HEARTLAND SNAPSHOT, AUGUST 2009

McEAGLE MAKING BIG PLANS FOR MASSIVE REDEVELOPMENT EFFORT IN NORTH ST. LOUIS

McEagle plans to revitalize 1,500 acres of commercial and residential land in north St. Louis through an $8.1 billion redevelopment plan.

Speculation has run wild regarding local developer Paul McKee’s plan to redevelop the blighted north side of St. Louis. He has been quietly acquiring properties in the neighborhood for years but only in the past couple of months have details of the project emerged, including McKee’s announcement that he would be seeking $412 million in TIF funding from the city of St. Louis to help get the project off the ground. While many in the community are behind the project, there is also a very vocal group opposed to it — mostly due to McKee’s secrecy in assembling the land.

“There have been a lot of projects that have been proposed before [on the Northside] and promises made, yet nothing has happened. So, we are working with a trust issue here, and there is also the idea that we do not really want to talk about something we did not have yet,” says Paul McKee, chairman and CEO of locally based McEagle Properties, which is overseeing the project

While a plan has not been formerly introduced yet, McKee has gone to great lengths to create transparency for the project and build trust, including going into the community and posting videos on the project’s web site explaining his plan.

What is known is that the scale of the endeavor will be massive. McEagle Properties plans to invest a total of approximately $8.1 billion in the revitalization of approximately 1,500 acres on the north side of the city. Known as Northside Regeneration, the project will contain a total of 3.5 million square feet of office space, 1 million square feet of retail space, 1 million square feet of service-center space (including tech and flex properties), and 10,000 new residences in various single and multi-family iterations.

But to simply state the amount of office or residential space does not do the project justice. Northside Regeneration will be nothing less than a complete rebirth of the neighborhood. New infrastructure, including upgraded roads, sidewalks, sewer systems and, potentially two new highway interchanges, will be built. Civic structures such as police and fire stations, parks and schools will be built, and the potential exists for a public transportation system for the neighborhood. The commercial space will be concentrated in four development districts, which will be surrounded by residential areas.

Sustainability will also play a key part in Northside Regeneration. New parks will be built throughout the neighborhood, and streetscapes and sidewalks will incorporate landscaping. Biofiltration swales will be installed that will create a unique way to move stormwater runoff through the area as well as provide an opportunity to reuse it before entering the sewer system. Initial plans even call for the inclusion of alternative energy production such as co-generation, solar cells, wind towers, biomass and hydropower.

“We’re not one-off developers,” says Bill Laskowsky, chief development officer with McEagle Properties. “We’re here to build, protect over time and sustain. In other words, we’re long-term developers — in order to do that, the idea of sustainability really became important for us moving forward.”

Northside Regeneration has a 20-year timeline. The first 5 years are complete, having consisted of acquiring the properties needed for the project. The next step is requesting the TIF money and redevelopment rights from the city. McEagle’s TIF application has been submitted and it will probably take the rest of the year for it to make its way through the process. If everything goes according to plan, infrastructure work for the project could start in 2010.

“I think we’re pioneering the regeneration of the urban core, and I don’t think that’s happening in too many parts of the country, at least not on this scale,” McKee says.

— Coleman Wood

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