Paul McKee (developer)

Paul McKee, Jr. is a St. Louis, Missouri-area property developer. McKee's property management and development company, M Property Services, formerly McEagle Properties, is based in O'Fallon, Missouri.

McKee grew up in the suburb of Overland, Missouri and attended Chaminade College Preparatory School. He has a civil engineering degree from Washington University in St. Louis and is a registered professional engineer in Missouri, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois. He is married to Marguerite "Midge" McKee and the two have four children and 15 grandchildren. They live in the suburb of Chesterfield, Missouri.

McKee's co-founded the construction firm Paric Corp. in 1979. He is a founding member of the board and former chairman of BJC HealthCare, the area's largest employer. He has donated tens of thousands of dollars to politicians of both political parties. McKee says that he favors neither party particularly strongly, but "follow[s] the business agenda".[1] McKee was the primary organizer of a bipartisan trade mission to People's Republic of China to stimulate trade between that country and businesses in the region, with a particular focus on using the underutilized Lambert-St. Louis International Airport as a cargo stopover from China to South America.[2]

Since its inception in 1990, M Property Services has provided development assistance for over 3,600 acres and over 3.5 million square feet of commercial and residential space. Specializing in large-scale, mixed-use developments, M Property Services and its affiliates have owned or developed and sold office buildings, industrial facilities, retail centers and sites throughout the St. Louis metropolitan region and surrounding states.

Major developments
NorthSide covers several wards and is broken into four development sections.

Some of McKee's major developments include WingHaven, a 1,200-acre (4.9 km2) mixed-use project that is the corporate home to MasterCard Operations Center in O'Fallon, MO; NorthPark, a joint venture with Clayco Realty Group including 5,000,000 square feet (460,000 m2) of planned commercial and industrial redevelopment in North St. Louis County that is the corporate home to Express Scripts;[3] and Hazelwood Commerce Center, a 151-acre (0.61 km2) industrial park in Hazelwood, Missouri.[4]

McKee's envisioned NorthSide Regeneration Project in the Old North Saint Louis, JeffVanDerLou and Saint Louis Place neighborhoods was initially referred to as Blairmont, in reference to one of the shell companies used to acquire lots and buildings in the three neighborhoods.[5] In May 2009 the redevelopment idea was publicly revealed as "Northside," a $8.1 billion vision covering some 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) of the city. It would include four commercial centers totaling over 3,000,000 square feet (280,000 m2) of new retail and office space, 1,000,000 square feet of light industrial space, new homes, parks, and a trolley line.

NorthSide was intended to revitalize North St. Louis. However, according to St. Louis Public Radio, "Nearly a decade after Paul McKee sold St. Louis on a vision worth billions to rehab more than 150 properties on the city’s north side, roofs have caved, walls have crumbled and residents have lost patience — and hope."[6] In addition, the state of Missouri sued NorthSide Regeneration for tax credit fraud, alleging that NorthSide kept $4.5 million in tax credits for redevelopment projects despite not completing many of the purchases. The suit was settled in 2019.[7]

McKee asked the City of St. Louis for $409,917,496 in tax increment financing to get the project off the ground.[8] The project still remains un-started, and McKee holds the majority of property in the JeffVanderLou area most of which are on the vacated list. [9]

McKee sought to open a three-bed urgent care near the new NGA property, appropriating the name "Homer G. Phillips" for the hospital. Homer G. Phillips was a successful, black hospital in The Ville Neighborhood until Mayor Conway closed it down. [10] Long-time activists who worked and advocated for the real Homer G. Phillips to remain open filed a federal lawsuit against McKee to call out his appropriation actions.[11] McKee's new hospital is in an area outside The Ville and is not close to the size of the previous hospital.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) West Headquarters has committed to building a $1.7 billion campus on a 100-acre site within the development that would support 7,200 jobs with an average salary of approximately $95,000.

References
  1. Wagman, Jake (May 24, 2009). "McKee's path paved with headiness, political savvy". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  2. Mueller, Angela (February 22, 2008). "Paul McKee Jr. lobbies to land Chinese airlines". St. Louis Business Journal. Archived from the original on August 31, 2010. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  3. Logan (June 20, 2013). "Express Scripts to add 1500 Jobs". STL Today.
  4. Brown, Lisa R.; Christopher Tritto (January 4, 2008). "Kiel: Blues, McKees take the stage". St. Louis Business Journal. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  5. Logan, Tim (February 9, 2009). "Slay on St. Louis economy, incentives, Ballpark Village, Blairmont". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  6. Kae Petrin {November 30, 2018) Once promised for rehab, vacant buildings owned by developer Paul McKee now scar city’s north side St. Louis Public Radio
  7. Steph Kukuljan (June 5, 2019) Paul McKee's NorthSide Regeneration settles with state over tax credit fraud lawsuit St. Louis Business Journal
  8. Full text of TIF application at Archived June 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  9. https://www.stlvacancytools.com
  10. "Homer G. Phillips Hospital: 'They were not going to be treated as second-class citizens'". February 22, 2017.
  11. "McKee faces federal lawsuit for use of Homer G. Phillips' name". July 14, 2022.
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