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Feeding Frenzy

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Since its beginning in 1982, the airport land buyout -- which has eroded about 85 percent of Kinloch's property-tax base -- has prompted allegations that it was propelled more by greed than by concern about airport noise. Kinloch and St. Louis have waged an ongoing war over the land. The last battle began when Kinloch sued the city last year, alleging that St. Louis reneged on its long-standing commitment to convey the 175 acres back to Kinloch. The suit also accused St. Louis and the airport of misrepresenting the reasons for the buyout to the Federal Aviation Administration (which paid about $50 million for the buyout and related costs), saying the real reason for the buyout was to force the disincorporation of Kinloch so the airport could profit by selling the land to developers.

Airport officials note that the buyout was voluntary and that residents were eager to leave the towns. Moreover, Griggs asserts, the plan to sell the land back to the buyout municipalities has never changed. "Any accusation that we kept this land for a protracted period of time for our own use is absolute nonsense," he says. The airport had to hold the land until the $2.6 billion airport expansion plan received final approval from the FAA, which happened last January, says Griggs. Now, the cities need to submit a development plan that the airport can send to the FAA before the land can be conveyed back to the cities.

Dennis Coleman, director of the St. Louis County Economic Council, says that once the airport-expansion plans, including the runway configurations, were finalized in early 2000, the airport asked the county for help coordinating a development plan. "We started meeting regularly with the cities of Kinloch, Ferguson and Berkeley so we could set up the best way to develop a master plan," says Coleman. The overall development could create thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue for the economically depressed part of North County.

Says County Executive George "Buzz" Westfall: "It is the best thing for North County, certainly in my 11 years [as county executive]. The development and revenue will improve the quality of life for all residents, and if not stopping [it] altogether, it will most certainly slow down the exodus of people from North County."

By the spring of 2000, all three municipalities were on board with the county in coordinating a plan. The airport chipped in $100,000 to finance a master plan by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., a consulting firm from Chicago that coordinated a similar redevelopment near Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The master plan is expected to be completed in December. "The idea was to have Kinloch, Berkeley and Ferguson become one development site," Coleman says. "We want it developed as a whole, instead of piecemeal."

For Kinloch, the clock was ticking. With a new census documenting the rapid population decline, Conway and other city officials began worrying about an estimated 55 percent reduction in sales-tax revenue, which accounts for most of the city's current annual budget.

In October 2000, Kinloch selected Trammell Crow Co. as developer. Berkeley quickly followed suit last November. By January, Ferguson had also selected Trammell Crow.

Coleman says he asked the communities to be patient and wait for the master plan before naming a developer but that they didn't. "I think some of the developers gave them the idea that they could get the deal done, but I don't know how, since they haven't secured the land," he says.

But Conway believed that the airport and county were simply stalling the planning process. "For a year-and-a-half we sat down with the major players and had quite a few meetings," he says. "I told the county, 'We can't drag this along.' The one thing they knew where they had the advantage was time. They started dragging out the process. They would bring in one person and say, 'He is going to help with a 90-day study.' Then they brought in somebody else for another study. I started saying, 'Wait a minute! Time out! When are you going to give us a plan? When are you going to stop talking and do something I can see?' So we got our own plan together."

Pulliam-Jones believes all the delays were deliberate and that St. Louis, St. Louis County and the airport were simply hoping that Kinloch's revenues would dry up and the city would be forced to disincorporate. "We were the community with the fewest resources, and we were taking the lead," she says. "We were at every meeting. We ended up waiting and waiting and waiting, and the whole time the people who were supposed to be helping us were whispering in dark corners, planning for us not to be around."

Even as things were looking bleak for Kinloch, all hell was breaking loose in Berkeley.

Unlike Trammell Crow, a Dallas-based, publicly traded company, TriStar is a locally owned company, founded in 1996 and known for its developments in Earth City, Park 370 in Hazelwood and the Gateway Commerce Center in Illinois. The company owns and controls 2,500 acres in the St. Louis area, more than any other developer, and it had been tracking the airport buyout area all through the 1980s and '90s. "We were watching from the sidelines, keeping tabs on what was going on," says Chapman. "This is what we do every day. We make our living watching real estate."

At the same time Tri-Star was trying to negotiate a deal with Mayor Bernard Turner in Kinloch, the company was also making a play for neighboring Berkeley, a town of about 10,000 that is 76 percent African-American. Berkeley, which has a history of hardball politics, was first approached by TriStar in early 1999. At the time, City Hall was mired in accusations of corruption and the entire City Council was the subject of a recall effort.

Ever since, TriStar has not only pitched its plan to Berkeley officials but gotten down and dirty in local politics. In April 2000, TriStar invited all City Council members to a dinner presentation at Lombardo's, a restaurant on Natural Bridge Road. Boykins was present, as was his former employee, Doris Jackson, who happened to be Berkeley's city clerk at the time. "Luther was there to help us get a handle on who was who," Chapman says. "At the time, things were changing so fast up there because of all the recalls." While newly elected Mayor Babatunde Deinbo and the council members dined on steak, TriStar proposed developing a facility for FedEx on an 11-acre tract of the 233 acres of land, which was owned by the airport and would soon revert back to Berkeley. But, by all accounts, TriStar was fishing for the entire 233-acre catch.

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