City Should Not Sell McKee ANY More Buildings!

1930-36 St. Louis Avenue as it appeared just prior to purchase by McKee


This morning the Post-Dispatch reported that Paul McKee wants to buy an additional 1,233 parcels of City owned property in the NorthSide area where he already owns about 800 parcels containing vacant land and vacant buildings. According to the Post article by Tim Logan, the land includes individual vacant lots and buildings scattered across McKee's NorthSide redevelopment area. McKee's past purchases indicate that the presence of structures regardless of historic value, is of little consequence to the desire to control the land.




1930-36 St. Louis Avenue under the stewardship of Paul McKee


Over the last 7+ years, Paul McKee with his pocket full of LLCs has proven to be one of the most notorious landlords in St. Louis history, leaving a wake of negligence and destruction of historic buildings. As has been well documented by Preservation Research Office/Ecology of Absence, Built St. Louis and others, the typical scenario of a buildings acquisition and control by McKee involves the emptying of any tenants, the mysterious disappearance of windows and doors, leaving the properties vulnerable to vandalism, fires, brick theft and eventually total demolition.



This unique row at St. Louis and Glasgow Avenues was also fully intact prior to purchase by McKee.


Although they do not offer much protection and they don't have any tenants (legally), the City's Land Reutilization Authority at least makes a valid attempt to keep their buildings boarded and secured. While brick thieves have not spared LRA properties, keeping the areas scattered remaining vacant building stock in the ownership of the City at least theoretically preserves the opportunity for other developers or individuals to purchase and rehab the properties. Of course this would require changes to some current LRA policies, but the chances would probably be better than getting McKee to let go of buildings. A great examples of this potential is currently underway with the Hyde Park South development.




The rear of the St. Louis & Glasgow buildings after prior to demolition in 2008.


McKee can have as much vacant land (or even buildings with no historic value) as he wants, but until concrete plans and financing are presented by McKee, the City should retain ownership and control over the fragile fabric of vacant historic homes that dot the landscape of NorthSide.

Why We Shouldn't Give Up The Clemens House

In the weeks following the the Clemens House fire on the morning of July 12th, I saw many friends and fellow preservationists post RIPs and other comments essentially giving up the historic complex as being gone. While the fire was obviously a tragic event, it should not be concluded that the end is here for the Clemens House. Maybe its my experience with bringing back many buildings that were essentially shells, some seemingly on the brink of destruction, but I don't believe we should give up on the Clemens House. Here's why: 


A: Not much has really changed with much of the structure. 


Today the Clemens House complex stands as a shell, but I would argue that this is not much different than its condition before the fire. The complete lack of any care or maintenance had already reduced the Clemens House complex to a group of shells. Nine years ago, in May 2008, the main roof of the chapel building collapsed. Much of the east wall also collapsed, over half the roof was gone and the west wall was left buckled, but still standing. The front and rear walls of the chapel remained with about one bay of roof at each end. Over the past nine years the remaining portions of roof deteriorated severely with the front bay completely gone and the rear section down to sagging joists and rotted sheathing. Photo of the chapel above by Paul Sableman.


The roof and interior floor structure of the original mansion had not fared much better. Around the same time of the chapel collapse, portions of the parapet at the demising wall between the original house and dormitory addition fell onto the house roof creating holes in the northeast and northwest corners. With no repair done, these holes grew over the years with the interior floor structures below deteriorating and eventually most of the large rooms at the rear of the original house collapsed pancaking into the basement. The last time I was in the house several years ago, the floors of the front rooms were also deteriorating rapidly from openings in the valleys of the roof. By this year, these floors were to the point of requiring complete reconstruction.


While the four story addition to the house had fared slightly better overall, the roof by this year resembled a wavy piece of Swiss cheese giving no protection to the interior structure. An entire section of the west mansard fell off of the building a few years ago leaving a gaping hole. As of several years ago several floor areas were unsafe to walk so I can imagine that by this year the percentage of structure that was to the point of needing complete replacement had risen dramatically. The recent fire simply burned off what remained of the severely deteriorated wood floor and roof structures that by this year required almost complete replacement. Some more photos of collapses and what appears to be earlier fire damage in the mansion can be seen in this RFT article.


B. Significance of the Clemens House. 


The James Clemens house designed by Patrick Walsh in 1858 is one of St. Louis' very few remaining antebellum mansions; its Italian Renaissance Revival design is distinguished by an extensive use of cast iron for the portico, quoining and window enframements which is unique in the city's domestic architecture. 
It has been said it is the finest application of cast iron on a residential building outside of New York City. Cast iron was usually utilized on commercial structures, but the St. Louis Great Fire of 1849 apparently convinced Clemens that the exterior of the home needed to be fireproof, so the mansion was adorned with many cast iron features. 

In memory of James Clemens' wife. Walsh and Porter White, a plaster artist, were instructed by the grieving Mr. Clemens to reproduce Eliza's image in the ornamental plaster ceiling molding on the first floor, in a Carrara marble mantle in the parlor, and in other design elements. Eliza's death mask was also carefully re-created in cast iron and used in the exterior ornamentation over every window of the mansion. 


The 1896 chapel which adjoins the house, designed by architect Aloysius Gillick for the Sisters of St. Joseph, carefully follows the Italianate forms of the earlier building. The stone trimmed pedimented porch with paired Ionic columns and paired brick pilasters at the second story repeat motifs from the original mansion.

C. Paul McKee owes St. Louis! 


After spending years secretly acquiring thousands of buildings and vacant parcels through anonymous shell corporations Paul McKee publicly revealed his grand plan for Northside in May 2009. The plan he said would include 3 million square feet of office and retail space, 1 million square feet of light industrial space, hundreds of new apartments and single family homes, parks, street improvements and even its own trolly system. In October 2013 the St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved $390 Million in TIF financing for McKee's Northside plan. Additionally, the State of Missouri gave McKee $43 Million in Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credits. The Land Assemblage Tax Credit was custom written by McKee's lawyers and due to the large quantity of land required to be purchased, he is to date the only recipient.

Since unveiling the grand plan for "Northside Regeneration" over eight years ago and with hundreds of properties now owned for over a decade, McKee’s track record as a property owner has been nothing short of abysmal. The reality has been an intentional Northside Disintegration. Buildings owned by Mckee, many of which were occupied and in decent condition, were immediately emptied and left unsecured. Doors and windows mysteriously disappeared hastening the cycle of intentional demolition by neglect. Many buildings succumbed demolition by brick theft, and many of these were were hastened by arson fires. 
See Built St. Louis' pages on Blairmont, one of several of Mckee's shell companies that purchased the properties. Note: Almost all the beautiful historic structures on the page linked above have since been demolished.

While there are certainly many other absentee landlords who abandoned their properties and let them rot and crumble (St. Louis Public Schools could be included on this list), the sheer quantity of historic buildings that have fallen in the last 10 years as a direct result of McKee's blatant and intentional neglect has probably not been seen since the days of urban renewal clearance in the 1960s. It only seems less dramatic because it has occurred over a decade. What has replaced all the buildings and neighborhoods that have been decimated by Paul McKee? Absolutely nothing! Yes the NGA is building its new campus at the corner of Jefferson and Cass, but this should not be considered a win as the result of McKee. Out of all that was to come from the grand plan, the only Northside project McKee has completed is a moderate rehab flip of an existing office warehouse building.

While most of McKee's grand plan for North St. Louis envisioned new construction, McKee also promised to preserve and rehabilitate about 60-80 houses and buildings he dubbed "legacy properties". Although he refused to ever release an actual list of these properties, he specified that the Clemens House would be rehabbed. McKee however provided no more protection for the legacy properties than any other buildings he owned that were left to rot. Another presumed legacy property was the Bernhardt Winkelmann home at 1930 St. Louis Avenue among what was referred to as "Millionaires Row" in the Clemens House-Columbia Brewery Historic District. This beautiful home was struck by brick thieves on multiple occasions with no response to clean-up, secure, or protect the remainder of the home in any way. Eventually the thieves removed literally the entire house leaving a pile of wood behind the stone facade, which was then unceremoniously demolished.

McKee claims to have spent a lot of money stabilizing the Clemens House. The reality is that the only work done was removal and storage of the 2-story porch and removal of portions of the chapel roof, supporting trusses and portions of the east wall of the chapel. The removals occurred because the porch and the rest of the chapel roof were on the verge of imminent collapse because they had not been properly protected from the elements. If McKee had truly stabilized the structure, the roof and floors of the mansion wouldn't have been collapsing into the fucking basement! 

After 10 years of broken promises, its time for McKee to make good on at least one: Stabilize and rehab Clemens!!

D. Precedent

Rebuilding and restoration of a building shell that remains after a fire or collapsed such as the Clemens House complex is more common than you might think. Here in St. Louis there are a few relatively recent examples.

In Lafayette Square, two buildings on Mississippi Avenue that were part of an International Shoe Company factory had sat abandoned for decades. The buildings deteriorated to the point where about 30% of the 5-story building had collapsed into the basement and the rest of the roof had mostly collapsed. The roof of the 1-story building was collapsing as well. This didn't keep Craig Heller from pursuing a rehab for lofts, commercial space, and a restaurant. He hired Pyramid to re-construct and stabilize the buildings and the development was later finished by Conrad Properties.

The finished exterior of the end of the M-Lofts building that was reconstructed.

The Lister Building at Taylor and Olive in the Central West End had similarly deteriorated to the point where the rotted floors and roof had to be completely removed and re-built. It was also rehabbed into loft apartments and ground floor commercial space.

From the exterior you can see upper floors being re-framed even as collapsed debris was still being pulled out from the first floor.

An interior view of the shell (photo from the now defunct original website).

Another local example is the reconstruction of several on Dick Gregory Place to create affordable apartments in the Ville neighborhood off Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. The interior floors, walls and roofs of several of the large but severely deteriorated large homes and portions of the mixed use buildings had to be completely re-built. Crown Square and the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, both in Old North St. Louis, are two additional projects that involved extensive re-building of collapsed portions of buildings.
  

An exterior wall of the mansion w/ iron window frame covering the outermost brick. 

Despite being gutted by fire, the walls of the Clemens House remain solid and stable. The exterior walls are four wythes (courses) thick, which is unusual for a residential structure. The exterior walls, including the tall front wall forming the outline of the pedimented portico (which was disassembled several years ago and is safely in storage), are braced by interior masonry walls that run north-south on both sides of the center hall and by intermediate east-west masonry walls that separated the large front and rear rooms of the mansion. All of these interior walls are three wythes thick.

 Portions of floors and woodwork survive in the west front rooms.

While a large percentage of the upper floor walls of the structure at the rear of the house collapsed during the fire, a substantial amount of the original 2-story walls of the original portion of the rear structure have survived largely intact. Like the main house, this portion of the structure also contains many interior masonry walls that are largely intact and stabilize the remaining portions of exterior walls. There are some portions of the east wall of the dormitory addition that are standing 3-stories tall un-braced. These should be stabilized in place and possibly have the upper portion removed. The condition of the chapel is largely the same as before the fire, with the front, rear, and west walls standing un-braced. These should be braced in place.

Now that McKee's negligence to keep the Clemens House secure has allowed an arsonist to torch the complex, its time for the City of St. Louis to hold McKee accountable and if necessary, force him to secure and stabilize the remains of the mansion, dormitory, and chapel in a manner that preserves it for rehabilitation or restoration. If McKee refuses, the City of St. Louis should either seize the property or force McKee to donate the Clemens complex to an organization that commits to stabilizing and facilitating eventual rehabilitation. Additionally, as the Post recently editorialized, the City should raise the amount fines for property owners that won't keep their buildings secure and allow them to deteriorate to stop the cycle of simply paying the fines as a cost of business.

300 Buildings - 60 "Heritage Properties" = 240 Demolitions Paid For By You

"Flatiron" corner building at St. Louis & Glasgow owned by McKee's VHS Partners LLC
"Heritage Property"?... No! Demolished in January 2008

At last weeks closed-door "stakeholder" session about McKee's North City Development Project, Bill Laskowsky of McEagle Development announced that McKee's various shell companies own around 300 building, of which about 60 "Heritage Properties" would be spared from demolition. The remaining 240, 80% of the buildings would presumably be bulldozed for new development.

Pruitt's Store Building & adjoining row houses at St. Louis & Glasgow owned by
McKee's VHS Partners LLC. "Heritage Property"? No, this rare Italianate style corner
building and row houses were demolished. The row houses and a smaller building
behind the corner had been attacked by brick rustlers. See this earlier post.
More photos from a 2007 post at Elology of Absense.

With the passage of changes to the Land Assemblage Tax Credit last week at the end of the legislative session, Paul McKee will be able to redeem $20 million in tax credits to recoup costs of property purchases and demolition/land clearance. Very interesting that we now have a tax credit for destroying historic buildings as well as rehabilitating them!

1935-37 Montgomery owned by McKee's N & G Ventures LC. These buildings
were intact prior to attack by brick rustlers. If this was your property would
you allow this to happen and do nothing to stop it?

When an individual or developer uses the Historic Tax Credit program (Missouri or Federal) they are held to the Department of Interior Standards for Rehabilitation. What standards will be used to determine what buildings will be considered “Legacy Properties”? What standards will govern what homes and buildings that can be demolished at tax payer expense? Will there be any standards?

1930 St. Louis Avenue owned by McKee's N & G Ventures LC.
Will this be considered a "Heritage Property"?

Thursday night Paul McKee said: “We are going to attempt to hang on to every historic building can hang on to and save”. Hopefully he will make good on this statement, because it would be complete turn around from his track record to date.

2900 St. Louis Avenue at Glasgow (same intersection as the lost "flatiron"
and Pruitt Store buildings) owned by McKee's Sheridan Place LC.
Will this make the "Heritage Properties" list?

Next week, McKee will be taking his redevelopment plan to the Mayor's office and St. Louis Development Corporation for review. All the talk of job creation, green power, transit loops are great, but some tough questions need to be asked and answered regarding how redevelopment will occur at the neighborhood level. Will the remnants of history that remain be obliterated as they have for the last five years? As taxpayers, we the citizens of St. Louis must be sure that the mistakes of the 1950's and 1960's are not repeated. Urban Removal is not the answer for North St. Louis.

31 Days of Blairmont... and counting

If you have not have not done so already, please take a look at a month-long series by Rob Powers here at the Built St. Louis Web-log. Each day for the past month Rob has been posting about buildings owned by Paul McKee's Blairmont and several other shell companies that have amassed over 660 properties in several North St. Louis neighborhoods, many of which contain historic buildings that have been allowed to rot and decay or worse.

I bring this to attention on his site because the outright assault on buildings by Paul Mckee collectively represents the greatest threat the urban built environment in St. Louis today. Buildings are being lost on a regular basis due to brick rustling (which may be encouraged or even organized by McKee), fire, or simply collapse due to severe neglect.

Please have a look at this sad chronicle, and please contact the politicians listed on yesterday's "What Can I Do" post and tell them that this f***ing madness needs to end NOW!
For a more in-depth look at the devastation including a map of all the properties, check out Michael Allen's: World of Blairmont.

Two similar properties, two different owners, two dramatically divergent outcomes.

The former Leidner Funeral Home at 2223 St. Louis Avenue

Less than three blocks separates two very similar buildings on St. Louis Avenue in the St. Louis Place Neighborhood.  Both are began as high Victorian mansions on St. Louis Avenue's "Millionaires Row" and both were later converted to funeral homes with substantial complimentary additions to the right side and rear of the mansions.  In the last several years though the properties have taken dramatically divergent paths as a direct result of their ownership.

The ruins of the rear of 1936 St. Louis Avenue

City records show the former Liedner Funeral Home at 2223 St. Louis Avenue under the ownership of the Greater Bible Way Community Church since at least 1997.  It is obvious that this stunning property has been lovingly maintained by its current owner.  Inside its beautiful woodwork, ornate plaster and stained glass are all in excellent condition.  The only minor issue with this building is that some of the plaster ceiling in the chapel addition has fallen due to a roof leak.
Last Saturday, Reverend Harsley of the Bible Way Church gave the Rehabbers Club a tour of the former funeral home.  This immaculately maintained building is currently for sale.  The Reverend said that the asking price for the entire complex which includes the 3-story mansion, chapel, parking lot and an additional lot to the east, is $280,000 which seems like an exceptional value.
A few blocks east, it is like you are in a different world.  The beautiful former mansion turned funeral home at 1936 St. Louis Avenue stands half in ruins due to the blatant neglect of its owner Paul McKee.  Brick thieves began attacking the garage portion of the addition at the rear of the property and McKee did nothing to secure the property or otherwise prevent further destruction.  As a result of McKee's indifference, brick thieves have been allowed to attack the building unfettered, destroying the rear of the addition as well as the rear wing of the original mansion.

The chapel at 2223 St. Louis Avenue

So far McKee has shown little ability to understand how to do development within existing urban neighborhoods and certainly has shown zero ability or desire to protect or even minimally maintain the hundreds of historic buildings that he owns and is ultimately responsible for.  Instead of giving $398 million of public money to McKee, right now I would feel confident giving it to Reverend Harsley  of the Bible Way Church.

The chapel at 1936, most of which is now a pile of debris

Wednesday evening at 6:00 PM is McKee's TIF Commission hearing where he will ask the City of St. Louis to financially back-up his shaky plan to the tune of $398 Million.  The hearing will be held in room 208 at City Hall.  More details can be found here.  If you care about the financial future of the City, please come to the hearing and testify against this proposal. 

Winkelmann Mansion Remains Being Demolished

Last week I learned that what remains of the Winkelmann House at 1930 St. Louis Avenue is being demolished. According to the City's property database, a demolition permit was applied for on June 22nd. Demolition of the remains of the one story west wing, added when the home was converted to a funeral parlor, has mostly been completed, leaving only the beautiful circa 1873 stone facade of the original home standing. Michael Allen of the Preservation Research Office told me that Paul McKee, the buildings owner had given the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation two weeks to come up with a plan to salvage the facade, without chipping in any funding, of course! There have been discussions of producing measured drawings to market the facade for re-use.


Below is a photo from January 2, 2007, just after the cancer of brick theft, which would consume most of the structure, had first attacked the funeral home rear garage addition. Coincidentally, one of Paul McKee's many shell companies had taken ownership in 2006. No attempts were made over the five years of slow degradation to secure the home or prevent further attack on the structure. After the stone facade is salvaged, crated and taken away, nothing will be left but a vacant plot of land and an asphalt lot. So much for Regeneration!

Inside a McKee "Legacy Property" - 1930-36 St. Louis Avenue

After seeing this post by Ecology of Absence about the destruction by brick thieves at this mansion at 1930-36 St. Louis Avenue, I decided to take an in-depth look at the damage and what is left.  The mansion turned funeral home turned abandoned Bliarmont property was originally constructed in 1873 and is located in the Clemens House - Columbia Brewery National Register Historic District.  The building should without question be considered a "Legacy Property" in Paul McKee's proposed NorthSide development.  But is this considered a Legacy Property?  No one knows, since to date McEagle has refused to divulge the list of Legacy Properties after numerous requests from various stakeholders.  

A close-up of the unique bracketed balcony over the entrance

A side view of the destruction which has left the rear ell of the mansion a rubble pile

Another view however shows a masonry wall between the ell and the main portion of the mansion intact.  While the rear half of the structure is heavily damaged, the main part of the original mansion, the front half of the addition to the west as well as some of the rear walls are still quite salvageable.  Enough of the structure remains to make the building eligible for Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits. 

The rear of the of the funeral home garage addition from the alley shows extensive damage, however, the large steel beam supporting the roof structure remains.

A view from the west shows the west wall of the addition fully intact as well as the main portion of the mansion.

Inside the garage it is evident that deterioration of the roof had already taken place prior to the brick theft.  The roof itself is easily re-buildable, and the wall could be re-built as well if a new user wanted to retain the rear garage.

A pew from the funeral chapel is left lying in the rubble.

A white glazed brick enclosed room has been completely opened on two sides by the brick rustlers.  The missing walls however appeared to not be load bearing as the large steel beam and roof structure are intact.

Liquid tissue solvent!

Middle portion of the west addition. Though plaster has fallen from the wall and ceiling, the structure is unscathed for now.

View into what was the chapel in the rear ell of the mansion.

Much of the west addition was at one time separated from the main structure by an exterior gangway which was later fully enclosed.

The rear of the chapel in the surviving main portion of the mansion.  The masonry wall above the opening divides the main structure from the damaged ell.

The front parlor of the mansion with the bay which protrudes to the east.

The front hall of the mansion.

The main stair to the second floor was relocated to the west, outside the original west wall, likely to open up the front hall, which led directly to the funeral chapel.  The stair aligns with the now enclosed gangway farther back in the building.

The stair returns into the original mansion at the second floor.

A view of the devastation from the 2nd floor hall.

The stair to the third floor remains in it's original location.

On the second floor, what would have originally been bedrooms had been opened up to create one large space with the bay window at the center.  A column centered on the bay has been stolen resulting in the sag in beam supporting floor joists above

A view of the rear of the large second floor space.

The front of the large room in the main part of the mansion.

A view from the window above the front entrance.  Beyond the ornate balcony rail is the vacant lot which was the site of St. Paul's Methodist Church, which was demolished in the late 1990s.

The front room of the third floor.  While somewhat of a mess, the condition of this room illustrates that the mansion at 1936 St. Louis Avenue is far from the condition where total demolition should be considered.  

As part of their $410 million TIF application McEagle shows revenue of $149 million from Historic Tax Credits.  In order to achieve anything close to that number, McKee will need to do historic renovations of this mansion and likely all other properties on the elusive "Legacy" list.  

The fact that a grand historic property has been allowed to fall into this condition is inexcusable, especially in the hands in the hands of someone asking for $410 million in tax revenue to support his project.  The Board of Alderman and Mayor Slay should not consider giving McKee, who happens to also own a large construction company, one penny until he secures buildings like this and prevents the wanton destruction that has occurred here.