McKees Update Forum on Northside Project Status
Date Posted: March 28, 2014
Posted In: Ideas, News,
Paul and Midge McKee filled in some of the pieces of the puzzle regarding their Northside Regeneration Project for 400 attendees at Construction Forum STL’s second networking/speaker event, held this past Tuesday at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Paul McKee is the chairman and his wife Midge is the owner of McEagle Properties, LLC, the developer of Northside.
The McKees began their talk by noting the mission of Construction Forum STL to build relationships and promote discussion of big issues. They said that with their background in the construction industry they felt that they were among friends and colleagues who should be involved with their vision for a better, more diverse St. Louis.
“If you have the choice to make St. Louis better, what would it look to you? What’s my role in it?,” McKee asked the audience. “We never dreamed that this could done by one, two, or 20 people. Warren Buffet couldn’t do it.” He urged those at the ConstructForSTL event to become part of the effort for Northside.
Midge McKee pointed to a jigsaw puzzle piece pin that she wears on her lapel. “Each of you here today whether you get involved or not, have something to contribute to the project. It might be a call, it might be an email. It’s about relationships and conversations. Every time we bump up against someone else, we add a piece the puzzle. And you when do that you become a part of the very fabric of the City. The picture is different because of you.”
With $300 million in TIF financing now in place, the project is ready to begin streetscape enhancements on Jefferson Ave. this summer and street cameras. The McKees engaged a Danish urban planner and conducted focus groups with area residents. Making the area more inviting through streetscapes and security were identified as points critical to development.
McKee said that NorthSide’s approach of personal investment, followed by City and State involvement and its emphasis on renewable energy and massive construction has attracted the Obama Administration’s attention. The project was recently named as be a candidate for additional funding from the White House’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiatives.
The Northside project encompasses 1,500 acres. The Pruitt Igoe projects sit at the middle of it. The McKees have been working on the project for 11 years and have personally invested $105 million to date. It would include four commercial centers totaling over 3,000,000 square feet of new retail and office space, 1,000,000 square feet of light industrial space, new homes, parks, and a trolley line. The commercial space would play host to 22,000 new jobs, in addition to the 43,000 construction jobs created in building the development.
The McKees have participated in over 150 meetings with people in the area affected by the project and said that they have received support from people within the community area.
We believe in the “Life Works” brand. Live works – live, learn, work, play, and pray, in the same area. If you can do all of those in the same place, your life works,” Paul McKee said.