Deteriorating neighborhoods for profit: Blairmont Holdings, St. Louis

[Hannah Bell]

Blairmont overview

In 2003, a private company known as Blairmont Associates, LLC began buying up houses and vacant lots on the near north side of St. Louis. In 2005, the pace increased, and many additional shell companies were used to continue the purchases. All these companies have been tied back to one Paul McKee, a suburban developer.

As of 2008, Blairmont owns over 600 parcels of land... Word has spread of strong-arm tactics, of tenants forced to vacate before the sale.

Encouraging decay

Much physical evidence exists to suggest that Blairmont's properties are being actively pushed into deterioration, ruin, and ultimately demolition:

Without exception, Blairmont properties are vacant. If there are tenants before the purchase, they are quickly evicted.

Blairmont makes no effort to repair or maintain their buildings or to maintain the grounds of their holdings, forcing the city to mow the grass. This neglect makes it obvious that the properties are empty, making them an easy target for criminal activity.

Most of Blairmont's buildings are not properly secured, with windows left unboarded. In many cases, windows are actually removed from the buildings after their purchase by Blairmont, leaving them open to vandals, thieves, drug dealers, and the elements, all of which hastens their deterioration.

Most of these actions are both illegal and immoral, creating dangerous conditions for residents who live nearby, and preventing other buyers from renovating these buildings. The decay drives down property values, raises fears of emminent domain siezures, and creates isolation and fear. Demolition by neglect diminishes established historic districts, violating the law and endangering the tax credits that ordinary citizens often rely upon to make their renovations feasible.

A tax-funded shell game

Evidence supports the notion that the Blairmont companies typically sell their properties back and forth to one another at inflated prices...If all these purchases are leading up to a project funded by tax credits, the inflated sale prices are a scheme to blatantly rob taxpayers. It costs McKee nothing, as he's essentially moving his own money from one pocket to another, but it creates a record of a higher price which would be credited to McKee under the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit -- a Missouri state bill which McKee apparently had a very heavy hand in creating...

http://www.builtstlouis.net/northside/blairmont00.html


Great website of St. Louis architecture, btw.

[onethatcares]

1. those are some great houses

I've lived in a few like that and the flooring alone would sell for big dollars to salvagers along with the moldings and woodwork.

Of course he's going to grab all the taxpayer money he can, he's a puke and demands lower taxes. Imagine all jobs and homes that could be created by rehabbing that lot?

[janx]

2. The more I read about this,

the more nauseated I feel.

[Hannah Bell]

3. me too. cause that guy isn't the only one doing this. many years

ago i read a major expose on similar tactics in detroit, contributing to the decline in some of its neighborhoods.

i've believed ever since that ghettos are often deliberate creations.

[janx]

4. At least it seems that this is getting some press in the St. Louis area.

I grew up there and my ex still lives in the county. He probably knows about this.

[pipoman]

5. In addition to the tax credit scam

when the crime is sufficiently high he will make a deal with the city to renovate the properties if the city gives even more tax credits and delivers other properties to him through eminent domain theft. Then he will hold himself out as a hero for singlehandedly crushing the crime problem in these neglected areas. It has happened all across the US.