Progress of McKee’s Projects Under Scrutiny as Mayor Vetoes TIF Bill
Date Posted: February 11, 2020
Posted In: Discussion, Projects,
From The St. Louis American: Saying that developer Paul McKee Jr.’s publicly funded projects have made “satisfactory” progress in 2019 is “not a correct reflection of reality,” according to Mayor Lyda Krewson’s chief of staff.
On February 5, Krewson vetoed a bill that reviewed the annual progress of 21 tax increment financing projects (TIFs). The Board of Aldermen passed the bill without much debate on January 17.
The main target of the mayor’s contention was the NorthSide Regeneration project, where the bill listed the TIF amount as $490.6 million. The development project covers much of North St. Louis and was originally awarded a $390 million TIF amount. (The mayor’s spokesman is checking if this is a typo.)
“We are going to have them scrutinize closer,” said Steve Conway, the mayor’s chief of staff. “We need to make sure when you say that something is making progress that it’s actually making progress.”
When asked how McKee’s NorthSide development project has impacted North St. Louis, Conway said, “That’s about a two-hour answer. The city is taking a legal position on where he’s at on those things.”
In June 2018, city officials attempted to end the development agreement for the NorthSide Regeneration project. The default notice that the city issued to McKee stated, “After a decade, the promised redevelopment has not come, nor is there any indication that it will.”
The project’s lender Bank of Washington then sued the city, and the litigation is still ongoing.
This fall the aldermen approved $8 million in incentives for a three-bedroom hospital and emergency room — a project that falls within the NorthSide Regeneration footprint. However, project leaders have since not been able to confirm that the facility will be able to accept Medicaid or Medicare — despite the hospital being located in the middle of one of the most impoverished and medically underserved areas in the region.