Paul McKee (developer)

Paul McKee, Jr. is a St. Louis, Missouri-area property developer. McKee's property management and development company, M Property Services, formerly McEagle Properties, is based in O'Fallon, Missouri.

McKee grew up in the suburb of Overland, Missouri and attended Chaminade College Preparatory School. He has a civil engineering degree from Washington University in St. Louis and is a registered professional engineer in Missouri, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois. He is married to Marguerite "Midge" McKee and the two have four children and 15 grandchildren. They live in the suburb of Chesterfield, Missouri.

McKee's co-founded the construction firm Paric Corp. in 1979. He is a founding member of the board and former chairman of BJC HealthCare, the area's largest employer. He has donated tens of thousands of dollars to politicians of both political parties. McKee says that he favors neither party particularly strongly, but "follow[s] the business agenda". McKee was the primary organizer of a bipartisan trade mission to People's Republic of China to stimulate trade between that country and businesses in the region, with a particular focus on using the underutilized Lambert-St. Louis International Airport as a cargo stopover from China to South America.

Since its inception in 1990, M Property Services has provided development assistance for over 3,600 acres and over 3.5 million square feet of commercial and residential space. Specializing in large-scale, mixed-use developments, M Property Services and its affiliates have owned or developed and sold office buildings, industrial facilities, retail centers and sites throughout the St. Louis metropolitan region and surrounding states.

Major developments
Some of McKee's major developments include WingHaven, a 1200 acre mixed-use project that is the corporate home to MasterCard Operations Center in O'Fallon, MO; NorthPark, a joint venture with Clayco Realty Group including 5000000 sqft of planned commercial and industrial redevelopment in North St. Louis County that is the corporate home to Express Scripts; and Hazelwood Commerce Center, a 151 acre industrial park in Hazelwood, Missouri.

McKee's envisioned NorthSide Regeneration Project in the Old North Saint Louis, JeffVanDerLou and Saint Louis Place neighborhoods was initially referred to as Blairmont, in reference to one of the shell companies used to acquire lots and buildings in the three neighborhoods. In May 2009 the redevelopment idea was publicly revealed as "Northside," a $8.1 billion vision covering some 1500 acre of the city. It would include four commercial centers totaling over 3000000 sqft of new retail and office space, 1,000,000 square feet of light industrial space, new homes, parks, and a trolley line.

NorthSide was intended to revitalize North St. Louis. However, according to St. Louis Public Radio, "Nearly a decade after Paul McKee sold St. Louis on a vision worth billions to rehab more than 150 properties on the city’s north side, roofs have caved, walls have crumbled and residents have lost patience — and hope." In addition, the state of Missouri sued NorthSide Regeneration for tax credit fraud, alleging that NorthSide kept $4.5 million in tax credits for redevelopment projects despite not completing many of the purchases. The suit was settled in 2019.

McKee asked the City of St. Louis for $409,917,496 in tax increment financing to get the project off the ground. The project still remains un-started, and McKee holds the majority of property in the JeffVanderLou area most of which are on the vacated list.

McKee sought to open a three-bed urgent care near the new NGA property, appropriating the name "Homer G. Phillips" for the hospital. Homer G. Phillips was a successful, black hospital in The Ville Neighborhood until Mayor Conway closed it down. Long-time activists who worked and advocated for the real Homer G. Phillips to remain open filed a federal lawsuit against McKee to call out his appropriation actions. McKee's new hospital is in an area outside The Ville and is not close to the size of the previous hospital.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) West Headquarters has committed to building a $1.7 billion campus on a 100-acre site within the development that would support 7,200 jobs with an average salary of approximately $95,000.