NGA Western Site Relocation

Economic Impact Analysis Summary for North St. Louis City Site

This past March, St. Louis business leaders engaged Missouri Wonk to conduct an economic
impact analysis of the relocation of the National Geospatial Agencys western office from its
current location in South St. Louis City to a new location in North St. Louis City.
Inputs
The client provided the following information on the project:

The current facility houses 3,100 employees with an average salary of about $75,000 per
year. These employees represent the number of jobs retained by the City of St. Louis
and Missouri if the NGA relocates to the North St. Louis City site.
The new facility will cost $1.2 billion to construct. Construction will occur over a twoyear period with costs spread evenly over the two year period ($600 million in year 1
and $600 million in year 2). The impacts from this new spending constitute construction
costs.
Based on square footage estimates, the new facility will house an additional 4,000 jobs.
The new facility will house half of these jobs within two years of the completion of the
new facility. The new facility will house all of these jobs within five years of completion
of the new facility. These represent the number of new jobs to the City of St. Louis
and Missouri if the NGA relocates to the North St. Louis City Site.

Assumptions
Using this information, Missouri Wonk pinpointed industries directly impacted by these
changes (Sector 440: Federal government, military and Sector 34: Construction of new
nonresidential commercial and health care structures) and identified the years in which these
impacts will take place (2016-2023). Missouri Wonk estimated the impacts of the project over a
thirty-year period.
Missouri Wonk conducted the analysis for the City of St. Louis and also determined how these
impacts will affect the rest of Missouri.

Economic Impacts
Below is a summary of the economic impact of the project.*
Retained Jobs
The 3,100 existing employees are responsible for an additional 1,945 induced jobs, attributable
to the spending of the existing NGA employees in Missouri. In total, the existing NGA site in the
City of St. Louis is responsible for the employment of more than 5,000 jobs in Missouri.
Construction Jobs
The $1.2 billion in construction spending will result in 15,106 construction jobs (the equivalent
of hiring 15,106 employees for one-year). These jobs represent construction jobs, jobs of
construction suppliers, and industries impacted by the spending of the workers employed as a
result of the new activity.
New Jobs
When fully phased-in, the 4,000 new jobs will create an additional 3,255 permanent jobs
throughout Missouri, attributable to the spending activities of the 4,000 new jobs. In total,
7,255 permanent jobs will result from this economic activity.
Total Jobs and Economic Impact

For the City of St. Louis:

11,272 one-time jobs (from the construction of the NGA site) for the City of St. Louis
8,730 permanent jobs
For all of Missouri (including the City of St. Louis):
15,106 one-time jobs (from the construction of the NGA site) in all of Missouri (including
the City of St. Louis)
11,555 permanent jobs in all of Missouri.
When fully phased-in, the relocation of the NGA site to the North St. Louis City location will
produce $1.24 billion in economic activity for the City of St. Louis and $1.42 billion for all of
Missouri, comprised of the activity associated with the retained and new jobs of the project.
The construction of the new facility will result in $1.34 billion in economic activity for the City of
St. Louis and $1.63 billion for all of Missouri.
*Sector 440 relates to employment in the military of the federal government. IMPLAN does not
have information on purchases made by this sector, which in this case, could have a positive
impact on the economies of the study areas. Because these estimates are absent from IMPLAN
data, the retained and new job impacts presented in this document likely underrepresent
the true economic impact to the study areas.

About IMPLAN and Economic Impact Analyses

Missouri Wonk used IMPLAN, economic impact analysis software and data to conduct the
analysis. Governments, economic development agencies, businesses, and universities use
IMPLAN to estimate impacts of changes to a state, regional, or local economy. In an IMPLAN
analysis, an analyst has a set of inputs (for instance the number of new jobs in an industry or
the amount of new capital investment for a project) and then makes assumptions about how
and when those inputs will impact the economy of the study area. The results of the analysis,
the outputs, provide estimates of how the changes will likely impact the areas economy.