University City Wins Right to Buy Back Land it Sold for Brewery
Date Posted: July 12, 2019
Posted In: Projects,
From St. Louis Post-Dispatch: University City can buy back the land for a failed brewery development at the same price it was sold to a developer, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Nancy Watkins McLaughlin ruled Tuesday.
University City has been fighting in court with developer Tim O’Donnell since a plan to build a brewery known as Senn Bierwerks fell apart in 2017. The municipality had sold the 2 acres on Olive Boulevard — which it had spent years and $860,000 assembling — to O’Donnell for $100,000 in 2016. The city issued a request for proposals to develop the site and said the below-market price was justified because of the economic development potential.
But when University City sought to repurchase the property, it discovered the contract it had executed did not contain a buyback clause despite the City Council’s directions to its staff and lawyers to include one. O’Donnell said he had another offer on the land and asked for nearly $1 million from the city to repurchase it.