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But with a ceremonial marker, on a St. Louis Public Library auditorium stage packed with area politicians and overlooking a crowd of 100-plus people who had a hand in the project, the city signed 97 acres of north St. Louis land over to the federal government.

In six years, the 3,100 employees who work at the St. Louis Arsenal on the south Mississippi riverfront will move to a new $1.75 billion intelligence facility in north St. Louis.

“All the i's have been dotted and the t’s have been crossed,� said Otis Williams, who leads St. Louis’ economic development arm and shepherded the project through two mayoral administrations. "So the property now belongs to the federal government.�

It was a process that pitted the Missouri side of the St. Louis region against the Metro East, where flat, open ground stood ready next to Scott Air Force Base and an Illinois Congressional delegation with close ties to the administration of former President Barack Obama was fighting for the same prize.

But the Obama administration’s push for urban renewal and the NGA’s desire to be near universities and employment hubs that draw tech workers and companies supporting the agency’s mapping and intelligence mission gave the site just north of downtown the edge.

Even after the Obama administration’s 2016 decision to move the agency to north St. Louis, backers have hardly been on cruise control the last two years. Congressional members needed to win federal appropriations. Negotiations with landowners sometimes deteriorated into eminent domain proceedings. Countless labor hours went into cleaning, demolishing and grading a giant swath of urban land.

The room gave a standing ovation to Williams for his efforts.

“Otis’ expertise and his prepared, tenacious and professional leadership have led us to today,� St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said.

Williams heaped praise on his staff, who also drew loud applause.

“Without them and the hard work they put in throughout the process, this project would not have come together,� he said.

The job has cost the city and state of Missouri in excess of $114 million to acquire and prepare the land in the St. Louis Place neighborhood — debt that will be repaid with state and local income taxes from NGA employees.

The event stage featured former St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon — in office when the project started. Gov. Mike Parson, who spoke, ribbed Nixon that while he appreciated his predecessor’s efforts, “I’m going to take as much credit for it as I can.�

Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, recalled how she stayed up into the early morning hours to get NGA appropriations into a funding bill in Congress despite opposition from the Illinois delegation. St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, who was on stage, was thanked for withdrawing proposed St. Louis County sites in Fenton, Northpark and Mehlville in favor of the city site.

St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and aldermen who shepherded bills for the project — Tammika Hubbard, Brandon Bosley and Marlene Davis — were also there.

Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, also a featured speaker, noted the NGA will sit across from the site of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing project and called it a game changer for development north of Delmar Boulevard.

“The new NGA West is also a powerful symbol that we will no longer turn our backs on north St. Louis,� he said. “We will no longer treat historic black neighborhoods as expendable.�

He thanked the dozens of residents who had to move from the neighborhood to assemble the NGA site. Two of them were on stage Thursday.

“Every citizen who relocated their residence or business not only made a sacrifice for their community, they made a brave sacrifice for our country, too,� Clay said.

NGA Director Robert Cardillo called it a “historic day� and one “worth celebrating.� He expects a cascading effect of companies moving here, pointing as an example to the small but growing geospatial software firm Boundless’ move to Washington Avenue from New York.

“It did eventually come down to which site could best prepare the agency for the future,� Cardillo told the Post-Dispatch. “And yes it is proximity. It is (tech district) Cortex. It is SLU. I was at Harris-Stowe (University) yesterday. I mean, it’s as many as partners as we can get, we want.�

Not mentioned Thursday among the hour of congratulations was the man who many say started the whole process: Paul McKee. The developer, who until this summer had development rights to a 1,300-acre chunk of north St. Louis, first submitted a blind response to a request for proposals from an entity that later turned out to be NGA.

He had assembled over half the site from private owners and the city’s land bank, but as the city took over the project, he and officials there haggled over a price. Two years after reaching agreement on the NGA land, the city terminated his development rights.

Last-minute legal squabbling with McKee, and his lender, the Bank of Washington, threatened to throw a wrench in the project as recently as this fall.

Asked about the omission of McKee’s role, Clay, who had backed him when the city was trying to cut him out, said that without the developer, “we wouldn’t have been able to assemble the 97 acres.�

Now, Clay doesn’t care who uses the NGA momentum to develop the surrounding area — as long as it gets done.

“I want people’s property values to increase. I want job creation to occur. So whoever wants to step up and do it, you know we’ve been waiting 50 years to get a major development in north St. Louis,� Clay said. “And if it took people like McKee assembling the property and us convincing NGA to do it, so be it. I don’t see anyone else, any other developer knocking down the door to bring development to north St. Louis.�