Detroit has Dan Gilbert, and for a few years, it looked like St. Louis had Paul McKee. Now that McKee's massive plans for the redevelopment of North St. Louis have failed expectations, what has been lost and what, potentially, can still be gained?
The massive NorthSide Regeneration project was first proposed in 2009, when developer Paul McKee announced that he'd amassed 500 acres of land in North St. Louis and would embark on a wholesale rebirth of the derelict area. The city of St. Louis followed the plan by granting redevelopment rights to the area and a $390 million tax increment financing (TIF) deal.
Fast forward to the present day. Jacob Kirn reports that McKee's creditors are auctioning portions of Paul McKee's many development holdings. The latest is NP Hazelwood 140 LLC, which on May 29 will auction property and assets, including "tax increment financing (TIF) bonds issued by the City of Hazelwood for the project, which originally called for 13 industrial buildings with more than 2.6 million square feet of space. The TIF bonds are worth at least $17 million, and the assets also include $6.9 million in state Brownfield tax credits…" Although the Hazelwood redevelopment project is separate from the NorthSide Regeneration project, it's only one portion of the bad news for McKee's business.
As for the NorthSide Regeneration project, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) made headlines for proposing a new headquarters near the former site of the infamous Pruitt Igoe public housing development. Michael R. Allen penned a long critique of both the McKee redevelopment plan and the newer NGA proposal back in December 2014.
In a separate article, Michael R. Allen also described the success of the redevelopment project as a privatized land bank—"Even if that’s all it will ever be."
Most recently, Chris Naffziger surveyed the fate of the "legacy properties" located in the redevelopment area, finding photographic evidence "that McKee’s failed plan has left St. Louis Place and other Near Northside neighborhoods in worse condition than when he found them." The article includes a slideshow of current and past conditions of some of the districts and properties include din the redevelopment area.
Read the full story: Paul McKee’s Hazelwood development to be auctioned
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