Case Study: St.

Louis
Inner-City
Development

Defining Inner City

Inner

cities are defined as core urban areas that are

economically distressed.

Characteristics:
20%

or higher poverty rate

OR
Poverty rate of 1.5 times or more that of the surrounding MSA
Median

household income of half or less that of the surrounding MSA

Unemployment

rate of 1.5 times or more that of the surrounding MSA

St Louis

Demographic & Business Profile

Advantages of the Inner city

Significant, growing business base on which to build:
There are 168,000 jobs and 7,800 establishments in the
inner city
Strategic location and transportation infrastructure for
moving goods and services to customers;
Immediate job and entrepreneurial opportunities in
growing industries 3,000 immediate job openings in 4
clusters alone
A large, diverse, and available pool of human capital
that is underutilized amidst a tight national labor market

Disadvantages of the Inner

city
Poor

infrastructure, investment and

maintenance
Lack of workforce readiness skills by many of
the unemployed and underemployed
Racism, crime
Lack of assembled commercial and industrial
land for business expansion or attraction
efforts
Weak relations between the city government
and local companies

Main Actors in
strengthening Inner City
Private

Sector
Community-Based Organizations
Government

The Role of Private Sector

The private sector will be most effective if it
focuses on what it does best: creating and
supporting economically viable businesses built on
true competitive advantage.
Create and expand business activity in the inner
city
Establish business relationships with inner city
companies , cooperate with each other.
One of the leaders of local
organization(Bachmann) took the responsibility of
solving the existing problems

Role of Government
Create

a favorable environment for

business (schools, job training,
infrastructure, streamlining regulation)
Better public safety.
Genuine, long-term, structural
advantages.
Government: "a marketer"

Role of Community-Based
Organizations
Inner

City Competitive alliance was formed

The project was not imposed on community
What could they do ?
Identify and build on strengths
Work to change workforce and community
attitudes
Create work-readiness and job-referral systems
Facilitate commercial site improvement and
development

Clusters
Inner-city

St. Louis has a significant representation

of clusters 16 out of the 20 principle regional
clusters are present in the inner city

Competitive Advantages of
Metal Manufacturing Cluster

Major asset

High Quality

The St. Louis region has 16 QS-9000- and

32 ISO-9000 certified metal manufacturing
companies.

Quality Workforce

The Metal Manufacturing cluster is the

largest manufacturing employer in both
the St. Louis region and the city of St.
Louis.

Finally, the St. Louis region is home to a

very high-quality workforce

Major Auto Assembly Location

St. Louis is second only to Detroit in
the number of cars assembled in this
country

Competitive Disadvantages of
Metal Manufacturing Cluster

Lagging National Growth

Workforce Shortage

Shortage of a qualified workforce is a major obstacle to the

growth of metal manufacturing in the St. Louis inner city

Inadequate Site Availability

Despite its connection to the strong automotive and

construction industries, metal manufacturing in ST Louis has
lagged national growth trends.

Most of the available land in ST Louis is small, fragmented

and costly to assemble

Difficult City Government

Recommendation

The cluster should develop a marketing which should:

Should take a more proactive role in attracting workers to the

field:

Enhance the visibility of St. Louis as a place of excellence in metal

manufacturing
Organize participation of metal manufacturers in national and
international marketing tours

Identify or create preparatory programs to enable inner-city residents to

improve basic skills before joining more advanced training programs
Link these preparatory programs to existing high-quality workforce
(machinist training programs)
Devise and launch a large-scale and continuous marketing campaign
promoting career opportunities

Pursue automotive supplier development opportunities, better

linking inner city companies to the regional automotive cluster.

Transportation and
Logistics
Competitive

Major asset
Strong growth

Competitive

advantage

Disadvantage

Workforce Shortages
Inadequate Road Infrastructure
Minimal Port Investment
Inadequate Site Availability

Recommendation:

Reassert the citys position as a transportation hub through

investments in inner city industrial land, road maintenance and key
assets such as the Port
Tap into the inner city labor pool to address labor shortages at the
port and in trucking and warehousing.

Construction
Competitive advantage
Major

asset
Strong growth

Competitive disadvantage
Labor

shortage

Recommendations:
Increase

construction training opportunities

targeted at inner city residents.
Support and expand on-going contracting and
partnering opportunities for inner city
companies in construction cluster.

Commercial Services
Consists of commercial printing, computer maintenance and Repair,
facilities maintenance, security, data processing and retrieval and
call Centers
Competitive Advantages
Significant Growth
Competitive Disadvantages
Labor Shortages
Opportunities
Initiate an industry-led effort to address call center workforce
shortages by setting up a St. Louis based call center training
program.
Pilot a strategic alliance model between well-established and
emerging commercial services companies

Cluster Overview

Current Situation
St. Louis was second only to Cleveland in its representation on the nationally
recognized ICIC. Inc. Magazine Inner City 100 list, with six honorees:

August Packaging -- CEO Daniel McSkimming notes that strategic location

is the primary reason why inner-city St. Louis is a competitive location for
his business.

Janitron -- Company partners John Boyce and Coby McGinty cite their
inner-city location to draw most of their 200 employees from the immediate
area or from a local bus route.

St. Louis Pre-Sort -- Owner Dan Francis relies on local programs to find
the workforce for his presort mail services business.

Titan Tube Manufacturers and Triad Manufacturing -- Managers at

these two companies find that though many of their workers may be
qualified and learn the trade quickly, they are unable to reach a suburban
location due to transportation barriers.

Wellington/CPM -- this minority-owned construction company is focused

on giving opportunities to inner-city students. CEO notes that more than half
of his employees are minorities and live in the inner city.

Thank You