Finance time

ST. LOUIS – McEagle Properties is asking city officials for $410 million in financing to help kick-start its 20-year plan to rebuild a big swath of the city’s north side.

The O’Fallon, Mo.,-based developer also plans to seek more than $328 million in tax credits through various state and federal programs, it said in an application for tax increment financing filed with the city this week. The document, obtained Friday by the Post-Dispatch, gives the clearest picture yet of how McEagle hopes to pay for the massive project it unveiled this month.

The TIF would pay for roads, sewers and other improvements with bonds issued now and repaid with future tax revenue from the project. That would be the largest TIF ever seen in the St. Louis area, and the other tax credits would come at a time when Missouri legislators have discussed reining in such programs.

And while the public money is key to getting the so-called NorthSide project off the ground, McEagle says, it is a relatively small slice of the company’s $8.1 billion vision, which includes more than $5 billion in construction. That money, the company says, would build thousands of homes, create tens of thousands of jobs, parks, schools and renewable energy technology over the next 20 years.

Most of that funding, $6 billion, would come from debt, money McEagle and its partners hope to borrow, though so far it has just one $27.6 million loan. Having commitments for TIF and other subsidies would help the company win over more banks, said Bill Laskowsky, McEagle’s chief development officer.

"We’re trying to get our redevelopment plan and TIF approved here because it does help us get at that credit. So all of those things are going to be accelerators to our project," Laskowsky said. "Stimulus money, that would be an accelerator, too. In today’s environment, it behooves us to get to those accelerators as soon as we can."

The TIF application also states exactly how much land McEagle controls on the 1,500-acre site, and how much more it wants.

Today, the company owns 882 properties comprising 116 acres. There are 3,900 existing homes it plans to leave alone, and 170 vacant houses it plans to rehab. McEagle listed 2,400 properties that it wants to buy, either from willing sellers or through eminent domain.

Many of those are city-owned vacant lots, and few are occupied homes. But a few dozen are owned by businesses, churches and other institutions (including three parking lots owned by the Post-Dispatch).

One is Trojan Iron Works, a steel fabricator on North 25th Street.

Owner Andy Lowrey was not completely surprised to see his land on the list — he had received a call a few years ago inquiring about purchasing the property no fax payday loans.

"I’m not necessarily against getting out of this building," Lowrey said Friday. "I just want a fair price."

That’s not the case for another property on the list: the St. Patrick Center downtown, one of the region’s largest providers of services to the homeless.

McEagle listed the center’s headquarters on Tucker Boulevard as one of the properties it wants to acquire. No way, says St. Patrick chief Dan Buck.

"We’ve invested over $15 million into this facility," he said. "I don’t think we’re looking to relocate any time soon."

McEagle’s desire for the property came as a surprise to Buck, if for no other reason than McEagle Chairman Paul McKee’s son served on the St. Patrick board.

Laskowsky said not all the properties may wind up being purchased; it depends on what level of interest there is in different sections of the redevelopment area, which is split into 12 phases. The area just north of downtown that includes St. Patrick is one of the last phases of the project, scheduled to start in 2016.

McEagle’s first priority will be its so-called "employment centers" at the foot of the proposed Mississippi River bridge and around the 22nd Street interchange with Highway 40. It hopes to start work there next spring.

"We’re really trying to concentrate on those business campuses as being the big drivers here," Laskowsky said.

Even those areas will need a lot of help. The 22nd Street section depends on a land swap with the Missouri Department of Transportation and the rebuilding of the interchange there. The bridge must still be funded by Illinois, which faces a serious budget crunch. The city TIF wouldn’t pay for either of those projects, but for street and sewer upgrades around them.

The package will be taken up first by the St. Louis TIF Commission, which will set a public hearing in mid-July at the earliest, and then vote. If the plan passes the commission, it will move to the Board of Aldermen this fall.

Jeff Rainford, a top aide to Mayor Francis Slay, said city officials like the general aims of the project and are waiting to see details as they emerge, though he noted that any use of eminent domain to take businesses would need "a strong justification."

"We’re supportive of the vision," he said. "As we get into details, our job is to provide the least amount of public incentive to get the maximum amount of public benefit."

Jake Wagman of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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