nextSTL | North St. Louis

Time to Petition NorthSide for LEED ND

Published on Tuesday, 11 June 2013 11:51

Written by Jeffrey Kittel

{many details of NorthSide remain fuzzy, like many of the plan's renderings, LEED ND might be the answer}

With the news that Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration Plan has won its pivotal Missouri Supreme Court ruling on the $390 million Tax Increment Financing package approved by the City of St. Louis in 2009, NorthSide looks set to move forward. Which brings up the question that led to the lawsuit against the TIF package in the first place: what is NorthSide?

The Circuit Court’s ruling that invalidated the TIF package ruled that it was in conflict with the TIF act because the redevelopment plan lacked “the inclusion of defined redevelopment projects.” In effect, the court ruled that the City had given McKee $390 million without even knowing what they were buying. Although in overruling this judgment, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the Circuit Court did not have the legal standing to make this argument, the criticism remains valid.

McKee, NorthSide Win Unanimous $390M TIF Ruling

Published on Tuesday, 09 April 2013 17:33

Written by Alex Ihnen

The SouthSide Regeneration plan may have been an April Fool's Day prank, but today Paul McKee is again thinking big. His NorthSide $390M Tax Increment Financing package has won a unanimous decision at the Missouri Supreme Court. Passed by the city's Board of Aldermen in 2009, the TIF, meant to jumpstart the rebuilding of a large swath of north city, has been stalled by a lawsuit ever since. The decision states that judge Dierker erred in his ruling that invalidated the TIF on grounds that it lacked specificity, essentially saying that Dierker ruled on an argument of his own making and not one made by the plaintiffs.

With the win, and the secured financial backing of the city, McKee has everything in place to move forward. What happens next is anyone's guess. The lawsuit had challenged the ambiguity of the plan and the decision means that McKee does not need to provide more specific project detail to access the TIF. Having been criticized for years for allowing vacant building to burn or fall down, McKee has repeatedly pled for more time and money. The ambitious project is on a scale not seen in the city's urban core since the building on Pruitt-Igoe in the 1950s.

NorthSide Regeneration's First Retail Development to be Dollar General at Grand Avenue & Cass

Published on Tuesday, 22 January 2013 16:54

Written by Alex Ihnen

After nearly a decade of land purchases and years of speculation and false starts, the massive NorthSide Regeneration project is set to break ground on its first retail development. A Dollar General retail location is planned for the northeast corner of North Grand and Cass Avenue. All four corners of the intersection are vacant. A $1.4M building permit has been requested for 1500 North Grand with an additional $45,000 permit for additional parking on an adjacent lot along Cass. No site plan has yet been made available.

While many of the more than 2,000 lots comprising NorthSide are scattered across 1,500 acres of the city, the effort has aggregated lots at several high profile locations. The intersection of Grand and Cass was one. NorthSide owns the southeast corner, the city's Land Reutilization Authority (LRA), the northwest corner and a private owner the southwest. Dollar General reached 10,000 stores nationwide in 2012, including 379 in Missouri.

City of Ghosts: Photographing Disinvestment in the St. Louis Urban Landscape

Published on Tuesday, 10 July 2012 00:48

Written by Alex Ihnen

The photos are beautiful, stunning. It strikes me that there is so much truth in the photos, that to nitpick or complain about the attention brought to St. Louis' decay, to dwell on sensational language, or reach for the exception that proves the rule, is misplaced. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a much more positive story to tell in St. Louis. The photographer, Demond Meek, isn't required to tell it, he can photograph what he wants. And to be honest, it remains less than clear what that better story is exactly (declining population but rising affluence, the unlikely saving of many buildings while many more are lost, a looming renaissance in the number of residents and quality of life?). Images of neglected urban landscapes are powerful. The photos make clear what has happened to St. Louis.

The photos have come to everyone's attention via a feature on the Daily Mail online. It starts, "With boarded up windows, peeling paint and crumbling bricks these deserted St.Louis buildings have been long forgotten. Residents seem to have fled years ago and the dilapidated properties now serve as a bleak reminder of the Missouri city's declining population and struggling industry." (And just in case you would like to know who's to blame for the neglect, the Daily Mail online commenters are happy to tell you it's the "liberal democrats" who rule cities, and those who only care about the "thug life".)

Visualizing NorthSide and Seeking Semblance of a Land Banking Strategy in the City of St. Louis

Published on Saturday, 25 February 2012 15:15

Written by Alex Ihnen

The Land Reutilization Authority did not cause the abandonment of North St. Louis City. Paul McKee did not cause the abandonment of North St. Louis City. The process of abandonment began more than six decades ago and was fueled by a boom in automobility, federal subsidies for suburban development, racism and many other social forces at work over that time period. The abandonment became intransigent as the geographically limited city lost revenue and had few means to combat the issue. As suburban communities prospered, they took no ownership of this abandonment. The City was left to rot. It had no choice other than to take ownership of abandoned land.

If that's an accurate statement of abandonment in North St. Louis City, what are we to make of the current state of the NorthSide Regeneration development area? The City has been eager to support Paul McKee, his land purchases and sought-after tax incentives. Selling 1,233 parcels of abandoned land to a private developer would make national news if it happened on a coast, or in a sexy rest belt city. The option for sale on the infamous Pruitt-Igoe site is the first private interest in decades. Does that mean, as the Mayor recently claimed, that the process has proven successful?