, and the economic development organizations that for many years have stepped on one another’s toes.

Despite the cries of business leaders and voters who sought change, this fragmentation continued -- hindering our ability to attract businesses, retain population, drive away some of our best and brightest talent, and grow our economy. But in the midst of a pandemic, some forward-thinking and civic-oriented minds prevailed and orchestrated the merger of five organizations into one -- with clear leadership, a plan, and the support of many. But the support of one in particular is of note -- Andy Taylor, Executive Chairman of Enterprise Holdings, the world’s largest rental car company headquartered in the center of Clayton, and generous philanthropic investor in initiatives that are advancing the regional economy and revitalizing the city’s urban core. Andy challenged St. Louis to come together and “up our game” for economic growth.

At. 12:00 a.m. on January 1, 2021, in a bold and somewhat unanticipated move, AllianceSTL, Arch to Park, Civic Progress, Downtown STL, Inc., and the St. Louis Regional Chamber combined the strengths of their legacy organizations to form a new entity, Greater St. Louis, Inc. Its purpose: to unify around a common vision and strategy for fostering inclusive economic growth. For the first time in generations, leaders of the new organization will hopefully work collaboratively to finally address the metropolitan area’s economic and job growth challenges.

Why? Benchmarking studies of faster-growing regions across the U.S. underscore why St. Louis must be more collaborative. Fragmentation at many levels has been a fundamental barrier to reversing decades of economic underperformance, stagnant population growth and racial segregation. Greater St. Louis, Inc. represents an evidence-based initiative to align, structure and invest our significant resources to create a St. Louis-wide economy that is more competitive, with broader prosperity for all.

The drivers of this new organization aren’t members of the old guard who have long controlled the business and politics of our region, but rather newer faces who are poised to make St. Louis the inclusive and diverse city we must be to move forward.

Jason R. Hall, the new CEO of Greater St. Louis, Inc, was formerly CEO and Co-Founder of Arch to Park, a catalytic, civic-minded investment organization focused on economic growth in the urban core of St. Louis. Originally, Arch to Park was formed out of a desire by community leaders to build a dynamic “central city” to accelerate regional growth via collaboration and strategy. Arguably, Arch to Park was the impetus of change and foreshadowed the creation of Greater St. Louis, Inc.

Jason is not the person you would have expected to lead this audacious economic development goal a few short years ago, but he seems like the perfect person to lead it now. The first in his family to earn a college degree and the first openly LGBT person appointed to a cabinet-level position in Missouri government, Jason is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College and Vanderbilt University Law School, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He served as a law clerk with the Honorable Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (Atlanta) and soon after his clerkship, Jason began his legal career at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. There’s even more to his economic development chops. Jason previously served as Vice President of Entrepreneurship & Innovation and General Counsel with the St. Louis Regional Chamber, Director and Deputy Director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, and Executive Director of the Missouri Technology Corporation.

Among his many other credentials, Jason serves on the boards of the Missouri Technology Corporation,Tarlton Corporation, Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, the Arts and Education Council, Invest Midwest, and is a member of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Leadership Council.

The other senior executive who helped incorporate Greater St. Louis, Inc. is Valerie E. Patton, who is leading the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategies and programs as well as its foundation, which will be responsible for charitable revenue and an endowment.

Previously she served as Senior Vice President, Economic Inclusion and Executive Director of the Saint Louis Business Diversity Initiative, an outcome from the St. Louis 2004 civic action agenda. Val, as her friends call her, founded the Fellows Program (a yearlong leadership development experience for professionals of color) and Gateway Connections (a welcoming orientation for professionals of color). More recently, she launched the metro’s Diverse Business Accelerator to help scale-up diverse-led businesses. All are now programs of Greater St. Louis, Inc. “We plan to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion principles within our organization and throughout the region, in all aspects of the organization’s economic growth agenda,” she says.. “We want to achieve broad-based prosperity while closing racial disparities and creating access to opportunity.”

Actively involved throughout the community, Val has served as an adjunct professor and instructor at Washington University, Harris Stowe State University, and St. Louis Community College. She has held board and trustee positions with The United Way of Greater St. Louis, Fontbonne University, and Howard University School of Business. In 2018, she was awarded the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Metropolitan St. Louis Chapter’s award for Visionary Community Leadership. Val holds degrees from Washington University’s George Warren Brown School of Social Work (MSW), Webster University (MA) and Howard University (BBA), and has done post graduate studies in business management.

According to Jason, “St. Louis often criticizes itself and the people trying to make a difference. But, fragmentation is not going to build the economic future of this region. With five legacy organizations merged into one, we are finally going to lead in a radically different way.”

We have seen all too many times what the world looks like when we are divided and not working together. In his bold and visionary way, Jason says, “Imagine what our city could be when we join together? We hold other cities like Indianapolis, Denver, Austin, and Minneapolis in such high esteem, but the reality is they are just better organized. We have to think like a growth community again.”

It would have been hard to imagine a few short years ago that: $100 million is being invested into Missouri vineyards, the St. Louis City MLS soccer team will play in a new stadium in Downtown West, a multi-billion dollar National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) campus in North City will surely make St. Louis the center of new industry sectors in geospatial services, companies like Benson Hill are attracting investors (including Google), new neighborhoods are popping up around City Foundry and the Grove, or that we would see renewed development in The Loop and Central West End. Long-term success will require the discipline and commitment to collaborate for decades to come. The hope is that with a mega spurt of growth like we are currently seeing, and a shared vision, others will be chasing St. Louis this decade.

Recently, Entrepreneur magazine called St. Louis the No. 1 city in the Midwest essential to American innovation. St. Louis was recently ranked the No. 1 city in the country for women-founded and women-led start-ups. Our MLS team is the first majority owned female soccer franchise. Imagine what is possible if we harness the power and determination of our highly educated and motivated female work force, with investment capital supporting them, and leadership willing to make the promotion of women and diversity our top priorities?

The draft STL 2030 Jobs Plan also shows that if our metropolitan region worked together to close disparities between Black-owned and white-owned businesses, our regional GDP would be at least 10 percent higher, and we would generate tens of thousands of additional jobs.

But talk is cheap. The proof will come as more companies move their headquarters here, as Bunge did from New York City, adding to the list of Fortune 250 companies who call St. Louis home. Or how Accenture Federal Services announced that they are moving 1,400 high-paying jobs here. Or Square®, which was founded by native son and tech billionaire Jim McKelvey, moving to the old St. Louis Post-Dispatch building as a hub for the explosive growth of FinTech companies. When things are going our way, the future seems awfully bright.

According to Jason, “We have to attract more young people and rebuild our city core. If you look over the past decade, the high-growth metros are all committed to strong, diverse central cities. With more than $8 billion of investment in the past few years in the urban core, we are well positioned to jump ahead.” This concept was confirmed to him in a meeting with the Turner Family, who founded the Dollar General chain in Nashville with more than 16,000 variety stores nationwide. Jason remembers being told in a thick southern accent, “We didn't want to grow like a donut; we wanted to grow like a danish with the sweet spot in the middle.” And so the focus is on the city of St. Louis once again as the centerpiece of our region’s unified growth strategy. Like it or not, at least the direction is clear.

“While the importance of our city center has been the topic of much debate for decades, all the evidence shows that without it there is virtually no chance of growing the region. So, we now have developed our first jobs plan in more than a decade,” explains Jason. “As Andy Taylor told me, “We have got to up our game. We have to believe change is possible.”

From the likes of it, it looks like we are well on our way. This turning point may become known as St. Louis’ Historic Act of Defragmentation. Let’s give Jason, Val, and Greater St. Louis, Inc. the best possible support of our citizens and finally accomplish what has evaded us for years.

Greater St. Louis

As one organization, Greater St. Louis will pursue eight strategic initiatives:

AllianceSTL to actively recruit businesses to St. Louis, something which has been done well in the past

Center For Civic Research And Innovation to provide high-quality, objective research and analysis to support economic development and community efforts

Central City STL to focus on revitalizing the urban core. The research is clear, without a strong city, growth and prosperity are a long-shot

ChamberSTL to achieve pro-growth public policy outcomes

Inclusive Business Solutions to develop multicultural and racially diverse business leaders and entrepreneurs

GEOFutures to champion St. Louis as the global geospatial industry hub

STLMADE to manage the metro’s national reputation; amplify an authentic and inclusive narrative through stories of people moving the region forward

STL 2030 Jobs Plan to substantially increase the number of high-quality jobs in the metro area and reduce racial inequities.