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ST. LOUIS — Several years back, civic leaders launched the new “STL Made� branding campaign. The tagline on the billboards and murals that dot the area: Start up, stand out, stay.

Jason Hall, one of the leaders behind the campaign, however, isn’t sticking around. He’s leaving Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Inc., the civic leadership and business organization he helped build and launch less than five years ago, to lead Columbus, Ohio’s version of the organization. His first day there is Monday. Dustin Allison, Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Inc.’s chief real estate investment officer, is serving as interim CEO.

In a region fractured by state, county and municipal boundaries, Hall became one of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™ most visible leaders, visiting communities from Wentzville to Mascoutah and touting job announcements at industries as varied as meatpacking plants and pharmaceutical labs.

A former lawyer at a big firm and state official under former Gov. Jay Nixon, Hall has worked for the last decade on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ economic development. He turned down a big job on the East Coast years ago to stay here and at one point sold his house to “deleverageâ€� as he took on the risk of building a philanthropic real estate fund, Arch to Park, that eventually became part of Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.

While he wasn’t actively looking to leave, the opportunity in Columbus — the fastest-growing city in the Midwest by population — was simply one he and his husband could not turn down when the recruiters called him about the open position there. But Hall, who has helmed Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Inc. since it formed in 2020, said he’s still bullish on his hometown. Civic boosterism for the region has increased in the last five years, he says, and Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Inc.’s efficacy is not “about any one person coming or going.â€�

“I’m as optimistic on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ as I’ve ever been,â€� Hall said in an interview Thursday. “I think this region needs to take stock of its gains.â€�

Hall maintains regionalism and a more focused approach from civic and business leaders helped ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ notch big wins since Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ combined several of the metro’s siloed economic development and business groups — the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Regional Chamber, Downtown STL Inc., business attraction office Alliance STL, and Civic Progress, the club of big company CEOs.

He points to major federal grants for an advanced manufacturing center and ICL’s new battery plant, both planned for north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, and the region’s first European flight in decades — Lufthansa Airlines’ route between ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and Frankfurt, Germany’s commercial hub. Boeing recently began a $1.8 billion expansion in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County, and a 1,300-job meatpacking plant is nearly complete on the edge of St. Charles County. Hall touted the region’s surprisingly strong increases in job and economic growth numbers and the small surge — albeit from a worryingly low baseline — in immigrant population growth.

In a region that bemoans the loss of its big headquarters, Hall points out it has added two recently — agribusiness giant Bunge and retail services firm Advantage Solutions. The region has built a network and launched training programs around geospatial technology to leverage the soon-to-open new western headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

“Regionalism can function, clearly, otherwise a lot of these things couldn’t have happened,� Hall said. “You don’t want to lose sight, because it is psychologically helpful, I think, to remember how far we’ve come in a very short period of time.�

As he heads for the exit, Hall said regional leaders should keep their eye on downtown. Downtown ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, like others around the country, has struggled to recover from the pandemic and a shift to remote work. Yet it was also singled out by which used ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ as a cautionary tale about the risk of a “doom loopâ€� of vacancy and fleeing businesses. As hard as it was to see downtown in that light on the front page of a national newspaper, it may ultimately help keep people engaged in trying to rebuild, Hall said.

“Sometimes you hear things too often and they lose their real meaning, that, you know, downtown is the face of the region where our reputation gets disproportionately affected,� he said. “I think that Wall Street Journal piece did remind people that’s actually true.�

Work was already underway to begin tackling some of downtown’s problems, he said, pointing to efforts to acquire the vacant Railway Exchange building and Millennium Hotel.

Yet Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™ push to put $100 million from of the NFL Rams relocation into downtown infrastructure has failed to win support from key city leaders. Hall said that’s fine, and the policy debate is ultimately helpful to keep the focus on downtown. He doesn’t see the city’s cool reception of the group’s plan turning off business leaders, who for the most part are “sophisticated stakeholders that understand there’s going to be a clash of ideas.â€�

That’s not to say the need isn’t real. The jobs downtown are based on talent, and employers won’t stay if the location becomes a liability to attracting top people, Hall said.

But everyone can participate in efforts to reinvigorate downtown, he said, whether it’s making a conscious effort to go to a restaurant there or attend an event.

“Everybody’s got a stake in it, and everybody can be a part of its success,� Hall said. “Not all of these have to be grand strategic actions.�

He cautioned that leaders not do too much “gear shifting.� Progress takes time and negative numbers sometimes will continue to show up even when the region is rowing in the right direction.

“Victory is not going to be parting the Red Sea,� Hall said. “It’s winning every day.�

When he and Enterprise Mobility Executive Chairman Andy Taylor launched Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Inc., the new group put a particular focus on the need to revitalize the city as the region’s urban core. Hall doesn’t expect that focus to change with his departure or if Taylor, who is in his mid-70s, steps down as Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ board chair.

“I think increasingly, from the rooms I’ve been in, people are understanding the regional role of downtown more and more,� he said.

He’s confident Greater ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is in a good place to continue that work. He wouldn’t have taken the job in Columbus if he thought otherwise.

“That team that we’ve built is amazing,� Hall said. “I mean, honestly, there is so much bench strength on that team today.�

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Board of Aldermen is still considering competing plans for use of the NFL Rams settlement money.