Kansas City, Mo. ? Missouri Gov. Bob Holden has granted state tax incentives for a $378 million project that would move about 6,000 Internal Revenue Service employees to the downtown post office.

The state tax increment financing assistance will return an estimated $48 million in new revenues generated by the project to help redevelop the old Main Post Office, which is across from Union Station.

“I’m very excited that Kansas City is taking the opportunity to restore a historic building and at the same time add more jobs to downtown,” Holden said.

The state assistance, which had been expected, was announced at a news conference Tuesday in Union Station attended by more than a dozen state lawmakers along with area business leaders and city officials.

Under the plan, about 6,000 full- and part-time Internal Revenue Service employees from throughout the metropolitan area will be consolidated in the 70-year-old post office building and three new office annexes that will be built next to it. Postal operations will move to Union Station.

The project also includes a 1,500-space parking garage, a 25,000-square-foot day care center and a pedestrian overpass linking Union Station with nearby Freight House District restaurants, offices and art galleries.

The IRS, the U.S. Postal Service and the General Services Administration are in the middle of lease negotiations with the developer, DST Realty.

Vincent P. Dasta, president of DST Realty, said the company would like to complete lease negotiations in time for a fall construction start. The project would be completed by mid-2007.

About $120.1 million in city and state TIF assistance will be used, according to state figures. The developer will contribute $30.5 million in equity and borrow $214 million. The state is expected to furnish historic tax credits of about $13.5 million.