ST. LOUIS • It took less than 90 minutes - with a 20-minute break - for the city on Monday to sell off 162 acres of land it had spent decades accumulating.
In a series of unanimous votes, three city panels agreed to sell developer Paul McKee 1,233 pieces of land, and an option to buy the massive former Pruitt-Igoe site, for $3.2 million and promises that his stalled NorthSide Regeneration project will start to move forward.
Altogether, the purchases will more than double McKee's holdings on the city's near north side, where he has been working for eight years to assemble land for a project he says could transform some of 51ºÚÁÏ' most battered neighborhoods. Taking on hundreds of city-owned parcels, most of which have long sat vacant, will enable him to market larger sites - in some cases whole blocks - to potential tenants, McKee said. That should make more deals feasible, he said.
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Largely unmentioned was the ongoing lawsuit that has slowed the project. It has been nearly two years since a city judge tossed out $390 million in tax increment financing, which has stalled road and sewer work in the area. An in the case earlier this month; a decision is expected soon.
In the meantime, McKee keeps talking with prospective tenants, and he shared more details Monday.
Grace Hill Health Centers is planning a clinic in the project area, he said, and Sunshine Ministries is preparing to move into 40,000 square feet of new space. A biotech company McKee wouldn't name is interested in a project near the old Carr School, and various office and retail users are looking at sites.
"We have had interest (from tenants) all over the project area," he said.
While McKee already owns about 103 acres of the project's 1,500-acre footprint, it was always clear that he would need more land. He has been talking with the city about buying its property for years.
But the agreement was only , when agendas were posted for special meetings of the three city agencies that own the land. The meetings themselves had all the markings of a done deal, with a few questions by board members but no real debate, and unanimous votes all around.
While about a dozen of McKee's consultants and lawyers showed up, no neighborhood residents or McKee critics attended the mid-afternoon meeting at the 51ºÚÁÏ Development Corp. offices downtown. The only skeptical note was sounded by Alderman Marlene Davis, who represents a small part of the project area. She asked that 31 parcels in her ward be held out of the sale for other development, which the city permitted.
"If I were sitting in your chair I probably wouldn't do this," she told the three members of the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA). "But it's not my call."
Rodney Crim, Mayor Francis Slay's top development official, said the agreement was a good one. It moves more than one-tenth of all city-owned property off the books, adding $100,000 to the tax rolls and saving the cost of mowing and maintenance. Some of the $3.2 million proceeds will pay to demolish more crumbling city-owned buildings across north 51ºÚÁÏ, freeing up more land for redevelopment. And much of the ground has been up for sale for decades, with no credible buyers, until McKee.
"The market hasn't addressed this issue," Crim said. "Now we have a developer who plans to address the whole area and is ready to move forward."
The agreement requires that McKee create more than 160 jobs and get his first wave of projects well underway by 2016. But the developer said he's moving on a much faster timeframe.
"I need this to happen tomorrow," he said.
It won't take long to be official. Monday's votes were the only public action required for the sales. Now McKee's lawyers and city officials will iron out details. They plan to close by the end of February.
Then McKee will have two years to find something to do with Pruitt-Igoe. sits at Jefferson and Cass Avenue, the heart of his project area, and is a key piece of ground. But it's also likely polluted ground, with unknown debris from the demolition of its high-rise apartment towers in the 1970s. McKee bought a two-year option on the site for $100,000, to buy time while he looks for cleanup funding and markets the site to tenants. Taking control for good will cost him an additional $900,000.
Crim said the prices were determined through LRA's standard appraisal process, which is based on comparable property nearby and other factors. The city included Pruitt-Igoe in the deal, Crim said, because it wants a comprehensive approach to the area.
"It has to fit in. It can't be an individual use," Crim said. "And this developer has a lot of business ties that will help him to market the site."
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TERMS OF THE DEAL
- Three city agencies agreed to sell 1,233 parcels of land - totaling 162 acres - to Paul McKee's NorthSide Regeneration LLC, for $3.2 million.
- The deal includes $100,000 a two-year option for the 33-acre Pruitt-Igoe site. To close the sale, NorthSide must pay an additional $900,000.
- NorthSide must demolish 200 buildings by the end of 2013 and rehab 75 buildings.
- NorthSide must perform regular maintenance and mowing, hold job fairs and offer training to local residents.
- NorthSide must complete three-fourths of its first round of projects and create 168 jobs by 2016. The second round must be half-complete by 2020.
- Failure to meet terms means the city can buy back the land at the purchase price.
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