Pinnacle Entertainment won its bid to locate its casino, entertainment, and mixed commercial development on the Mississippi riverfront in the Lemay area of south St. Louis County. This site was formerly occupied by National Lead Industries (NLI) and National Imaging & Mapping Agency (NIMA). Long vacant, these former industrial sites linked the River to Interstate 55.
EOI generated a successful application for Missouri Department of Economic Development Brownfield Redevelopment tax credits, totaling approximately $20 million. EOI developed remedial options within the guidelines of Missouri’s voluntary cleanup program and new risk-based corrective action regulations, using institutional controls, engineered barriers, and engineered cells, as well as traditional excavation, removal, and disposal.
EOI designed a comprehensive risk transfer program, structured so that EOI assumed the financial risk for cost overruns arising from known conditions, as well as unexpected costs incurred because of unforeseen conditions. This arrangement indemnified the developer and the municipality, and allowed the project to move forward.
The casino complex was completed in early 2010. The Grand Opening was in March 2010. This long vacant and contaminated site is now occupied by a $400 million gaming, entertainment, and mixed-use development providing 1,100 jobs. Phase II of the project (including hotel, retail, entertainment and convention/meeting space) will be completed within three years and is anticipated to create an additional 900 jobs.
In 2011, the project was honored with a Phoenix Award, a national award honoring notable Brownfield projects as models and inspiration for urban redevelopment.