The award recognizes businesses that make major expansions or improvements to their existing City locations, businesses that open or relocate to the City, and certain major City projects.

"The Spirit of St. Louis award recognizes excellence in business," Mayor Slay said, "and I am pleased to recognize TripleXpresso's Conference Center. The company's commitment to St. Louis, and its success here shows that St. Louis is a great place to do business. We are very proud to have TripleXpresso's as one of our corporate citizens."

The owners of TripleXpresso's, Calvin and Tellia Thompson, have been in the destination management business since 1989. In an effort to capture more of the Convention and Meeting Industry's business, they acquired and developed the property at 1900-04 Arsenal Street for their newest venture, TripleXpresso's Conference Center.

TripleXpresso's will serve the Convention and Meeting Industry by providing a business center with supporting services for shared offices and conference rooms that will be available for rent to corporations, organizations, consultants, and businesses. It will also offer concierge services, audio-visual, videoconferencing and equipment rentals. TripleXpresso's clients will be able to surf the web utilizing high-speed Internet services through both wired and wireless access points.

The project was assisted by the St. Louis Local Development Company (LDC), one of the City's development boards that provides low-interest loans to small businesses seeking to locate or expand in the City.

After presenting the award, Mayor Slay and other distinguished guests toured the new conference center.

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