The St. Louis Tax Increment Financing Commission advanced a proposal Wednesday from the Cortex tech district and a Washington University affiliate to redo the historic Crescent Building on Duncan Avenue.
Cortex and the Washington University real estate arm plan a $44 million rehab as labs with below-market rents for smaller tech companies outgrowing accelerator space in the Cortex district.
If approved by city aldermen, the 96,000 square-foot building would get about $5 million in TIF assistance from the larger TIF district set up to support Cortex's redevelopment efforts in the area just east of the BJC medical complex. TIF lets developers use the increased taxes they would pay to help finance the cost of construction.
The Crescent was built in 1930 as a Post-Dispatch printing plant.
