2 days Ago By By Austin Huguelet St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Mayor Cara Spencer is recommending a familiar face as her first director of the city’s high-profile development arm: Otis Williams, who led St. Louis Development Corp.
from 2013-2021. The board of the St. Louis Development Corp.
is set to take up a resolution Thursday morning naming Williams as interim chief. He would replace Neal Richardson, who has led SLDC for the past four years under former Mayor Tishaura O. Jones.
Even before she was sworn in, Spencer singled out the SLDC as one of the agencies where she wanted to see new leadership. She had served on SLDC’s board as an alderman but, as her mayoral campaign heated up, later resigned over what she said was concern with Richardson’s management of the organization in the wake of the troubled rollout of a north St. Louis grant program .
Tapping Williams would put an experienced hand at the helm as Spencer works to find a permanent leader. He spent 22 years at the agency, which manages state-created agencies that buy and sell real estate, helps grant developers tax breaks and finances some of the biggest projects in the metro area. Among his accomplishments: helping to establish the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's new western headquarters in the city, a $1.
7 billion project. He didn’t want to say much when reached Tuesday evening, noting that SLDC's board still has to approve his nomination. “Never count your chickens before the eggs hatch,” he said.
Neither Richardson nor a spokesman for SLDC could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday evening..
