Finance topics

ST. LOUIS — It turns out McEagle Properties doesn’t want to buy St. Patrick Center after all.

The O’Fallon developer mistakenly included the social service agency’s downtown headquarters on a list of some 2,400 properties it wants to buy or, if necessary, take by eminent domain, for its NorthSide redevelopment project, said chief development officer Bill Laskowsky.

The list, which McEagle included with its application to city officials for $410 million in infrastructure bonds, included "about a dozen" properties — all active businesses — that should not have been included, Laskowsky said. It was a preliminary version of the property list that was submitted with the application by mistake.

"It’s a big, complex project," he said. "And there are a few things along the way that are going to happen."

St. Patrick chief executive Dan Buck said he had received a call from McEagle on Monday apologizing for the mix-up. His agency has invested $15 million in the building and had no plans to move.

"I knew there had to be some sort of miscommunication," he said. "The McKees have been so good to our organization for so many years."

An amended property list will be filed next week, Laskowsky said.

The proposal also includes a request that St. Louis officials have rarely granted in recent years on tax increment financing (TIF) projects: for the city to back half of the bonds.

McEagle wants the city to agree to pay, if necessary, up to half of the bonds, which are typically issued at the start of the project and repaid over 23 years through increased property tax revenue No fax no teletrack payday loan. That would put St. Louis on the hook for $205 million.

While TIF projects are common in St. Louis, the city has only agreed to back two — the St. Louis Marketplace project in 1992 and the 2006 purchase of One City Centre by Pyramid Construction. The city ended up footing some of the bill for St. Louis Marketplace and is in negotiations on City Centre, said Jeff Rainford, a top aide to Mayor Francis Slay. Slay has been adamant that the city won’t back the TIF for Ballpark Village.

McEagle has agreed to cover any decline in tax revenue during the project. But it wants the protection of city backing on the TIF. The company hopes the city and other government agencies can direct federal stimulus dollars toward the project, which could reduce the TIF request, but at this point it wants to keep all options open, Laskowsky said.

"We don’t know what some of the ultimate financial answers will be," he said. "The language says ‘only if necessary.’ It’s just an unknown at this point."

Rainford said it would take "extraordinary circumstances" for the city to agree to back the TIF, but that it is considering the project as a whole, not focusing on individual elements.

"We’re not going to say yes or no to any one provision," he said. "We’ll evaluate the whole thing and respond from there."

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