A free, 80-page guide aimed at helping minority- and women-owned businesses break into St. Louis's construction industry has arrived at a pivotal moment for the city program meant to support them. Mission Realty Advisors released the online toolkit, called “Build With Purpose,” as St. Louis faces an end-of-year deadline to renew its minority contracting program, which includes a sunset clause that would end it on Dec. 31 if no action is taken.
A Toolkit Built for a Tight Deadline
Mission Realty Advisors says the guide offers a starting point for minority- and women-owned businesses seeking local construction and development contracts, covering certification, financing, bonding, insurance and bidding, according to stlamerican.com. On its website, the organization describes the resource as “a practical guide for MWBEs and general contractors committed to building our workforce and our capacity for a stronger, St. Louis,” per Mission Realty Advisors. The tool also identifies the benefits of certification and includes information on insurance, bonding, and the importance of minority and women participation in construction, as reported by STLtoday.com.
St. Louis uses its minority contracting program to verify qualifying businesses and allow them to compete for government contracts, construction work and other deals carrying participation requirements, per STLtoday.com's reporting. The St. Louis Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise program aims to level the playing field for traditionally disadvantaged businesses, requiring contractors to make good-faith efforts to hire minority- or women-owned subcontractors to perform an assigned percentage of work. Companies must be certified as minority- or woman-owned to qualify for work under the subcontracting program, and private developments in St. Louis city receiving tax incentives must use certified minority firms.
The Program's Shaky Timeline
St. Louis amended the program last year to withstand legal challenges after the Trump administration threatened to pull funding for diversity initiatives, the outlet's reporting states. That earlier bill, which governs the current sunset clause, was sponsored by Alderwoman Jami Cox Antwi. The St. Louis Board of Aldermen Minority Caucus plans to file and pass legislation extending the contracting program before the board's final session of the year on Dec. 11, according to the same account.
Cox Antwi said she will meet with stakeholders and the public about the bill after it is filed, and said the city's disparity study found a need for the program to continue. That 2024 study, conducted by Keen Independent Research, found that from 2016 through 2021 MBE/WBE firms received about 29% of city contract dollars, well below the 43% that would have been expected based on their availability in the market, according to the City of St. Louis Contract Disparity Study Report. On city contracts not covered by the M/WBE program, the gap was even wider — MBE/WBE firms received just 19% of dollars against 52% availability, the report found. The study recommended considering a contract-specific construction goals program and expanding participation requirements to professional services contracts.
Certification and Oversight Across the Region
Separately, the city resumed issuing M/WBE certification in September 2025, after Mayor Cara Spencer signed Executive Order 91 to restore the process under what her office described as a strong legal framework, according to the City of St. Louis. The St. Louis Development Corp. oversees minority certification and compliance for the entire bistate region, per STLtoday.com, and certifies 1,225 businesses in the St. Louis metro area as minority- or woman-owned, per the outlet's cited statistics. The agency also monitors roughly $2.8 billion worth of regional projects through the disadvantaged business program, the report states. Other paths to certification exist too: both the Missouri Department of Transportation and the federal Small Business Administration run their own certification programs.
Through its CertifySTL program, the St. Louis Development Corporation requires that a qualifying owner actively oversee daily operations and control at least 51% of the business, according to St. Louis Development Corporation. Certified businesses are asked to verify they remain in good standing on each anniversary of their certification, and the agency says the certification process itself can take three to six months.
Mixed Results in the County, and Elsewhere in the Region
St. Louis County's own figures from 2024 show a similar unevenness: minority-owned firms received 14% of spending on completed projects, below the county's 24% annual participation goal, while women-owned businesses received 32%, exceeding their 9.5% goal, stlamerican.com reported. The county also reported that $21.2 million, or 45.3% of the value of 13 construction contracts awarded that year, was committed to minority- and women-owned businesses combined — though commitments do not necessarily mean the money had already been paid out. At the Refuge & Restoration Marketplace redevelopment in Dellwood, minority- and women-owned businesses accounted for 80% of contractor participation and their workers made up 70% of the labor force, against a project goal of 100% participation.
Industry Voices on Timing and Opportunity
Chantal Ogbeifun said minority-owned businesses have opportunities to grow as the region faces an aging workforce and labor shortages, with construction leaders expecting billions of dollars in construction over the next decade, according to STLtoday.com. Ogbeifun added that the tool's ultimate vision is a stronger construction industry with equitable opportunities for all qualified St. Louis businesses to compete and contribute to regional economic development.
Tom Finan, co-founder and executive director of Construction Forum, a local industry workforce nonprofit, said the toolkit provides good information for people seeking to enter the field. Finan said more work could still be done to help minority businesses grow, but added that the region is at a moment with substantial momentum for systems change, per the outlet's reporting.
