Maybe the City Manager and Perrillo could take a quick drive down Manchester Road to the former Town and Country Walmart and see how that worked out for that community.
On the way back to Ellisville, stop in at the Manchester Police Department. Ask them how their resources are spent now that they have a Walmart Super Center.
You do not have to go far to do a lot of research!

"The fact of the matter is, it’s over, it’s done and we need to move on," he said.

We've heard that before...

"The voters are unhappy with how things have gone, and I think it’s an opportunity for a fractured community to start coming together and be a strong community."

We came together last night over the suspension of Mayor Paul...Does he mean like that?

A full Council Chamber and many, many people stuck in the hallway (including the press) where they couldn't hear anything because the speakers weren't turned on.

I agree. Walmart is a bottom line corporation. They come in, get tax incentives, then move on when a more lucrative tax deal comes around. They are smart business people. Two risks happen to a community when this happens. First, they build their city budget on the 'temporary' tax base. Then, Walmart moves out and budgets must be cut dramatically as the tax base is eroded. And, everyone will act surprised and dumbfounded when this happens! They give a false sense of financial security to cities. Next, you will be left with an empty development like Town and Country. That is not unique to Town and Country.
Thinking, or believing, Walmart will solve a financial problem for a city or be a windfall for a municipality is very short-sided.
Was this worth the turmoil and bruised reputation that Ellisville now has?

And what would you propose goes into the vacant auto dealerships as an alternative to Walmart? Frankly I am tired of driving by this Ellisville eyesore for well over a year. Also the situation is getting worse as the Mercedes Dealership, the Shoe Store, Blockbuster, etc. etc. etc. get ready to flee Ellisville. The anti Walmart crowd has no alternative. It's time to get the Ellisville Walmart up and operating so we can turn this situation around.

Too bad! All this deal will do is put other stores out of business so that Walmart will make more money. And think of all those underpaid employees who won't be given full time hours ( this saves Walmart more money ). I haven't talked to one Ellisville resident or business who wants Walmart here! Not one!

Pirrello, Paul Martin, and the other would-be oligarchs will be learning quite a bit about accountibility in the near future. You can't treat your constituents as cattle and expect to have a long a fruitful political career (and yes... I consider the way Paul Martin has acted is classified as politics).

The residents are fully engaged now. The house cleaning is coming...

"And what would you propose goes into the vacant auto dealerships as an alternative to Walmart?"
This is the real question to be asked! Having lived in the area for 46 years, (22yrs in Ellisville), I can tell you that hoping for anything but commercial development at one of the busiest intersections in St. Louis is just a waste of time. If my memory serves, the sight was home to oil/fuel storage and a driving range through the 60s and 70s, so hoping for a park seems a little silly. The sight is currently an eyesore and it is just a matter of time before it is redeveloped.

Everyone seems to think that there are businesses clamoring to get into Ellisville. I must be missing where that long line is. All I see are more Ellisville businesses closing and more empty buildings and empty spaces. Manchester Road in Ellisville looks like a suburban ghetto with so many businesses shuttered and spaces sitting vacant.

I understand no one likes Walmart for a litany of reasons but I haven't heard a single person vocalize what businesses are going in the plethora of empty retail space in Ellisville. Not one. Anyone???? And if "it's a matter of time" before Manchester and Clarkson (supposedly one of the busiest intersections in the county) are redeveloped...where are the plans? Where are these "matter of time" businesses rushing in to redevelop. There's a lot of upscale housing out here so you have to ask yourself...why aren't businesses rushing in? Why did we have to "settle" for a Walmart? So, can anyone state what businesses are rushing in to take the corner of Manchester and Clarkson? How about the Best Buy building? Gordman's? Ginghams?

Maybe we can put in a few more gun shops along Manchester Road. The one next to the liquor store next to the Chuckie Cheese is at least a mile from the one by Imos.

Interesting that Pirello is now interested in economic development. Wasn't he the Mayor for six years prior to joining the council? How many businesses closed while he was in office? I agree with the other comments, businesses are not flocking to Ellisville. Manchester Road looks terrible.
If you read the papers, watch television, or listen to the radio, you would know that Ellisville is in turmoil. Why would you open up a business in that environment? You can go a few miles west to Wildwood where development is appreciated and well thought out.

Matt Pirrello aka shawn k.- you are such an sociapath. You only ran for office to support your contractor business which is now failing. You are damaged goods.

Why is it that the Council has the votes to remove a duly elected sitting Mayor, but apparently does not have the votes to simply override his opposition?

What is it about what is going on in our City Government that Pirrello, Murray, Anglin, and Pieper have planned with their current 4-3 majority on any City Council business that is so important that they not lose that control at any cost - even the destruction of the city's reputation, the respect for the voters that elected both Mayor Paul *and* them, and the use of the Charter to wipe their collective posteriors with as they flush the Office of Mayor down the drain?

What is buried in the past resolutions and ordinances that puts something so important at risk when Murray, Anglin, and Pieper are no longer on the council?

And if they have acted in such a manner, in the name of the city, why have the people not been informed of any such future commitments? Could it be some future personal payment for "services rendered"? I believe that is called corruption and bribery. I'm pretty sure that's not allowed in the Charter, and is far, far, more egregious than Mayor Paul dropping a few f-bombs in a closed meeting, failing to ask the City Manager's permission to eject a disruptive attendee at City Council meetings which, by Charter, he is charged with maintaining order, drinking from a thermos, asking for letterhead, or any of the other trivial "violations" Mayor Paul is "alleged" to have committed.

To ShawnK whose comments have now been deleted???

>>>Our city leaders need to stand firm and make sure that every development that happens is planned through, not just for today and five years from now, but for twenty-five years from now (i.e. what if Walmart does decide to move out in the future?).<<<

Too bad for us....The City Council didn't require a demolition bond or fund with the deal. (Brilliant negotiation on the part of the City, no? I often wonder who was responsible for overlooking that pesky "demolition bond/fund" detail...Martin, Bookout, Hood, Pirrello?...All of the above?

The City would have to sue Walmart in court to get the building demolished. That's what Walmart Atty. Bushyhead said in the Conditional Use Permit Public Hearing in response to my question about that very issue.

As long as Walmart, who will build and own the building, pays ground lease to Sansone even if the building is vacant, it stands indefinitely...until it falls down...that is unless the City is successful in a law suit to have it demolished...and what are the chances of that?

We know Walmart continues to pay ground lease on vacant stores all over the country so no other retailer can get a foot hold in some locations.

Municipalities have a difficult time getting the spaces filled at all. Occasionally a few turn into libraries or storefront churches.

There's a website with hundreds of pictures of the abandoned hulks.

Speaking of >>>abandoned hulks<<<...How ya doin' E?...This is so easy.

I suspect that should an Ellisville Walmart ever be built, it will go dark sooner rather than later. They're finding much of the landscape can't support supers stores anymore. They have three stores just within a few miles. With this kind of saturation, they are likely just cannibalizing the sales of their existing stores.

Walmart won't close the store in the Valley or the monster at Manchester and 141 or leave Eureka which is fully captured.. Ellisville will go dark first...once they've run competing retailers out of business. Shoppers like Tired of KJames and little mike k, addicted to cheap Chinese crap will still be driving to one of those three stores.

And then there's this --

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/07/could-walmarts-big-box-stores-disappear-in-our-lifetime/

>>>Walmart's Future Rides on This

Walmart has two strikes already -- it can't compete online and is struggling globally. Now the only real opportunity for the retailer to continue to grow is through its Express stores.

It's up to Walmart's leadership team to step up to the plate. If they whiff on accepting the Express store model as the main driver of growth, John Rand's prediction might be even more prophetic -- and Walmart will disappear altogether.

Since they can't compete on-line, the trend in "show rooming" will hit them too.

Since the Walmart planned for Ellisville is bigger than our existing Home Depot, it should provide one huge hulking eyesore well into the future...courtesy of the current City Council that wasn't smart enough to insert a demolition bond/fund into the deal and will waste more taxpayer dollars in court trying to get the building torn down...if some future City Council even bothers.

That will look just great sitting directly across from City Hall.

little mike k,

The girls and I can always lose weight. Short of a personality transplant, you will never change.

Have they perfected those yet?

If calling women “fat” is the only arrow you have in your political quiver, try harder.

Do some homework. Read an article.

You come off looking like the playground bully rather than the supposedly sophisticated race car driving, millionaire, “villa” residing, chess playing, high IQ, “retired gentleman persona” you so desperately attempted to cultivate…and this is Ellisville…not Ladue or Town and Country...so, no one cares anyway…

Playground bully is not an attractive image for a man who is 60+ years old and a former executive at Mallinckrodt.

Ah well, I am not your mother.

But I imagine your entire family is looking for a rather large rock to hide under about now.

(Retort posted on behalf of women...everywhere...)

Try not to feed the trolls.

Pirrello is going to destroy Wildwood and Ballwin with his great street agendas. He is forcing his plans down our mouths and he will do the same to those towns. Tim Pogue &Tim Woerther are letting him run lead on the project but they will find out too late that it is a mistake. Watch out Wildwood and Ballwin Pirrello's purgatory is coming to town!!