It’s been just over a month since St. Louis handed off 97 acres north of downtown for the construction of a $1.75 billion intelligence agency facility, and brokers are already marketing property nearby owned by Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration.
Gershman Commercial real estate has retail space for lease on an almost 23-acre site at the northwest corner of Jefferson and Cass avenues. That’s right across Jefferson from the future home of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is expected to open about 2025 with some 3,100 employees.
“Located at the main entrance of the NGA campus,†the Gershman brochure says.
Though the city terminated McKee’s development rights to the 1,500 acres surrounding the NGA site over the summer, as well as the tax increment financing district that covered it, the marketing material is a reminder that he still owns an estimated 1,600 properties surrounding the site that he acquired over more than a decade. With so much land in the area still owned by NorthSide, much of the future development around the planned NGA site in north St. Louis will still hinge on McKee and his lender, the Bank of Washington, despite their soured relationship with City Hall that has the two sides battling in court.
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The Gershman brochure shows a site plan with a big-box-style retail development plan, complete with a large commercial space and out-lot development space surrounded by ample parking spots. It says it’s available for retail, restaurant or a large recreation user, apparently the type of indoor recreation businesses that have increasingly filled big-box commercial spaces around the country. The brochure also mentions a microbrewery and nursery “concept.â€
While McKee’s NorthSide appears to own much of the site, he does not own all the parcels, according to land records. It wasn’t clear whether he intended to acquire them, if he was developing the site himself or looking for a development partner.
In an email, McKee said that it was too early to discuss the project and that the brochure had been “mailed out inadvertently.â€
The brochure also touts McKee’s planned “HealthWorks Campus†on the former Pruitt-Igoe housing complex site at the southeast corner of Jefferson and Cass avenues. He and his representatives have talked about that project for years since acquiring the site from the city in 2016. Though two walls appeared to go up in the middle of last year, they collapsed in late December after strong wind. A timeline there is uncertain.
Work continues on GreenLeaf market north of downtown.Â
However, NorthSide’s $20 million GreenLeaf Market project near Tucker Boulevard and 13th Street is almost complete. The ZOOM gas station opened in October, and the GreenLeaf Market grocery is tentatively set to open in the late spring, McKee said in an email.
Gershman began marketing the NorthSide real estate just north of the GreenLeaf market in December. There, too, it promotes a leasing opportunity for future retail sites on the edge of a large surface parking lot, including a possible bank, a Dunkin’ Donuts and a three-story hotel with 120 keys. The historic bank building at 13th Street and Cass Avenue is preserved on the site plan.