ST. LOUIS–The St. Louis region is among 21 areas nationally which will split $1 billion in federal grants to boost manufacturing, clean energy, biotech and other sectors, the Biden administration announced Friday.
An award of $25 million, spearheaded locally by Greater St. Louis Inc., will fund several projects and programs, highlighted by the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center, a 130,000 square foot facility to be built in the Vandeventer neighborhood just east of the Ranken Tech campus at Finney and Newstead in North St. Louis. The AMICSTL project will get $7 million in federal funding, on top of $5 million announced last week from Boeing.
“As a result of regional collaboration, St. Louis will now be home to a state-of-the-art facility and expandable campus that will drive diverse and equitable economic growth and elevate St. Louis as a global leader in advanced manufacturing and technological innovation,” said Dennis Muilenburg, Chair of AMICSTL. “This one-of-a-kind manufacturing epicenter will enable talent development, leading-edge research and development, and prototyping and production capacity that uniquely span and connect multiple high-tech industries in the region – including the aerospace, agtech, automotive, biomedical, construction, energy, geospatial, and logistics sectors.”
The goal of the project isn’t just to reinvest in North St. Louis, but also in residents in the area.
“Our babies can’t be what they can’t see. And imagine what they see, what they will see when this facility is built right in their backyard. Right in North St. Louis. They’ll have access to a world-class training facility right in their backyard. And in the words of President Biden, this a big freaking deal,” St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones told reporters Friday.
The winners were chosen from 529 initial applicants vying for grants that were part of last year's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. The Biden administration has repeatedly laid out a vision for the economy that is more self-sufficient and driven by high-tech manufacturing and the development of renewable energy.
"The whole point of this is we’re not going to let you get left behind as we transition to a more digital economy, to a more technical economy, to a green economy,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told The Associated Press. “People want to work where they live. People want to know there is a place for them in the changing economy.”
The grants include $65.1 million in California to improve farm production and $25 million for a robotics cluster in Nebraska. Georgia gets $65 million for artificial intelligence. There is $63.7 million for lithium-based battery development in New York. Coal counties in West Virginia would receive $62.8 million to help with the shift to solar power and find new uses for abandoned mines.
Also contained in the award for St. Louis:
$2.5M for Southwestern Illinois College’s Advanced Manufacturing Training Academy in Granite City.
$1M for Rung For Women, a program that prepares women for Advanced Manufacturing careers.
$3M for St. Louis Community College’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Training Center
$1M for the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Innovation Center at Cortex
City officials don’t yet have a timeline for when the AMICSTL project could open. It is unclear if more funding will be needed before the project moves forward.