On Tuesday, the City of St. Louis filed lawsuits seeking foreclosure on 173 properties with significant taxes. Three-quarters of those properties are owned by the same entity, a name that should come as no surprise: Paul McKee’s Northside Regeneration.
McKee and Northside have had significant holdings in North City since the early to mid-2000s. Despite big promises of redevelopment, McKee’s successes have amounted to little more than a gas station, a three-bed hospital (now closed), and a grocery store (also closed). The firm is generally seen as an albatross weighing down North City development. In September, the city won a ruling in court allowing it to move forward with eminent domain against 89 of Northside’s properties around the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency West headquarters.
But the newly filed lawsuits should allow a faster, more cost-effective workaround to wrest away McKee properties. The delinquent tax lawsuits filed Tuesday are asking a judge to order the properties sold at a sheriff’s sale, with money going to pay back the city the taxes owed. Any properties that don’t sell at a sheriff’s sale would go to the city’s land bank…