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ST. LOUIS — City finance officials are looking for help running the numbers on certain development tax breaks following delays working with one of the city’s biggest developers.

Bob O’Loughlin, whose company owns Union Station, says his firm has been waiting for about a year for the city comptroller’s office to provide basic information needed to redeem roughly $18 million in incentives. The city granted the incentives to finance renovations like the new Ferris wheel and aquarium, which opened in 2019.

In a meeting in early July, a comptroller’s aide introduced a plan to seek third-party review of tax increment financing citywide following what he called “disagreements with the developer” on the Union Station project.

Kelley Anderson, special assistant to Comptroller Darlene Green, told other officials at the meeting that the comptroller’s office usually handles its work on tax increment financing deals, which use new taxes generated by development projects to finance their construction, in-house.

But Anderson said that after the disagreements on the Union Station issue, the city’s top attorney recommended a third-party review. Representatives for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and Aldermanic President Megan Green agreed to put the contract out for bid.

Anderson did not elaborate on what the problem was in the meeting. In an interview, he referred questions to Darlene Green, who said there was no dispute. And O’Loughlin, the CEO of Lodging Hospitality Management, also downplayed the idea of a disagreement.

But he said LHM has been waiting for numbers on sales tax revenues needed to redeem its incentives for a while now. And it’s been a trip.

At one point, he said, the city was counting revenues from two office buildings that weren’t part of the Union Station project. Two people in the comptroller’s office that had been working on the issue just retired. LHM has even hired a consultant a few months back to walk everyone through the numbers.

“It should be pretty simple,” O’Loughlin said. “But it’s taken a long time.”

Still, O’Loughlin said he understood that the city, like many others, is still dealing with staffing issues and other complications from the pandemic.

“I don’t have to tell you it’s tough getting things done in government these days,” he said.

Green, the comptroller, did not respond Monday to questions about the delays and whether they were related to her office seeking outside help running numbers on other TIFs in the city.

Bidding on the contract to be the city’s third-party TIF monitor closed Friday with no responses.

Anderson, the comptroller’s aide, said the office could try again, but no decision has been made.

“We’re exploring our options,” he said.

Jacob Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.