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ST. LOUIS — Developer Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration faces a court order to repair and secure a historic Page Boulevard auto dealership it owns, a ruling that could prompt other lawsuits against the controversial north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ landowner.

ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer ruled Thursday that the Covenant Blu Grand Center Neighborhood Association had proven that NorthSide’s building at 3509 Page Boulevard met Missouri law’s definition of a nuisance property. The ruling marks the first time the courts have stepped in to compel the city’s highest-profile private owner of vacant properties to stabilize one of its many deteriorating buildings.

The neighborhood association filed a lawsuit in October 2022 asking for the court to force NorthSide to address city code violations levied against the building over a nearly 10-year period, including two condemnations — in 2014 and then in 2017 — for unsafe conditions.

Stelzer’s ruling should spur NorthSide “to fix up the property or sell it to someone who will,� said Peter Hoffman, an attorney with the nonprofit Legal Services of Eastern Missouri who represented the neighborhood association. It won’t be able to demolish the structure, the former ABC Auto Sales building built in 1927, without special city approval because it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“If the owners don’t abate the nuisance conditions additional penalties will be on the table,� Hoffman said. “We also hope that this sends a message to these owners that this type of neglect is just not acceptable. It’s harmful to the neighborhood and the city and it’s unlawful. Their inaction has consequences.�

Audrey Ellermann, president of the Covenant Blu Grand Center Neighborhood Association, said residents were “ecstaticâ€� about the ruling. The structure, which sits across from the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Housing Authority’s headquarters and a PNC Bank branch near North Grand Boulevard, has been deteriorating since NorthSide bought it in 2009. It has gotten so bad in recent years that its crumbling façade has blocked pedestrian use of the sidewalk.

“It’s right at the main entrance of the neighborhood,� Ellermann said. “It defines the neighborhood.�

McKee and his attorney who handled the case, Joe Dulle of law firm Stone, Leyton and Gershman, did not respond to a question asking whether NorthSide would repair the property or appeal the ruling.

NorthSide could have addressed the property conditions during the lawsuit, Hoffman said, but it argued the lawsuit should be thrown out on legal technicalities, which Stelzer dismissed. James Bax, another Legal Services attorney who is working on the case, noted the neighborhood’s lawyers had to ask for court sanctions to even get responses to its April discovery requests.

“To say it’s been a fight would be somewhat of an understatement,� Bax said.

Stelzer’s ruling also awarded the neighborhood attorney’s fees for the case. Hoffman said those could already be around “six figures.�

“If they want to further litigate this, the meter will be running,� he said.

Legal Services’ Neighborhood Advocacy division, which Hoffman runs, has filed a handful of lawsuits against absentee landowners on behalf of neighborhood groups as part of its problem property initiative. But the Covenant Blu neighborhood’s lawsuit was the first time Legal Services attorneys took aim at NorthSide, which owns over 1,600 properties and has stoked controversy for years.

In November, another neighborhood association, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Place Community Association, sued NorthSide to force repairs on four properties in its boundaries near the under-construction National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency headquarters.

Hoffman said he suspects more lawsuits could be filed this year and that other neighborhood groups dealing with neglected NorthSide properties can contact Legal Services.

In the mid-2000s, NorthSide began buying up thousands of properties north of downtown. It had the blessing of City Hall at first, reaching deals to add to its holdings with major purchases of abandoned properties from the city’s land bank.

After it amassed land encompassing more than 200 acres in some of the city’s most hollowed-out neighborhoods, complaints from remaining residents over property conditions began mounting. Promised developments never materialized.

NorthSide was among the initial proponents of pitching the NGA on a new site in north ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. But after the city got on board with the plan, contentious negotiations to assemble the land for the federal government — including buying back real estate the city had sold to NorthSide just a few years before — further strained the relationship.

Allegations of tax credit fraud sullied the company’s reputation further.

By 2018, the city cancelled a development agreement with NorthSide covering much of the area.

But the city has largely been unable to force NorthSide to remedy dangerous property conditions at its properties. It has cited and fined NorthSide dozens of times over conditions at the Page Avenue building and the company’s failure to address them.

The Covenant Blu lawsuit, however, contains potential mechanisms to force action, which still need to be litigated. For one, it asks the court to hold McKee personally liable for the repairs to the ABC Auto building, claiming NorthSide is “insolvent.� It also asks the court to appoint a receiver to take over the building and abate the nuisance conditions, something the neighborhood may pursue if it has to.

“This litigation could go on quite a bit longer,� Hoffman said. “It doesn’t have to. If he wants to donate the property I’m sure the neighborhood association could help find somebody to take it and redevelop that site. But if he continues to sit on his hands, I think that’s when we’ll have to explore these options with the court.�