Update: 3:19 p.m.

Just back from the signing ceremony. It went as expected, despite the rain.

About 50 politicians, business leaders and neighborhood residents huddled under a tent on the grounds of the Clemens House. Mayor Francis Slay signed redevelopment agreements that Aldermen OK’d earlier this month (it was a ceremonial signing; the bills actually took effect last week). There were lots of speeches.

“This is the beginning. This is not the end,” developer Paul McKee told the crowd. “We’ll be back and we’ll continue to have this dialogue with the community.”

Slay said the city will continue to support McKee’s $8.1 billion redevelopment plan, and stressed that the developer can not do this alone. McKee will need partners if he hopes to achieve the kind of impact he’s promising in north St. Louis.

“It will only be finally possible if dozens of other developers and investors will join him,” Slay said.

McKee announced his first formal partnership - with developer Bob Wood - last week, and holding the today’s event at the Clemens House was designed to highlight NorthSide’s first official project. After the ceremony, McKee said he had “three or four” other partnerships in the works in the NorthSide footprint, which he would announce in the next few months.

Now that he has a signed deal with the city, McKee is eligible for up to $20 million a year in state tax credits to reimburse him for buying land. He said he has already filed an application for this calendar year, and plans another in 2010.

McKee and the city continue to negotiate on financing deals for the project’s four phases. A key sticking point has been his request that City Hall agree to back half of the value of tax increment financing bonds, something the Slay administration and Aldermen have so far been reluctant to do.

After today’s ceremony, Slay said there “may be some limited participation,” in financing by the city, but it would have to make financial sense.

“To what extent, if any, the city is going to do that hasn’t been determined,” he said.

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In a few hours, bills giving McEagle Properties the right to redevelop two square miles of north St. Louis will become law.

At 2:00 today, in a ceremony at the Clemens House, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay plans to sign two measures that give McEagle redevelopment rights and authorize $390 million in tax-backed financing for McEagle’s huge proposal.

The bills were passed easily by the Board of Aldermen last month after long and contentious public hearings. But pledges to minimize the use of eminent domain for the so-called NorthSide project, and a decision to put off discussion of city backing for TIF bonds to a later date, led to wide support from Aldermen who see the plan as a chance to bring $8.1 billion in new investment to run-down neighborhoods on the near North Side.

Once the redevelopment agreement is signed into law by Slay, McKee becomes eligible for up to $20 million a year in state tax credits to help recoup the cost of buying roughly 900 properties in the area. Aldermen will consider more detailed agreements and specific plans for the first two of four redevelopment zones in the NorthSide area starting in early 2010.

Opponents of the plan have filed a lawsuit in Cole County challenging the legality of those tax credits, which were created in 2007 and widely seen to benefit only McKee’s project. That case is pending.

In the meantime, McEagle chairman Paul McKee continues to line up partners for his project. Last week, the Post-Dispatch first reported plans from McKee and developer Bob Wood to redevelop the empty and damaged Clemens House on Cass Ave. as low-income apartments and a museum. Hence the outdoor announcement on a rainy Tuesday.

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