Pouring Money Into a Hole in the Ground

Yesterday, members of the Columbia Rotary Club and guests toured the Rock City complex under development beneath the limestone bluffs in Valmeyer. Facility developer Joe Koppeis, the owner of Columbia's Market Place supermarket and Admiral Parkway Inc., conducted the tour. Attendees agreed that this is one project where the phrase "pouring money into a hole in the ground" is accurately descriptive rather than pejorative.

Koppeis' project is huge, one of the largest enterprises ever undertaken on this side of the Mississippi, yet it has progressed largely out of mind because it is out of sight. Rock City's cave network--carved out of the bluffs using a former Monroe County lime quarry as the starting point--has the potential to expand to nearly 6 million square feet. The complex already houses the Mid America Refrigerated Warehouse, a 200,000 square-foot underground frozen food warehouse and office. The space in this portion of the complex is cooled in separate chambered rooms to range from 35 degrees above to 15 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Mid America stores and ships products for Schwan’s, Nestle, Ralston, Prairie Farms, Kraft, the US Department of Agriculture, and Wal-Mart--just to name a few.

The latest and most visible addition to the complex is the $52-million project relocating the National Archives from their existing South St. Louis facility. The federal agency has leased almost 400,000 square feet for records storage, adjunct office space, furnishings and equipment. This space, when completed, will enclose thousands of metal shelves containing hundreds of thousands of boxes holding paper records--a file collection reminiscent of the closing scene in the X-Files movie.