THE GOOD GUYS FIGHT BACK IN BRENTWOOD
Lawsuit over eminent domain is vital to the region and state. And there’s even a Trump angle.
A national public-interest law firm has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Brentwood businesses and residents to block the use of eminent domain for a corporate-welfare-driven, $436 million project known as Brentwood Bound.
This is the project I wrote about here on July 7. It is the perfect example of development policy gone mad in the state of Missouri and in particular, the St. Louis region. Everywhere you turn, governments in well-to-do suburbs – and even the city, for its thriving pockets – are doling out public resources to influential developers by “blighting” areas that are not remotely blighted.
But the genius of this lawsuit filed by the Virginia-based Institute for Justice is that it attacks the Achilles heel of the Brentwood project: an atrocious abuse of eminent domain power. From its libertarian vantage point, it’s not an esoteric argument about corporate welfare; it goes right to the noxious tool that too often fuels the practice.
The lawsuit also might add to the woes of Green Street Real Estate Ventures, one of the region’s leading developers, which was granted a whopping $89.3 million in public incentives for the project, backed by the city’s eminent domain power. The company has been in the news just this week for its apparent financial problems.
Green Street owes the city nearly $800,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties related to several of its commercial properties, according to the Post-Dispatch. That’s jarring news about a company that’s an esteemed member of the crème de la crème of the business community.
Green Street is ranked as the region’s 7th largest commercial developer, with 1.12 million square feet completed or under construction this year, according to the Business Journal. Green Street is also listed as a $100,000-plus investor in Greater St. Louis Inc. (GSL), the area’s top business group.
So, this story has lots of tentacles. And best of all, the Institute for Justice brings with it a priceless Donald Trump angle on eminent domain. It’s all pretty interesting for a commercial real estate story.