St. Louis extends security firm’s contract at new jobs hub

ST. LOUIS — City development officials agreed to extend a security company’s contract at a proposed workforce development facility.

The board of the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday agreed to provide Sentry Security Agency Inc. an additional $32,400 for 24-hour security services at the former Killark Electric site in north St. Louis, where city officials plan to open a workforce center. 

Tuesday’s approval extends Sentry’s contract through June. The company’s previous contract, valued at $116,022, ran from October 2023 to April of this year, said officials with the St. Louis Development Corp., which staffs the LCRA board.

In October, the city acquired the 150,000-square-foot industrial site, at 3940 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, to turn into a workforce training hub for manufacturing jobs.

Officials are naming it The Monarch on MLK. 

St. Louis Development Corp., which is overseeing efforts there, has received interest from private organizations to move there when it opens sometime next year, said Neal Richardson, head of SLDC. The St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment and the Land Reutilization Agency also plan to move there, he said. 

Peter Phillips, vice president at SLDC, said Sentry is providing security services at the site until the agency’s contract with a new security provider is implemented in June. He said there were delays in getting GardaWorld Security Services Management Co. under contract.

Sentry provided security at the site before the city took over ownership but didn’t win the new contract. 

The LCRA board approved GardaWorld’s contract, worth up to $310,000 to provide around-the-clock security, late last year. 

Also on Tuesday, the LCRA board approved 15 years of tax abatement, worth $155,000, for Lutheran Development Group’s plan to turn a vacant former St. Louis Public Schools building into affordable housing.

The roughly $22 million project aims to renovate the former Baden School, on Halls Ferry Road, into 51 apartments. Lutheran Development said the project would add one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in north St. Louis.

The apartments would be available for a couple earning $40,200, or 50% of area median income, or less. 

The city is expected to earn $232,000 in new revenue over 20 years; St. Louis Public Schools is projected to receive $155,000.