Paul McKee received possibly the best Christmas present of any of us: $19.6M from the State of Missouri in the form of tax credits that in effect pay him back for purchasing a significant portion of North St. Louis. Awarding tax credits was the next crucial step to move the $8.1B NorthSide project forward and will free up resources to allow McKee to continue work on the project.

As with most issues there are two (and more) ways to view this, both of which are factual. 1) Paul McKee just received almost $20M of our tax money to purchase land and buildings in North St. Louis for his own eventual profit - if there is any. 2) North St. Louis is one step closer to seeing transformative investment and redevelopment that otherwise would not happen without taxpayer assistance.

Either way, the conclusion is certainly that McKee has the political backing and in the absence, to this point, of successful opposition the NorthSide project is moving ahead. The next step will likely be a deal with the City of St. Louis regarding the $400M TIF request. It remains almost unimaginable that the City would guarantee any portion of this, but we're quickly getting to the point where money begets money and it's difficult to imagine that the State didn't speak with the City before giving McKee $20M. No one will want to see that money go to waste. For better or worse it appears NorthSide's on a roll.

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