The Hazelwood Logistics Center was a development that almost never was.
Development of the 151-acre site was delayed more than six years over environmental issues.
But in 2015 Kansas City-based NorthPoint Development acquired the property, cleaned up the remaining environmental contamination on the site and revamped the public tax incentives to get the project back on track. NorthPoint’s incentives included 18 years of real property tax abatement and sales tax exemption from construction materials, plus $15.5 million in New Markets Tax Credits to finance the first building, which was facilitated by the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership.
Now, the Hazelwood Logistics Center counts TAGG Logistics and Amazon as some of its biggest tenants. NorthPoint built five additional buildings in 2017, each one utilizing Chapter 100 bonds, and by the end of last year, the firm had authorization from the city of Hazelwood to complete the final two buildings in the park by the end of 2018. Once complete, NorthPoint will have invested about $109 million in the development and 2 million square feet of industrial space, contributing to about 1,800 jobs in north St. Louis County.
“You just really never know how fast they are going to go when you start out, but we’ve had a lot of success there,” NorthPoint Vice President of Development Larry Lapinski said, referring to the firm’s original plan in 2015 to build one facility per year until 2022.
About the project
Owner/developer: NorthPoint Development
Broker: David Branding, JLL
Architect: Studio North Architecture
Engineer: Stock & Associates Consulting Engineers Inc.
Contractors: Brinkmann Constructors
Interior designer: Studio North Architecture
Financing: Private equity and public financing, including 18 years of real property tax abatement and sales tax exemption for construction materials (city of Hazelwood), and St. Louis County participated in a $15.5 million New Markets Tax Credits financing
Project cost: More than $100 million