ST. LOUIS 鈥 Businesses looking to be certified as minority- and women-owned will have to wait two months before submitting an application, as the function transfers to the city鈥檚 economic development arm.
The 最新杏吧原创 Development Corp. announced Thursday that the 最新杏吧原创 Lambert International Airport, also a city-run enterprise, will stop accepting new applications for women and minority ownership certification on Friday.
SLDC will not accept new applications until Aug. 30, it said.
SLDC chief Neal Richardson said the agency hopes the move will help 鈥渟mall and diverse businesses to launch, grow and sustain their operations,鈥 he said in a statement.
It also aligns with the city鈥檚 , he said.
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The change will impact 最新杏吧原创 County-based companies looking for minority and women ownership certification as well.
The county uses the airport to vet those companies. The county said earlier this week it was looking for ways to make the process 鈥渕ore efficient,鈥 including moving the certification process in-house, but had not made any decision.
SLDC said in its release that it was 鈥渨orking in partnership with 最新杏吧原创 County to support the certification of MWBEs鈥 interested in doing business in the 最新杏吧原创 region.
Obtaining minority ownership certification gives companies vying for city business a leg up, as both the city and county have rules requiring a certain percentage of public contracts go to minority- and women-owned firms. The process impacts contractors not owned by minorities or women, too, since they must often subcontract with minority firms if they hope to win work from local governments.
SLDC is tasked by ordinance with administering the city鈥檚 program, according to the agency. But the city has outsourced the functions to the airport for over a decade.
SLDC is seeking emergency authorization to buy software for the MWBE certification program under a three-year, $175,000 contract, and advertising for staff positions to administer it.
Staff there and elsewhere in the city have said there are too few minority contractors, particularly for construction projects, to handle the amount of work in the city.
Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said in an interview that the airport will continue to process the 60 or so pending applications through the end of the year. That could help cut down on the backlog, she said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of applications, because there鈥檚 a lot of work coming down the pike in the region,鈥 she said.
SLDC plans to house its minority certification program in its Northside Economic Empowerment Center, a business services center on Sumner High School鈥檚 campus in the Ville neighborhood of North 最新杏吧原创. The empowerment center location could make it easier for small businesses to obtain certification, Hamm-Niebruegge said.
鈥淚 think with everything Neal (Richardson) is doing with the empowerment center, it makes sense for the city to take (minority certification) back,鈥 she said.
The airport will continue to process applications needed for federal contract opportunities.
View life in 最新杏吧原创 through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
