ST. LOUIS • Developer Paul McKee said Tuesday night that he hopes to start work on his NorthSide Regeneration project by November, and that he’s meeting every 10 days with city officials to make that happen.
The long-delayed plan to rebuild roughly two square miles of the city’s near North Side is picking up steam again after an April ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court to nearly $400 million in city financing for road and street work. McKee said he now must go back to 51 aldermen for updates to that financing plan — mainly to account for the three-year delay — and plans to do so this fall. He also said he’s getting more calls from potential tenants now that the lawsuit is through.
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“Now that the lights are on we’re getting a lot of interest,” he said.
McKee made the comments at a meeting of 5th Ward residents Tuesday night. Much of that Ward, north of downtown, is in his 1,500-acre project area, and the Carr Square Tenant Association, headed by 5th Ward Committeeman Rodney Hubbard, . The meeting was officially closed to anyone who was not a registered voter in the 5th Ward, and a few people were directed to leave, one by police, but a Post-Dispatch reporter sat in and was not asked to leave.
In a 20-minute presentation, McKee described plans to train and employ neighborhood residents in NorthSide projects and said he had set a goal that 25 percent of construction jobs go to people from the immediate neighborhood.
“The No. 1 question we get asked is ‘How do I get a job?’” McKee said.
McKee also said he had been working with a range of area business people on plans to help grow startups and small businesses in the neighborhood, while continuing to try to attract large office, technology and light industrial tenants to the area.
The developer said he was continuing to buy land, despite the Legislature’s that reimburses his purchase and borrowing costs. And he also said the area would eventually be run by an elected committee of residents and business owners, but gave no timeline for when that group would be established.
While decidedly less tense than some of the big public meetings held in 2009 when McKee first took his plans public, Tuesday night’s event did feature several sharp questions.
One resident complained about overgrown brush and trees on a NorthSide-owned property next to her house. Another worried about the loss of residents in Old North 51, a reviving neighborhood adjacent to McKee’s project area where he still owns several dozen properties.
And two voiced concerns that have long dogged the project, no matter McKee’s efforts to ease them — efforts he repeated Tuesday night.
“What’s going to happen to the people who live in the neighborhood now?” one woman asked.
“We want you to stay,” McKee said.
“Is there any circumstance in which you’ll use eminent domain?” asked another.
“No,” McKee said.
