R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch

Since time immemorial, one sure-fire way to get rich has been to find out ahead of time where a new road or bridge was going to be built, and then buy up all the right of way around it. When a caveman threw the first log across a creek, his brother-in-law probably owned the land on the other side.

But the latest iteration of this tried-and-true scheme puzzles us. Why would one public entity — the city’s Land Reutilization Authority — sell a plot of land for $2 to a developer in 2003, knowing full well that maps showed another public entity — the Missouri Department of Transportation — might need the land for a bridge approach?

If the developer was working a land flip, buying cheap in hopes of selling high, why did he go ahead and spend nearly a million dollars to clear and pave the land and erect storage units on it — even as it became ever more apparent that the land would be needed for the new bridge?

For that matter, in 2006, as the developer’s plans had fallen behind and plans for the bridge were moving forward, why did the Land Reutilization Authority ignore its staff’s recommendation to cancel the deal?
Why are taxpayers being stuck with a $2.3 million tab — the amount set by a condemnation proceeding — for property that changed hands for two bucks not quite six years ago?

Reporter Heather Ratcliffe of the Post-Dispatch disclosed this troubling deal on Sunday. The property in question is now Archview Storage, at Eighth and Howard streets in an industrial area between Interstate 70 and Broadway about half a mile north of the Edward Jones Dome.

For now you can store stuff there, but in five or six years, you’ll be able to stand on the site and look up at the eastbound approach ramp to the new Mississippi River Bridge.

Archview is owned by a partnership that includes Randy Heil, who owns a nearby tool-and-tie shop, and Daniel McGuire, president of McGuire Moving & Storage. Mr. McGuire also is a principal in the proposed Bottle District project; he has donated at least $4,750 to Mayor Francis Slay’s campaign committee since, state campaign records show.

The LRA is charged with finding buyers for vacant properties that the city owns. Rodney Crim, LRA’s director, said neighbors had complained about the property at 801 Howard. The city was looking at $100,000 just to clear the property, he said. Finding someone who would take care of the mess and build a million-dollar storage facility there seemed like a good idea, particularly in light of uncertainty over the bridge.

Because of funding disputes between Missouri and Illinois, the bridge was an on-again, off-again idea until early 2008. That’s why, in 2006, the LRA again gave the developers the go-ahead, fearing legal repercussions if the bridge were not built, Mr. Crim said.

Alderman Fred Wessels, D-13th ward, told Ms. Ratcliffe that the deal “makes no sense. By selling to a developer while knowing that’s going to be needed for a bridge, they just invited a large settlement that MoDOT is required to pay. “In my mind, it should not have been sold. They should have listened to their own staff. And the question needs to be asked, ‘Why didn’t they?’”

Good question. And since Mr. Wessels is chairman of the aldermanic committee that has oversight over the LRA, we hope he will hold hearings and ask that.