Chesterfield Budget Doesn't Count on Outlet Malls

With the two competing outlet malls in Chesterfield Valley racing to open next August, the city of Chesterfield is holding off on forecasting any increased tax revenue from the developments in its 2013 budget. 

That budget predicts salex tax revenues will rise 3 percent. St. Louis Premium Outlets and Taubman Presitge Outlets are both projecting August 2013 openings, but Chesterfield City Manager Mike Herring said they aren't being added to those calculations quite yet. 

"We will start being able to quantify the impact of those developments in the latter part of the year and then make any adjustments for the following fiscal year," Herring said. 

The outlet malls could possibly mean hundrends of thousands in additional revenue for the city of Chesterfield, if they have the kind of success the developers are predicting. Taubman said they expect to bring in $175-200 million in yearly revenue while St. Louis Premium Outlets developer Simon Property Group is expecting something in the $140 million range. 

"We hope and trust that they will open, we hope and trust that they will be successful, and whether it's two, whether it's one, we want them to be very, very successful," Herring said. "We think they will have a signficant impact on our bottom line in terms of our budget."

Those big sales figures would have the largest impact on the Chesterfield 1/2-cent sales park tax and 1/2 cent capital improvement tax. The city keeps all of the revenue generated by the park tax and 80 percent of the funds from the capital improvement levy. 

Chesterfield also receives revenue for its general fund from the 1 percent St. Louis County sales tax. Chesterfield Mayor Bruce Geiger has been a vocal critic of the way that program shares revenue among municipalities in the area and said it would be a bad deal with the outlet malls as well. 

Using the example of one development generating $160 million in annual sales, Geiger said that would translate roughly to $1.6 million in additional revenue for the county. In a typical year, Geiger said the city only gets half of what it puts into this sales tax pool.