Financial life in a big town

If your wallet gets stolen or you’ve been caught up in a data breach — as in April, when hackers grabbed 1.5 million credit card numbers — you can protect against identity theft by contacting one of the big three credit bureaus, which are required by law to place a fraud alert on your report.

But dealing with the credit bureaus isn’t easy. A recent Federal Trade Commission report found major complaints about Equifax, Experian and TransUnion included long waits to reach live help, failure to send required free credit reports, and unwelcome sales pitches for monitoring services.

Placing a fraud alert also suffices when identity theft is just a possibility.

If identity theft a reality, though — say, someone’s using your credit card — take stronger measures, such as freezing your credit.

Check your financial health

A monitoring service may also make sense, but hold off on signing up when notifying a credit bureau.

"Don’t make a decision when you’re at your most fearful," says FTC attorney Tony Rodriguez.

Identity thefts tops list of consumer complaints

One alternative: Insurers including MetLife offer a year of free monitoring for homeowners and auto insurance customers.

Identity theft victims get spotty help

Was it easy to reach a live person at credit bureaus?*

61%: Yes

36%: No

Did the bureaus give you a free credit report?

51%: Yes

11%: No

33%: Some did

Did you get a notice of your ID theft victim rights?

45%: Yes

27%: No

* "Don’t remember or not sure" responses omitted.

Source: Federal Trade Commission "Using FACTA Remedies" report, March 2012.

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European markets bounced back from early losses on news that the 17-country eurozone has narrowly dodged recession, thanks mainly to strong growth in Germany, though concerns persisted that Greece’s political impasse could eventually force it to leave the currency bloc.

Official EU statistics showed the eurozone economy was flat in the first quarter compared with the previous three-month period, better than the 0.2 percent drop that analysts had been expecting. A drop would have put the eurozone technically back into recession, which is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

“In the current context, zero growth in the eurozone in the first quarter is relatively good news,” said Marie Diron, senior economic adviser at Ernst & Young. “It suggests that the economy is not falling off a cliff under the burden of fiscal austerity.”

Growth of 0.5 percent in Germany helped offset recessions in seven countries, including large economies like Spain and Italy. But such imbalances remain a worrying weakness in the eurozone. The most fragile economies are also those that are enacting the most punishing austerity measures to lower debt. The result is a currency union in which countries’ economic paths are diverging.

After earlier losses, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent to 5,474 while Germany’s DAX was up 0.3 percent at 6,472 and France’s CAC-40 added 0.7 percent to 3,080. The euro was up 0.2 percent at $1.2852.

Wall Street was headed for a higher opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures rising 0.6 percent to 12,731 while S&P 500 futures adding 0.6 percent to 1,341.50.

The outlook for the eurozone remains darkened by the political crisis in Greece, where party leaders were struggling for a ninth day to form a coalition government.

No party won an outright majority in the May 6 election, causing an impasse that has raised questions about Greece’s ability to stay in the eurozone. Power-sharing efforts have failed so far after the left-wing Syriza party, which came second in the vote, insisted that the draconian terms of Greece’s financial rescue agreements be scrapped or rewritten short term personal loans.

More talks will be held Tuesday, but hopes for a deal are low and expectations are increasing that the country will have to hold new elections. With polls showing increasing support for Syriza, analysts expect a showdown between whatever new government comes to power in Greece and the country’s bailout rescuers.

“The exit of Greece from the single currency has become probable. Not so long ago it was impossible,” analysts at DBS Bank said.

Looking ahead, investors will keep an eye on U.S. economic indicators for inflation, retail sales and surveys on manufacturing due later in the day. The recovery in the world’s largest economy has been tentative, with employment gains uneven, though corporate earnings have been mostly upbeat. Investors will be searching for signs of strength that might offset the turmoil in Europe and weakening growth in Asia, particularly China.

Asian markets fell earlier on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 0.8 percent to 8,900.74, its lowest close since Feb. 3. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.8 percent to 1,898.96. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.7 percent to 4,266.30.

Mainland Chinese shares extended their losses, with the Shanghai Composite Index hitting another three-month low, losing 0.2 percent to 2,374.90. But Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which some analysts said was oversold after more than a week of losses, rebounded 0.8 percent to 19,894.31.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 2 cents to $94.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.35 to settle at $94.78 in New York on Friday.

In currencies, the dollar rose to 79.92 yen from 79.86 yen late Monday in New York.

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Energy developer Tenaska Inc. has worked since 2007 to win legislative backing for a next-generation coal-fueled power plant southeast of Springfield. A key selling point was that the project would give a lift to the downstate coal-mining industry.

But Tenaska has failed to get a bill pushed through the General Assembly in the face of opposition from a coalition of business and environmental interests.

Now, with the clock ticking on another legislative session, the company is taking a new tack: It’s proposing to proposing to ditch coal for natural gas.

The new strategy, which has yet to be formalized, is part concession to political reality and part acknowledgement of the U.S. shale gas revolution that’s upended energy markets.

“We thought about it a long time and made a proposal that meets all of the objections that have been raised,” said Bart Ford, a Tenaska vice president.

As originally envisioned, the project would have transformed Illinois coal into a synthetic gas and burned that gas to produce electricity. The technology would allow much of the carbon dioxide and other pollutants from coal to be stripped out before combustion.

Under the new proposal, hatched during a meeting in Springfield earlier this week, Tenaska would move ahead only with the part of the plant that would burn natural gas for electricity. It could seek to add the coal-gasification unit later if market conditions warrant, Ford said.

Whatever the outcome in Springfield, Tenaska’s strategy shift is the latest evidence of the seismic shift taking place in energy markets.

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies that opened up more of the country to natural gas drilling and vastly expanded domestic natural gas production has had a huge impact on the price of the fuel, which remains at around $2.50 per thousand cubic feet — the lowest level since 2002.

The drop in gas prices has led utilities to increasingly embrace natural gas at the expense of coal and made projects to convert coal into gas, which were already a tough sell to policy makers and lenders, practically impossible.

With natural gas at $2.50, “coal gasification doesn’t make sense,” said Ed Rubin, a professor in engineering and public policy department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. For the foreseeable future, “gas is going to the fuel of choice”

Tenaska’s proposed modification would shave off about two thirds of the project’s original $3.5 billion price tag. That would limit the impact on average residential utility customers to about 60 cents a month.

The proposal being floated in Springfield would also cap rate increases for commercial utility customers at one-tenth cent per kilowatt-hour. Previously filed legislation to advance Tenaska’s coal-gasification plant offered no such guarantees.

Tenaska says the project would not only create thousands of jobs, it would help offset what are projected to be significant electricity price increases in coming years.

There’s already evidence that electricity prices in northern Illinois will jump considerably beginning in 2014 as older, less efficient coal plants are mothballed because they can’t compete economically in an era of cheap natural gas and tougher environmental regulations.

But despite an outlook for higher power prices, Tenaska says it still needs legislation that would require utilities to buy the plant’s output for the next 30 years. That’s because Wall Street otherwise won’t finance a large new power plant in a deregulated state like Illinois unless it has a long-term agreement to sell the output. And such agreements aren’t possible with Illinois’ power procurement rules.

The Citizens Utility Board, a Chicago-based consumer group, supported previous legislation to advance the coal gasification plant because it capped maximum rate increases for residential customers and small businesses.

Jim Chilsen, a CUB spokesman, said the group is still reviewing Tenaska’s modified proposal, and that its support generally hinges on a cap on any rate increases.

The STOP Coalition — a group that includes power generator Exelon Corp., business and environmental interests that galvanized to fight the Taylorville project legislation — issued a statement indicating it hasn’t yet formed a position on Tenaska’s new proposal.

“When details of the proposal emerge, we will look at it with the goal of ensuring customers aren’t subject to unnecessary rate increases,” the group said.

Ford doesn’t necessarily believe opponents will change their stance. But he said it’s important to show legislators that the company responded to all of the objections in an effort to form consensus.

He also said it’s important for Tenaska to get the legislation approved before the legislative session ends on May 31. The company is close to an agreement needed to interconnect with the power grid and already has an air permit needed to move forward.

“The clock is ticking,” he said.

Only a few years ago, Illinois was positioned for the first wave of coal gasification plants, including Tenaska’s Taylorville Energy Center.

Peabody Energy Corp., the world’s largest private-sector coal producer, announced efforts in 2005 to pursue a coal-gasification project in Illinois with ArcLight Capital Partners in response to what it deemed “scarce U.S. natural gas” supplies.

The Department of Energy-sponsored FutureGen project was proposed by President George W. Bush.

But “none of them have come to fruition,” said Phil Gonet, head of the Illinois Coal Association.

Gonet said Tenaska’s plan to move ahead with only part of the Taylorville project “reflects the reality” that cheap natural gas is hurting the coal industry. But he’d rather see part of the Taylorville plant built — and perhaps converted later to run on Illinois coal — than for the plant to not get built at all.

“Is it a setback for coal? yeah. But I wouldn’t call it a major setback,” Gonet said.

St. Louis-based Peabody said it still sees coal-to-gas technology as viable longer term in the U.S., but wouldn’t move any such projects to the “front burner” until natural gas move higher. The company is also optimistic about the potential to convert its coal reserves into transportation fuels, spokesman Vic Svec said.

Rubin said it remains to be seen whether the energy industry’s bet on cheap natural gas is a smart one. The country leaned heavily on natural gas a decade ago, and the plan backfired.

Meanwhile, development of technology to convert coal to gas is still advancing in other parts of the world. 

“China is where the action is,” he said.

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The cell phone capacity problem is getting bigger by the day, but one potential solution has wireless carriers thinking smaller — way smaller.

As smartphone and tablet usage soars, the giant cell towers that mobile devices communicate with are getting overloaded. As a result, cell phone companies have begun to get behind the idea of "small cells": tiny antennas that you can hold in your hand.

Small cells make much more efficient use than traditional towers of carriers’ increasingly precious wireless spectrum. The low-powered devices can cut back on interference, improve cell reception indoors and become Wi-Fi hotspots to offload traffic from cramped cellular networks.

Such spectrum-maximizing tricks are becoming increasingly important as mobile traffic booms. By 2016, more than half of the Internet’s traffic will come from mobile devices, and 71% of that will be big video files, according to Cisco’s (, Fortune 500) latest Mobile Visual Networking Index, the industry’s most comprehensive annual study.

Carriers would typically handle that growth by adding new cell towers or more radios to existing towers. But that’s an expensive process, and many metropolitan areas are now so packed with towers that new ones would be riddled with interference concerns.

"That has major implications for how you build out mobile infrastructure," said Murali Nemani, head of service provider marketing for Cisco. "The rationale behind small cells has a lot to do with this perfect storm that is brewing."

Echoing Apple’s proclamation of a "post-PC" world, Cisco CEO John Chambers said last month that we are entering a "post-macrocell era."

Telecom analysts agree. Small cells will make up 90% of total cell tower deployments by 2015, Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey predicts.

One of the main selling points is their low cost. The revenue generated by small cell infrastructure sales will make up just 5% of the total revenue from base station sales, Jeffrey estimates, even as small cells grow to dominate the market.

They also offer greater flexibility. Wi-Fi is a potent tool for fighting the spectrum crunch — carriers can use it to offload traffic from their cell networks — but today’s networks can be painfully tricky to use. Customers have to seek out a network, remember their credentials, and manually sign in.

Cisco’s small cells use a new "passpoint" standard, certified by the industry-governing Wi-Fi Alliance, that allows carriers to automatically sign their customers in to hotspots. The technology is expected to be released this summer. One day soon, you could walk into a mall with your iPhone and be switched to your carrier’s Wi-Fi network without even knowing it.

The carriers aren’t touting the technology just yet — Verizon (, Fortune 500), Sprint (, Fortune 500) and AT&T (, Fortune 500) all declined to comment for this article about their small-cell investments — but they’re all in various stages of deploying it.

AT&T recently won approval from Palo Alto, Calif., city officials for a significant test project throughout the city. Verizon’s top network planning executive said at a conference last year that the carrier will use small cells to help manage its network capacity, while Sprint recently partnered with small cell hardware maker AirWalk Communications.

Cisco is just one of many mobile infrastructure providers hoping to get on the bandwagon. Alcatel-Lucent (), Powerwave () and others are promoting their own small cells, each with a different feature set.

Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio, introduced last year, is a cube that fits in the palm of your hand and can be fastened to the top of lamp posts or placed on the sides of buildings. The company is developing several new devices, based on lightRadio, that will bring coverage indoors and be capable of sending both 3G and 4G signal simultaneously.

Powerwave’s small cells are able to plug into an ethernet connection and broadcast a carrier’s signal. They are also designed to blend in to their surroundings so they don’t become an eyesore in places like office buildings or stadiums.

"There is a huge opportunity coming," said Juan Santiago, head of Powerwave’s product management. "No one wants a giant cell tower in their backyard." 

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Economists have lots of ideas about what can be done to help jumpstart the still weak economy, but they don’t expect Congress to enact any of them any time soon.

A survey of economists by CNNMoney found most don’t expect Congress to pass any kind of economic assistance anytime in the foreseeable future. Only about a third of the 16 who responded to the survey expect some kind of action early in 2013, after the election. Just one expects action in a lame-duck session after the election but before the end of the year. None of them expect action before the election.

"Two weeks after a sudden freeze in hell," is when Bill Watkins, of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at Cal Lutheran University, expects Congress to ride to the rescue.

Watkins and his colleagues are the most concerned of those surveyed about the recent weakness in a number of economic readings, including much weaker-than-expected job growth in the March jobs report. They were the only ones who checked the very concerned box.

Another five economists said they were somewhat concerned, but six said they were only a little concerned, and four said they were not concerned at all.

Policies they would like to see passed include comprehensive tax reform, which was endorsed nearly unanimously. Those surveyed were allowed to endorse as many options as they thought would help the economy.

America’s biggest tax breaks

Tax reform would likely lower tax rates for both corporations and individuals, but eliminate many deductions and loopholes. The concept has been endorsed by everyone from President Obama to his likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney, but working out the details in a partisan atmosphere strikes economists as out of reach.

"Comprehensive tax reform would be great, but highly unlikely," said David Wyss, a fellow at Brown University.

Also getting the support of most economists is some extension of the Bush tax cuts, although they split on whether it should be for all taxpayers or if the extension should exclude high-income taxpayers.

Another third support another extension of the partial payroll tax holiday that has been in effect since the start of 2011 and runs through the end of this year.

"The pace of economic growth is too tepid to allow for the simultaneous expiration of the tax policies at the end of 2012," said Sean Snaith, economics professor at the University of Central Florida.

The survey also found 40% support repealing the health care reform and about a quarter would like to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial services reform.

"The uncertainty imparted on the economy by both Dodd-Frank and health care reforms are black clouds over the private sector and they both need to be reworked into more moderate forms," said Snaith.

Some believe that the economy will be better off if Congress does as little as possible.

How Congress is killing the recovery

"There was a time in this recent period where the economy benefited from the assistance of government actions, but now it is time for the government sector to resume its place on the sidelines," said Russell Price of Ameriprise Financial. Price would like to see an extension of the tax cuts for all but upper income households along with comprehensive tax reform.

The economists surveyed forecast only modest growth and hiring for the rest of this year. 

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After one of the fastest and steepest runups in recent memory, it’s possible gasoline prices may have peaked.

Retail gas prices fell more than half a cent Friday to a nationwide average just above $3.90 a gallon, according to AAA, continuing a decline started late last week that has shaved almost 4 cents off the price of gas.

The decline mirrors a moderate drop in crude oil prices, which account for roughly 70% of the cost of gas.

Crude prices have fallen for a few reasons, but the biggest is Iran’s decision to negotiate over its nuclear program.

Gas spending and prices by state

"All of the bad things we were really worried about don’t look like they will happen," said Kevin Lindemer, an independent energy consultant that has worked for Irving Oil and Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "If we have an uneventful summer, there’s nothing fundamental that should cause prices to go much higher."

But having an uneventful summer is still a big if.

Iran could walk out of the nuclear negotiations — beginning Saturday in Istanbul — at any time. A hurricane could hit the Gulf of Mexico. Protests could again rock the Middle East.

But barring a big event, it appears the world is adequately supplied with crude oil.

"Oil prices should fall," said Chris Lafakis, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. "That should provide a tail wind for the economy."

As tensions ease with Iran, markets become less fearful of a major disruption in oil supplies. Iran, after all, has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

But there are other factors pushing down oil prices as well.

Saudi Arabia: Assurances from Saudi Arabia that the country stands ready to cover any loss of oil from Iran due to tightening sanctions appears to have calmed markets.

The economy: A weaker jobs report from the United Sates last week and growing fears of a slowdown in China are tempering demand projections. High prices and better fuel efficiency in the United States have also been cutting into demand payday loans guaranteed no fax.

Pipeline reversal: Pipeline operator Enbridge plans to reverse the flow of a pipeline in the U.S. Midwest.

The pipeline currently brings oil from the Gulf of Mexico to Cushing, Okla., where there is a bottleneck of supplies. Reversing that flow will add another 400,000 barrels a day to global oil markets.

Return of offline supplies: On Thursday, the International Energy Agency said it expects some of the 1.1 million barrels of oil a day that’s currently offline from places such as Canada, the North Sea, and South Sudan will return to world markets in the second half of the year. IEA expects an additional 700,000 barrels a day in oil production from non-OPEC countries in 2012.

IEA also notes that OPEC production is at 3-1/2-year highs.

"Amid rising actual OPEC production, and a sizeable implied build in global stocks, prices have subsequently eased," the agency said in its report. "For now at least, the earlier tide of remorseless market tightening looks to have turned."

Caution ahead: However, all analysts warn that the situation can turn quickly, and some remain skeptical that Iran will stay out of the headlines throughout the summer.

"The odds of a military conflict are higher than what’s being discounted today," said Robert McNally of the Rapidan Group, an energy consultancy. "I think the market is relatively complacent."

Gasoline prices could also rise as the industry switches over from winter gas to cleaner summer blends.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, noted that the switch currently underway in the Chicago region led to a 40 cent spike in prices there.

Despite the recent dip in gas prices nationally, Kloza is sticking to his earlier prediction for a national average of $4.25 a gallon by Memorial Day — which would be a new record high.  

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In a rare show of unity, Iran and the world’s big powers on Saturday hailed their first nuclear meeting in more than a year as a key step toward further negotiations meant to ease international fears that Tehran may weaponize its nuclear program.

The one concrete reflection of progress was an agreement to meet again on May 23 in Baghdad, a venue put forward by Iran.

But huge hurdles still lie in the way of a common understanding of what Iran should do to end suspicions of its nuclear activities. Those barriers may prove insurmountable considering the differences between Tehran and the six nations trying to persuade it to compromise on its nuclear efforts.

Since revelations surfaced 10 years ago that it was secretly building a uranium enrichment program, Tehran has argued it has a right to enrichment to create reactor fuel under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and insisted it will never use that ability to create the fissile core of a nuclear warhead.

But the United States and other countries accuse Iran of repeatedly violating the treaty, and Tehran continues to expand enrichment despite four sets of U.N. Security Council resolutions and other penalties imposed by the U.S., Europe and others. Adding to concerns, it now is enriching uranium to levels closer to the grade needed for nuclear weapons in an underground bunker that could be impervious to attack.

The talks in Istanbul on Saturday saw the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany sitting at the same table with Iran. Knowing the road ahead is tough, both sides focused on what they said was the positive tone of the talks, in contrast to the previous round 14 months ago.

That last session broke up with no progress after Iranian negotiators refused to even consider discussing enrichment

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who formally led the talks on behalf of the six powers, called the meeting “constructive and useful.”

She expressed the hope they will lead to “a sustained process of serious dialogue, where we can take urgent practical steps to build confidence and lead on to compliance by Iran with all its international obligations.”

Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili said the talks made “some progress.” But he acknowledged “some points of difference.”

“What we saw today in the talks was the interest of the other party in the talks and cooperation, which is considered positive,” he told reporters.

In London, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the talks were “the first steps” toward the six-nation push to find “a peaceful, negotiated solution to the (Iran) nuclear issue.”

“Today’s talks were a first step towards that objective, but there is still a long way to go.”

Both Jalili and Ashton said there was agreement to move slowly and be guided by reciprocity _ meaning that Iran stood to benefit from easing fears about its enrichment program by unspecified rewards from the other side.

Iran hopes those rewards could include easing or delaying sanctions that target its main cash cow, its oil sales. Jalili acknowledged Saturday that Iran would like to avoid those penalties.

“The lifting sanctions is one of the demands by Iranian nation,” Jalili told reporters.

But a senior U.S. administration official who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing strategy at upcoming talks said that was not on the table in the near future.

“One only expects to look at the issue when there are sufficient concrete steps taken” by Iran, she said at a post-negotiation briefing. “Dialogue is not sufficient for any sanctions relief.”

Beyond the bite of sanctions, Iran is under threat of Israeli and possibly U.S. military attack unless it makes headway in persuading the international community it is not pursuing nuclear weapons.

The U.S official said Iran’s acceptance of the need to discuss its nuclear program appeared dictated by recognition that the diplomatic “window of opportunity was closing” and that the threat of military action potentially growing.

Ashton said there was agreement by both sides that the talks should be guided by the Nonproliferation Treaty, but because Iran says it has never violated that treaty that understanding could prove to be a huge stumbling block to progress.

Top level meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which tries to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities, are often dominated by inconclusive debate between Iran and its critics on whether Tehran is in compliance or has broken treaty provisions.

“Under the NPT, the right of enrichment exists for all member countries,” Jalili told reporters after the talks, suggesting his country would press that point at follow-up meetings. Ashton, in turn, told reporters that the six seek “to ensure all the obligations under the NPT are met by Iran while fully respecting Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

In its claim to comply with all NPT obligations, Iran asserts that it declares all its nuclear material and allows inspectors to monitor all nuclear facilities.

But IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has said repeatedly that because Iran does not cooperate fully with his agency it cannot guarantee that it is not hiding undeclared nuclear material that could be used for weapons. Additionally, he has spoken of compelling evidence that Iran may have worked on nuclear arms _ charges Tehran dismisses as fabrications spread by the United States and Israel.

Officially, the international community’s long-term goal remains what it was when nuclear negotiations began eight years ago _ persuading Tehran to stop all uranium enrichment and thereby relieve fears that it will use that program to create fissile warhead material.

A senior diplomat involved in the talks said, however, that influential Western nations now are increasingly coming around to the idea that Iran should be allowed to keep some enrichment activity “under the right circumstances,” sometime in the future, if all fears about possible Iranian plans to make nuclear weapons are put to rest. He demanded anonymity because his information was confidential.

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Threatened last year with demolition, the historic “flying saucer” building in midtown St. Louis soon will be an emporium for $6 lattes and gourmet burritos.

Starbucks and Chipotle are near completion of leases for the former Del Taco outlet near St. Louis University. Developers plan to renovate and expand the unusually shaped building in time for the start of SLU’s fall semester.

Hany Abounader, a partner in the development, said the building, at 212 South Grand Boulevard, will serve as a southern gateway to midtown.

“It’s going to be a landmark for the SLU campus and the Grand Center area,” he said.

Preservation of the building, erected in the 1960s as a Phillips 66 gas station, represents a turnabout for the owner, Rick Yackey, who last year sought city permission to replace the structure with a conventional retail building. His effort prompted protests from preservationists and sidewalk demonstrations.

Yackey at first insisted that the saucer’s preservation made no economic sense. But after the only occupant — a Del Taco — closed last summer, Yackey said he would keep the building and hunt for new tenants. The outcry against demolition affected his decision, he said this month.

“Frankly, we got a lot of pushback from a lot of people,” he said.

Those favoring preservation said the saucer is a prized example of mid-century modern architecture. It is within a district of low-rise and high-rise residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

Starbucks and Chipotle had yet to sign lease agreements but Yackey and Abounader said they are confident the two national chains will occupy the building when it opens in August or September.

A Chipotle spokesman said Thursday the company does not comment on new outlets until leases are signed. A Starbucks representative was unavailable for comment. 

The developers will preserve the round concrete roof and erect a mostly glass addition on the east side of the building to house Chipotle easy pay day loans. Starbucks will use much of the original building, which will get new glass walls to reproduce the structure’s original see-through appearance. The businesses will seat about 100 people combined, plus 50 more on a patio beneath the saucer’s broad overhang. Starbucks will have a drive-thru window.

Randy Vines, a Cherokee Street businessman who helped organize the save-the-saucer effort last summer, cheered the decision to preserve the structure.

“Although most of us would have preferred local businesses, the preservation and rehabilitation of the iconic saucer has always been our primary goal,” he said. “Thanks to Rick Yackey for choosing vision over generica.”

Yackey said the $2.5 million development will produce a 4,400-square-foot building half the size of the commercial structure he had initially proposed for the site. State historic preservation tax credits will help fund the saucer project but the trick was finding suitable tenants, he said.

“We always liked the building,” Yackey said. “The problem was making it work economically.”

Fifty of the more than 17,000 Starbucks coffee shops worldwide are in the St. Louis area. The midtown Chipotle will add to the chain’s eight quick-Mexican food outlets in the region. Chipotle has more than 1,200 restaurants.

Abounader, a commercial real estate broker at Balke Brown, said he believes the reborn saucer will be a catalyst for further retail development in the immediate area. He and Yackey are marketing two nearby buildings with a total of about 9,000 square feet of space. Both are within The Flats at 374, a residential complex for 300 SLU students.

“We’ve got tons of interest from local and national retailers to take that space,” Abounader said. “We’re looking for the type of retail opportunity that can serve this community and the students.”

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President Barack Obama says his call for raising taxes on millionaires is not a redistribution of wealth, but a way to free up money for crucial investments in the U.S. economy.

Pitching the so-called Buffett rule for the second straight day, Obama dismissed the notion that the plan is a gimmick. He says it is necessary in order to tackle the country’s massive deficits.

The rule is named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who says he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Obama was flanked during his remarks at the White House Wednesday by several business executives and their assistants who he says agree with the principles in the Buffett rule.

The Senate will vote on the plan next week, though it has little chance of passing Congress.

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