“If the site was properly prepared, via funds being provided by the city or whoever else, it would make an excellent industrial park,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any office demand at all.”

Bob Lewis, president and principal of Development Strategies, a consulting firm, said that if the spy agency goes to St. Clair County, the St. Louis site could still be set up as a corporate campus similar to those by Purina, Ameren and Wells Fargo at downtown’s fringe. He noted that the St. Louis site already has infrastructure in place.

“We have pipes in the ground, wires in the air and roads going places,” he said.

Getting the NGA to the site would produce spinoff residential development near downtown, Lewis said.

THE COST OF FREE LAND

The NGA relocation competition has been an exercise in one-upmanship by Missouri and Illinois leaders.

Last month, Missouri officials scrambled to match Illinois’ pledge to provide the NGA a headquarters site at no cost.

St. Louis had planned to sell its land to the government for about $14 million. The city decided to mortgage two city buildings to free $13 million to buy and assemble properties to present to the spy agency.