West Newsmagazine 4-19-17

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Developers announce POWERplex
project details, major funding
April 19, 2017
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
I NEWS I 13
By JIM ERICKSON
Any lingering doubts about the feasibility
of the proposed new sports and education
complex in Chesterfield Valley, and the
support and commitment behind it, likely
fell by the wayside with the formal unveiling
of project plans and the announcement
of its major financial backing.
Among the key announcements made
during the April 6 gathering of supporters,
civic leaders, Cardinals officials and news
media at the Brew House in Ballpark Village
was a $6 million contribution from
Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield. Rex is a financial
executive, a political activist known
for bankrolling the campaigns of political
candidates and causes, and a philanthropist
who has supported a variety of organizations
and entities through the Sinquefield
Charitable Foundation.
A major portion of the $23 million in
financial commitments needed by June
1, as called for in an agreement with the
city of Chesterfield, is already in hand. A
public fundraising period, launched at the
Ballpark Village gathering, is expected to
boost that amount before the deadline.
The Baseball and Softball Education
[BASE] Foundation, an organization
founded by a group of coaches and baseball/softball
parents, is behind the project
and working with Big Sports Properties,
LLC [BSP], a St. Louis-based partnership
group that is acting as the developer.
Named POWERplex, the development
ultimately will include a 74-acre campus
featuring dual sport domes, multiple turfed
fields and educational facilities designed to
attract traveling youth and amateur sports
teams from a broad area.
The operation will be located along North
Outer 40 Road in Chesterfield Valley, east
of the existing Chesterfield Valley Athletic
Complex.
“This isn’t just a sport megaplex,”
said St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike
Matheney, who is the project’s lead ambassador.
“A major component will be the Sinquefield
Center for Human Development,
a state-of-the-art education facility where
thousands of young athletes will receive
BASE training.” The center is named for
the project’s major donor.
BASE is a program emphasizing the core
values of leadership, teamwork, respect,
emotional control and an attitude of gratitude.
Classroom instruction will use sports
situations and real-life scenarios to teach
those values.
Rick Sems, president of the BASE Foundation
Board, estimates the POWERplex
development will draw 1.25 million annual
visitors by hosting up to 70 major events
and tournaments each year.
“Our goal is to reach as many teams,
players, coaches, parents and officials as
possible,” said Mike Clithero, BASE vice
president.
Described as the largest indoor/outdoor
sports complex in the nation, POWERplex
will include, in its first phase, 250,000 square
feet of climate-controlled space inside a
750-by-275-foot dome. In addition, a temporary
dome measuring 600 feet by 275 feet
will cover two turfed fields outside during
the winter months. The domes’ builder will
be Arizon Building Systems, a Maryland
A rendering of the proposed POWERplex project in the Chesterfield Valley
Heights-based company with manufacturing
facilities in Granite City, Illinois.
The Sinquefield Center will feature
breakout classrooms and a large auditorium
equipped for lectures, presentations
and interactive video conferencing.
Indoor activities can include four high
school/NCAA softball/little league fields,
12 volleyball or eight basketball courts, or
three high school/NCAA soccer/lacrosse
fields. The space also can be used for youth
rallies and conferences, sports tournaments,
outings for Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts,
retreats and youth group lock-ins, pro and
college sports clinics and camps, concerts
and music festivals, health fairs and exhibits,
sports exhibits and other activities.
No public subsidies are forecast for the
actual campus development, although St.
Louis County is working on details for
committing up to $10 million for infrastructure
needs such as sewers, utilities and
roads to the site.
Included in plans for the site are hotel
accommodations, restaurants, retailers and
medical offices. Each for-profit partner on
the campus will share a fixed percent of all
sales and revenues with the BASE Foundation
for project viability and long-term
sustainability, according to a news release
from the foundation.
Chesterfield officials have signed an
agreement calling for the city to lease to
the developer 30 acres it now owns, as well
as an adjacent 22-acre site it is under contract
to purchase.
In response to a question from West
Newsmagazine, Dan Buck, managing
partner of BSP, outlined the status of the
project’s fundraising/financing efforts as
including:
• Philanthropic commitments totaling $11
million, as well as St. Louis County’s proposed
commitment of up to $10 million for
infrastructure needs.
• $15 million from an upcoming BASE
Foundation tax exempt bond sale. The
bonds are privately backed and are not
municipal bonds.
• $18 million to $25 million provided by
private developers of the hotel, restaurant,
retail and recreation and medical facilities
on the campus.
• An estimated $12 million from individual
and corporate contributions and
naming rights.
Passage of Prop T puts emphasis on lower class sizes in Eureka
By JESSICA MESZAROS
Superintendent Dr. Eric Knost opened
the board comments section of the Rockwood
School District Board of Education
meeting on April 6 with the following
words: “Great night, great week and a lot
of great things to talk about.”
In addition to the swearing-in of three
newly appointed board members, the
bond issue known as Proposition T [for
“Thrive’] passed with 67.38 percent voter
approval after the April 4 municipal election.
According to unofficial results, the
measure received a 67.01 percent majority
in St. Louis County and an additional 88.2
percent majority in Jefferson County. The
measure required a four-sevenths majority
vote, or about 57.14 percent, for passage.
“Of course, when you’re successful with
a bond issue, you hear a lot from the people
that were supporting the bond issue,” Knost
said. “I had a lot of people reaching out last
Wednesday after the vote and even late into
Tuesday evening, and people were happy. I
think people feel validated in their support.”
Prop T was passed to help the district
fund major capital projects for many district
schools. The proposed projects include
a new Eureka elementary school, adding
innovative learning and STEM spaces to
Rockwood elementary schools and replacing
outdated technology in classrooms.
Also included in the proposition are overall
school improvements, new classrooms at
Geggie Elementary and a new multipurpose
room at Wildwood Middle.
According to Knost, the new elementary
school is tentatively scheduled to be
up and running by fall 2019. The structure
takes about six months to plan, about three
months or so to go through the bidding
process and an additional year to build and
open the structure.
“It sounds like a long way off, but it takes
getting to work on it right now to get that
done,” Knost said.
The district’s emphasis on keeping class
sizes down and the passage of Prop T also
means that the district will have the ability
to consider smaller, more focused redistricting
efforts in the future to cope with
an influx of students rather than redrawing
boundaries across the entire school district.
The new proposition allows the district
to consider alternate methods of redistricting,
such as minor shifts or the use of
grandfathering for some families wanting
to stay with a certain school.
“When we’re not doing it to keep the entire
district from being impacted by an influx of
homes, then what we’re doing is looking at
areas with a laser focus,” Knost said.
Rockwood’s last full-boundary redistricting
effort took place in 1993 with the
opening of Marquette High and Rockwood
Summit High, resulting in growth from
two high schools to four high schools in
the district.
Passage of Prop T helps keep class sizes
manageable and allows for a more individualized
approach to addressing school
needs, Knost said.
“Prop T just allows us to breathe a little bit
and allows us to keep doing the best we can
and take care of the kids,” he said.