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ST. LOUIS — The city has begun eminent domain proceedings on 85 properties, nearly all of them owned by Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration, surrounding the under-construction National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency site north of downtown.

Lawyers for the St. Louis Development Corp. sent out letters to the property owners on May 31, a key step under the state’s eminent domain law.

The move signals the city hopes to assemble some sites surrounding the NGA for redevelopment by prying property away from NorthSide, which still owns some 1,500 properties and 200 acres in the area, many of which neighbors complain are neglected magnets for crime, drugs and squatters. Of the 85 letters, 75 went to NorthSide, according to SLDC.

Virginia Druhe of the St. Louis Place Community Association said the neighborhood was briefed on the move late last month and called the city’s move “refreshing.� Most of the neglected properties in the neighborhood are owned by NorthSide, she said.

“Our neighborhood is full of properties that have stood vacant and unused for a long time,� Druhe said. “While generally I would not like eminent domain, we simply need to have access to property so something can be done.�

The NorthSide properties the city is eyeing are on streets such as Cass Avenue, Howard Street and Laflin Street, among others, largely in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood just to the west of the NGA. The acquisitions could help assemble developable sites when paired with properties owned by the city’s land bank, the Land Reutilization Authority.

Such sites could be key to leveraging the nearly complete NGA and its 3,000-plus jobs into much-needed investment for north St. Louis.

Earlier this year, aldermen passed a bill allowing the use of eminent domain in the area. And while backers said it would allow the city to target any nuisance property in the area, it exempted occupied homes and was clearly directed at NorthSide and its vast holdings of derelict buildings and vacant lots.

It wasn’t clear when the city planned to use that new authority. But on Friday, Mayor Tishaura O. Jones announced in a speech to business owners that the city had filed an eminent domain lawsuit against the vacant downtown Railway Exchange building as part of her administration’s efforts to tackle vacancy. And, drawing less attention, the mayor also mentioned that the city had begun condemnation on over 80 properties surrounding the NGA campus with the use of the new eminent domain powers.

“We worked with St. Louis Place and Jeff-Vander-Lou residents to pass legislation to hold absentee landlords accountable through eminent domain in the neighborhoods surrounding the new NGA campus,� Jones said in her speech.

McKee’s NorthSide began buying up land north of downtown some 20 years ago, financing much of it before the 2008 financial crisis when bank lending was loose and tapping $40 million in state tax credits for the endeavor.

NorthSide has developed a few projects — a now-closed grocery store, a gas station and a health clinic — and says it was invaluable helping to lure the NGA to the neighborhood. But most of its properties have sat crumbling, and neighbors and city officials have grown tired of waiting.

For years, city development officials complained that NorthSide is in so much debt to its main lender, the Bank of Washington, that it won’t sell any real estate except at prices well above what land is worth in north St. Louis, making redevelopment in an already tough area next to impossible. Lawyers for SLDC said at an August court hearing that NorthSide owed $50 million to Bank of Washington and hadn’t made a payment on its loans in a decade.

The city must next submit offers to NorthSide to negotiate a price for the property. Failing that, it could file a lawsuit in court to use eminent domain to acquire the property. But it’s unclear when or if the city will ultimately file eminent domain lawsuits, or if they will even be necessary.

Eminent domain would add to mounting legal woes for NorthSide, which has managed to cling to its holdings amid a massive debt load, foreclosure proceedings, dwindling political allies, an FBI investigation and a Missouri Attorney General lawsuit alleging tax credit fraud.

A judge last month dismissed a 2018 lawsuit the Bank of Washington had filed against an SLDC agency accusing it of fraud for terminating a 2009 development agreement with McKee’s NorthSide. And NorthSide is currently facing foreclosure through other means — over three years of unpaid taxes on more than 1,000 properties has triggered tax foreclosure lawsuits. The St. Louis Collector’s office has given the landholder until December to pay more than $1 million in unpaid taxes.

McKee did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a lawyer for McKee and Bank of Washington, Joe Dulle of Stone Leyton and Gershman.