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JEFFERSON CITY — A St. Charles County lawmaker has introduced legislation that would make the politically connected lender to Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration whole if the city of St. Louis uses new eminent domain powers to acquire the developer’s land.

Sen. Nick Schroer, R-Defiance, filed legislation last week that would force redevelopment agencies to also pay any unpaid debt on certain properties acquired through eminent domain.

City of St. Louis officials recently approved new powers that allow it to use eminent domain on many properties surrounding the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency site, many of which have been owned for over 15 years by NorthSide.

NorthSide’s lender for much of those land purchases was Franklin County-based Bank of Washington. It’s unclear how much debt is outstanding now, but in 2015 the bank told the city that both it and McKee had invested “well in excess of $50 million to establish site control� of the NorthSide area. Including debt on the property in the area north of downtown, an acre should sell for about $261,000, Bank of Washington CEO L.B. Eckelkamp Jr. told the city then. Bank of Washington had been under an FDIC consent order from 2012 until 2016, in part due to risky loans.

Schroer’s bill is written so any “land clearance for redevelopment authority� that uses eminent domain to acquire large swaths of property in a low-income area must also reimburse any lenders holding debt on the land.

But Schroer on Thursday said the bill was inspired by St. Louis’ recent actions to allow for the acquisition of NorthSide’s land surrounding the new NGA and did not dispute it was related to Bank of Washington’s unpaid loans there.

“What are they going to do with it? Are they just going to sell it? I don’t think eminent domain should be used in that manner,� Schroer said. “When you are taking somebody’s property when they don’t have the physical property to sell and compensate them for whatever is left on that loan, I think we need to address that.�

The maneuver in the Missouri Capitol comes after the St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved a new redevelopment area surrounding the NGA. While the bill protects homeowners in the area from eminent domain, it leaves the option for the city to acquire unoccupied land and properties with code violations. Mayor Tishaura O. Jones signed the legislation Tuesday.

Though city leaders say the measure does not target any one developer or land speculator, NorthSide is by far the largest private landholder there and the bill is written such that its properties would clearly be subject to condemnation. McKee’s lawyers begged aldermen a month ago to quash the ordinance, with one pleading, “don’t do this to Mr. McKee.�

But city officials have worried the debt on the land makes redevelopment in the near northside uneconomical, turning off prospective investors. Meanwhile, NorthSide’s properties continue to deteriorate and drag down neighborhoods.

Bank of Washington stands to lose out on repayment if the city uses its LCRA to acquire the property and an eminent domain commission values the land at less than the bank is owed.

Bank of Washington, represented by the same lawyers who represent McKee, has already been in litigation with the city since 2018 over its decision to cancel NorthSide’s redevelopment agreement. A trial is scheduled for Sept. 30.

And the bank’s leaders, the Eckelkamp family, are major players in the Missouri Republican Party, which dominates state politics.

Eckelkamp, the bank’s CEO and chairman, did not immediately return a request for comment left with his assistant. He and his family members routinely donate thousands to statewide GOP officials, and his sister, Susan Eckelkamp, has held multiple roles within the state GOP, including serving as Missouri’s committeewoman to the Republican National Committee.

Schroer is a member of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, a recently launched group of hard-line conservative lawmakers. He’s not the first member of that faction to propose legislation benefiting those tied to NorthSide. In January, Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, filed a bill to resurrect a land assemblage tax credit NorthSide tapped for $43 million to buy thousands of north St. Louis properties.

The provision in Schroer’s bill requiring payment of the remaining mortgage on land is triggered if an LCRA is acquiring more than 20% of the encumbered land or properties worth 20% of the real estate’s value. It is also triggered if the largest contiguous assemblage of land is acquired — a provision that appears aimed at a potential city acquisition of the Pruitt-Igoe site, directly across from the NGA.

St. Louis’s top development official has said much of the site east of where NorthSide recently opened a medical clinic, is “underutilized.�

The legislation is Senate Bill 1466