Environmental Operations Buys Queeny from Solutia

Stacy Hastie, chairman and chief executive officer of Environmental Operations Inc. (EOI), has reached an agreement with Solutia to purchase the former Monsanto/Solutia Queeny Plant on South Third Street, just south of Downtown St. Louis and east of the Soulard neighborhoo, and will return the 33-acre site to productive use.

Environmental Operations will purchase the property from Solutia for $1 million and complete an estimated $4 to $5 million of environmental remediation, demolition and site work.

The property is between Third Street on the west, the Missouri Pacific Railroad on the east, Barton on the south and Lesparance Street on the north. This part of the City's industrial riverfront has long been underutilized, Hastie said.

Hastie worked two years to facilitate a deal that would clean up the property and pave the way for a mixed-use development on the site. He will prepare the property for development, stressing that Environmental Operations is an environmental consulting and demolition firm, not a developer and will not become a developer. Hastie has worked with Green Street Properties to come up with the proposed development plan for this site. "We expect to work with other developers, such as McEagle, Clayco, Gundaker, Opus and others, on similar deals in the future," Hastie said.

Remediation on the site is expected to begin by June and should take about a year to complete. Environmental Operations should complete enough work within the next six months to allow for some preconstruction to begin. Current development plans anticipate use as a green office park.

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