CLAYTON — A St. Louis County agency is in discussions to repurchase two large pieces of Wellston real estate that former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger helped one of his campaign donors buy.
Rodney Crim, CEO of the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, said in a statement that his staff plans to issue a new request for proposals when a repurchase deal closes.
The land featured prominently in a federal investigation that led to prison sentences in a pay-to-play scheme for Stenger, his chief of staff Bill Miller and businessman John Rallo.
Rallo, a big Stenger donor, was part of the team that bought the acreage in 2017. Rallo was sentenced to 17 months in prison last week. Sheila Sweeney, the former head of the economic development partnership, also pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme, though she received probation.
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Since Sweeney’s departure in January 2019, the partnership’s new administration has been mum on whether it would exercise an option to repurchase the parcels along Page Avenue in Wellston — one is 28 acres, the other 15 acres. The St. Louis County Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority, which is run by the partnership, spent millions of dollars over the years to clean the former factory sites and prepare them for new development.
John Rallo, who federal prosecutors say gave campaign donations to Stenger in exchange for real estate deals and a sham contract with economic development agencies, is the final person to be sentenced in an investigation that rocked regional politics.Â
On Thursday, the St. Louis County Industrial Development Authority was scheduled to discuss making a $530,000 loan to the county LCRA in order to reacquire the properties, but the resolution was tabled.
Doug LaClair, who along with Rallo and Corey Christanell was a partner in the company that purchased the land, said negotiations with the partnership have been ongoing on a deal to sell back the property. The parties hope the deal can close by the end of March, LaClair said.
County sells two sites for far under values; $30,000 in gifts is traced
Rallo’s group had acquired the properties for a little more than $525,000, the Post-Dispatch first reported in August 2017. The newspaper also found that Sweeney had helped Rallo amend bids for the land. Federal investigators confirmed that Stenger helped the group acquire the real estate, and the U.S. attorney handling the cases said the group planned to flip the land for millions of dollars.
In December 2018, the county LCRA board blocked the sale of the land to a vehicle auction operator, saying that plan was far different from the jobs and investment Rallo’s group had promised when they purchased the properties. The LCRA last year hired the firm of prominent real estate attorney Gerard “Jerry†Carmody shortly before the board rejected a final development proposal from the Rallo group.
A group that has gotten several favorable deals from the Partnership ran their proposals past Director Sheila Sweeney before submitting them.Â