Category: Old North

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JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North Public Policy St. Louis Place

Public Forum on Large Scale Development in North St. Louis

PUBLIC FORUM ON LARGE SCALE DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF JEFFVANDERLOU, ST LOUIS PLACE, AND OLD NORTH ST LOUIS

The neighborhood impact of vacant properties and rebuilding our community

A public forum will be held in the auditorium of Vashon High School at 3035 Cass Avenue on Thursday, August 30th at 6 p.m. The forum is co-sponsored by Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin (Ward 5), Alderwoman Marlene Davis (Ward 19), Rep. Jamilah Nasheed (District 60) and Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford (District 59).

This forum will be an opportunity for residents, business owners, developers, neighborhood stabilization officers and other city services workers, and state and local elected officials to come together to discuss development in the community.

Topics will include:
– concerns over large numbers of vacant buildings and parcels being held by developers, including the reported 40 acres owned by Paul McKee
– ways area residents can influence state and local laws and policies, including the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit being considered in Special Session by the General Assembly
– and ways to make each block a safer and more pleasant place to live

The goals of the evening are:
– To give area residents an opportunity to voice their concerns
– To make progress toward a consensus on how to improve neighborhood safety, stimulate the local economy, and rebuild the community

Contact: Anthony Coffin
Phone: 314-498-0483
Email: acoffin@stlouiscinemas.com

Categories
Historic Preservation North St. Louis Old North

Construction Starts on 14th Street Mall Project

by Michael R. Allen

This morning on my way to work I saw a beautiful sight: the start of construction work on the 14th Street Mall project in Old North St. Louis! Dumpsters were being placed and gut demolition work was underway on one of the buildings in the project. The next 18 months will be great days for Old North as we watch the implementation of the solution to our biggest development problem.  More here: 14th Street Mall Redevelopment is REAL!

Categories
JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North St. Louis Place

Facts About Paul McKee’s North Side Properties

State Representatives Jeanette Oxford and Jamilah Nasheed and Alderwomen April Ford-Griffin and Marlene Davis distributed a version of this document at a press conference on August 16, 2007.

What we know about the Blairmont companies

Paul J. McKee, Jr., is a developer who is chairman of McEagle Properties LLC (636-561-9300), a company specializing in large-scale planned mix-use developments, including Winghaven in St. Charles County. McEagle has never undertaken a project in the city of St. Louis. McKee is also vice chairman of BJC Healthcare, board member of Enterprise Bank & Trust Company and a board member of the National Privatization Council.[1]

The first of McKee’s north side holding companies was incorporated in June 2002. Ten separate companies acquiring property in the Near North Side have been traced to McKee: Blairmont Associates LC, VHS Partners LLC, Sheridan Place LC, N&G Ventures LC, Noble Development Company LLC, MLK 3000 LLC, Allston Alliance LC, Dodier Investors LLC, Babcock Resources LC and Path Enterprise Company LLC.[2] McKee’s companies are represented by Eagle Realty Company (314-421-1111).

An unprecedented scale of acquisitions

Purchases began in June 2003 and continue to this day.[3] The total number of parcels in north St. Louis owned by these companies was 662 at the end of June 2007.[4] The companies own property on over 150 different blocks.

The holding companies has purchased land from private individuals and churches as well as the Board of Education. His companies have not purchased land from the city government. Early purchases consisted largely of vacant properties, but most purchases since 2006 have involved occupied houses. In February 2007 McKee stated he was only interested in acquiring “abandoned buildings in the unpopulated areas of north St. Louis.”[5] Since that statement, he has continued to purchase occupied buildings.

Neighborhoods affected include all of Old North St. Louis, all of St. Louis Place and most of JeffVanderLou. The project includes most of the 5th Ward, a significant section of the 19th Ward and a small number of scattered parcels in the 3rd and 6th wards of the city of St. Louis. The project lies within the 58th and 60th Missouri Legislative Districts as well as in the 5th Missouri Senatorial District.

The properties are located within the boundaries of three national historic districts (Murphy-Blair, Mullanphy, Clemens House-Columbia Brewery) and include properties that contribute to at least two potential historic districts.

A record of neglect

The holding companies only purchase vacant properties, insisting that tenants in occupied buildings be evicted prior to sales.

The holding companies have failed to maintain his properties, causing city government to spend over $260,000 since 2004 to maintain their properties (the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the companies still owe $37,000 of this figure to the city).[6] These properties have been cited for hundreds of healthy and safety code violations, and one of his companies was even sued by the Building Division.[7] Many are located adjacent to rehabilitated or newly-constructed homes, and homeowners have repeatedly complained about adverse affects. In some cases, Blairmont owns one or two vacant properties on blocks that are full of occupied buildings or near elementary schools (Ames and Columbia).

A record of secrecy

McKee’s companies have yet to release plans, concepts or ideas about any planned development to the public, or to the aldermen who represent the affected area. While surrounding his plans with secrecy, he is asking for one of the largest tax credits in Missouri history to subsidize continued purchases. After residents of north St. Louis uncovered McKee’s identity, he issued a public statement saying that he was “surprised that citizens wanted to broadcast who was behind the acquisitions” that have damaged their communities.[8] Despite recent attention, Paul McKee still refuses to directly answer questions from the press and elected officials about his plans.

Impediment to development

The holding companies tie up an inventory of neglected historic buildings that they are unwilling to sell to interested potential homeowners. Holdings are often located adjacent to properties that are being renovated. Significant rehabilitation work is underway in Old North St. Louis and St. Louis Place in particular, where remaining buildings are difficult to find for future home and business owners. Properties owned by McKee are preventing people from investing in the future of these areas. Vacant properties generate minimal tax revenue and economic activity, while rehabbed buildings create immediate economic impact.

References

1. McEagle Properties website, http://www.mc-eagle.com/experience/people.asp

2. List of Blairmont Companies, http://www.eco-absence.org/blairmont/companies.htm

3. Land Record, Office of the Recorder of Deeds, City of St. Louis.

4. Michael Allen, “McKee’s Holdings Ready for Development,” http://ecoabsence.blogspot.com/2007/07/mckees-holdings-ready-for-development.html

5. Lisa Brown, “Evolution of the ‘CAVE man’,” St. Louis Business Journal, February 16, 2007.
6. Jake Wagman, “Developer pays city to ‘treat’ eyesores,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 30, 2007.

7. Jake Wagman, “Manor with murky ties to Twain is a mess,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 24, 2005.

8. Lisa Brown, “Evolution of the ‘CAVE man’,” St. Louis Business Journal, February 16, 2007.

Categories
Events JeffVanderLou Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North St. Louis Place

Legislators Host Press Conference and Tour of Near North Side Neighborhoods

State Representatives Jeanette Mott-Oxford (D-59th) and Jamilah Nasheed (D-60th) are hosting a press conference and tour tomorrow, Thursday August 16, to showcase the how properties owned by developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. on the north side have created detrimental conditions within and served as an impediment to the ongoing development of the JeffVanderLou, St. Louis Place and Old North St. Louis neighborhoods.

This is your opportunity to hear from the persons who know this issue best, elected officials and residents of the 5th and 19th wards. Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin and Alderwoman Marlene Davis will be on hand to share information about the McKee properties and redevelopment efforts underway in their wards. The event starts at a tent at 2950 Montgomery at 10 a.m., where elected officials and residents will make statements. A bus tour of the wards begins at 10:30 a.m..

Here are directions to the meeting site: From I-44 or Highway 40, take the Grand exit and go north. From I-70, take the Grand exit and go south. Montgomery is one block south of St. Louis Avenue. Go east on Montgomery to the tent and bus at 2950. Call 314-775-8940 if you need further directions.

Categories
Events Mullanphy Emigrant Home Old North

Mullanphy Benefit Concert on Friday



The next Mullanphy Benefit Concert will feature The Bearded Babies, Red-Headed Strangers, and The Monads at the Tin Ceiling (3159 Cherokee) at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, August 17. Admission is $7 at the door (CASH ONLY). All proceeds will go towards further stabilization and rebuilding of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home. Even if you can’t make the concert, you can learn more about the Mullanphy Emigrant Home and make a tax-deductible donation anytime at www.savemullanphy.org.

Categories
Mullanphy Emigrant Home North St. Louis Old North People South St. Louis

Marti Frumhoff Memorial Garden, Mullanphy Emigrant Home Efforts Moving Forward

by Michael R. Allen

Christian Herman announces a new blog covering fundraisers for the Marti Frumhoff Memorial Garden, including the fun event held at Tin Can Tavern this past Saturday.

Meanwhile, some work has begun on the effort to rebuild the Mullanphy Emigrant Home. E.M. Harris Construction Company has performed stabilization and debris removal needed to prepare for reconstruction of the south foundation wall. The New Old North blog posted photos of work back on July 17. More work has taken place since then, and foundation work could start any day now. Look for further updates there and here.

Categories
Fire North St. Louis Old North

The Strength of Old North

Some neighbors in Old North went through a kitchen fire on Saturday. The fire did not do major damage to their house, but did take out their power lines and ability to occupy the house. However, the response to the fire was classic Old North. I was at an event when I received a message from my neighbor Barbara telling me of the damage. Immediately, I left the event to help my neighbors. I arrived to find a crew of neighbors already tackling the job of gutting the fire-damaged areas. My neighbors were in good spirits.

Barbara immediately turned her attention to the job of boarding up the damaged doorway and windows on the first floor of the rear wall, where the fire was most extensive. Another neighbor who is a general contractor was set to handle the matter after visiting the prisoner he is mentoring, but we decided to give him a good break. Barbara and I joined neighbors James and David to frame our the affected openings and to cut and screw in playwood. When we all left, the house was secure and its residents could focus on other tasks at hand. The board-up took less than two hours, due to the knowledge of the group — all of us had framed our board-ups before.

Only in Old North? Perhaps not. The response nonetheless demonstrated the unique talents of my neighbors, our get-it-done attitude and the prevalent concern for our neighbor’s needs. Ours is a strong neighborhood spirit, and one on which to count when times are tough. We take the communitarian spirit of a village and add the know-how and street smarts of a city. This is a great neighborhood!

Categories
Missouri Legislature North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North

Burse’s Response to News of McKee’s Plans

by Michael R. Allen

Old North St. Louis Restoration Group President John Burse drafted a letter to the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch regarding Paul McKee, the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act and the site assembly experience Burse has gained working on projects in Old North.

For some reason, the Post chose to publish other letters on these matters, and never published Burse’s eloquent letter from the front line.

But you can read it here.

Categories
Art Media Old North St. Louis Place

Teens Learning About, Producing Media in Old North St. Louis

by Michael R. Allen



(Teen participants in the Adventures in Media program stand in front of a mural on the 14th Street Mall designed and installed by The Urban Studio.)

Hopefully people are following along with the blog entries produced by the teenagers who are taking part in the Adventures in Media Teen Program. Sponsored by the Urban Studio, Trailnet and KDHX, Adventures in Media is a two-week program that examines the role of media in our dietary practices to demonstrate the nuts and bolts of how media is produced. Sessions take place at the Urban Studio, 2815 N. 14th Street in Old North St. Louis, as well other locations on the near north side. The Urban Studio is basically a storefront space reclaimed by imaginative neighborhood residents interested in using creativity to shape and strengthen community. It’s one of the many bright spots making the near north side a lively and changing place to live.

One of the other places, the New Roots Urban Farm in St. Louis Place, is a logical part of this program. There, the teens learned a lot about the healthy, local organic food that isn’t often promoted through mainstream media.

As part of the program, the teens are making some media of their own — daily blog entries with photographs that chronicle this summer’s experience.

Read those blog entries here.

Categories
Historic Preservation JeffVanderLou Mayor Slay North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North St. Louis Place

McKee’s Holdings Ready for Development

by Michael R. Allen

In a written statement sent to Riverfront Times reporter Kathleen McLaughlin, developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. remarked of his north side holdings, “what we do own, with a few unremarkable exceptions, is owned in small, undevelopable scattered sites.”

McKee is wrong on several counts:

– The most desirable and sustainable development in any urban area is precisely done in small, scattered sites. Great cities are built through accumulation, not master planning — the same goes for great redevelopment. McKee’s 662+ parcels were each developable, or they never would have been surveyed and divided as parcels. These are not good sites for large buildings or homes with generous front lawns, but they are perfect for dense urban infill construction.

– With property values rising throughout the city, all property in the city is “developable” — especially land as close to downtown as McKee’s holdings are. Even what he owns now could lead to an extremely profitable develoment program.

– McKee owns dozens of historic buildings in the Murphy-Blair, Clemens House-Columbia Brewery and Mullanphy National Historic Districts — many adjacent to rehabilitated buildings or soon-to-be rehabilitated buildings. Obviously, he’s already eligible for an established and proven state development tax credit: the historic rehabilitation tax credit. His Paric Corporation can been seen all over the city serving as general contractor on numerous historic rehabilitation contracts utilizing the tax credit, and that company does good work. He could proceed with rehabilitating all of his holdings eligible for the state historic tax credit and make a huge and qualitative difference in north St. Louis.

– In Old North St. Louis and the eastern side of St. Louis Place, McKee’s holdings fall among rehabbed buildings, maintained houses, businesses and new construction. Large-scale development is not only unfeasible in these areas, it’s not needed. There already is development activity scattered in these areas. On some blocks, everything is in good repair except the holdings of McKee and the city’s Land Reutilization Authority. Surely he can put together development projects on a small scale where they will make such a critical difference.

Overall, McKee’s holdings are a remarkable development opportunity as-is. Rather than wait for big political deals to take shape, the developer is posed to start now on meaningful development based on community needs and sensitivity to the existing urban fabric. In fact, if he only rehabbed every building eligible for the state rehab tax credit the difference on the near north side would be clear. If that statement doesn’t seem true, one need only look at the result of the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance’s CONECT project on North Market and Monroe streets in Old North St. Louis. There, scattered rehabs using the state historic rehab tax credit and other existing financing mechanisms changed the character of some blocks from hopeless to hopeful. Simultaneous construction of new houses helped make the difference bigger. Some of these blocks are unrecognizable in their renewed states.

As such good changes take place, they spread — fast. Private development is at an all-time high in Old North St. Louis. Within a few years, the 14th Street Mall will be reopened and dozens of historic buildings will be rehabilitated as part of that project. In short time, figuring out what to do with all of the vacant land in the neighborhood won’t be a problem; the gaps will fill in. This won’t happen in even ten years, but I’d be surprised if it takes more than thirty. Given the magnitude of the decline of the neighborhood, that is remarkably fast.

With careful planning, McKee could identify other potential historic districts among his holdings and carry that momentum westward into JeffVanderLou. That process seems to coincide with Mayor Slay’s statement that historic preservation is part of what will happen in development of McKee’s holdings.

The large scale on which McKee has operated is hardly visionary any more. We have watched decades of such projects fail. In the meantime, we have seen developers make bigger differences in reversing decay by tackling the city on a parcel-by-parcel basis — the same way the city was first developed. McKee has the chance to do something unique by putting his resources and energy behind smarter urban development projects. No matter what happens, development of his parcels will take decades. Why not start now and work steadily doing something no other developer can do?