ST. LOUIS 鈥 A judge on Wednesday upheld the city鈥檚 2019 termination of a developer鈥檚 lease of a site at 狐狸视频 Lambert International Airport, likely clearing the way for Boeing Co. to use it in its potential $1.8 billion expansion here.
狐狸视频 Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser ruled that Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge had the authority to end a deal with Bi-National Gateway Terminal LLC because of the firm鈥檚 failure to pay back rent and meet other requirements.
鈥淭here can be no dispute that it was in the city鈥檚 best interest to end a tenancy with a party that was unable to meet the preconditions,鈥 Sengheiser said in his decision.
Bi-National, which wanted to put an international cargo facility at the site, argued in its lawsuit that the voiding of the contract could only occur via a new ordinance passed by the city Board of Aldermen and signed by the mayor and comptroller.
People are also reading…
But Sengheiser pointed out that an ordinance approved earlier in 2019 that revised the lease had given Hamm-Niebruegge authority to enter into any agreements deemed necessary to preserve and protect the city鈥檚 interest.
鈥淭he Court finds such a grant of authority necessarily includes the power to terminate the agreements,鈥 he said.
Hamm-Niebruegge said she was pleased with the ruling and wasn鈥檛 surprised by it. 鈥淲e had a high level of confidence鈥 that proper procedures were followed in voiding the lease, she said.
She said 鈥渆verything鈥檚 progressing鈥 regarding the Boeing plan and that the city hadn鈥檛 been concerned about the lawsuit.
Bi-National鈥檚 president, Ricardo Nicolopulos, could not be reached for comment.
The judge in his decision noted that Hamm-Niebruegge had voided the lease because, among other things, Bi-National had failed to pay $323,545 in past rent, plus some delinquent utility bills.
The site at issue is on the north end of Lambert along Banshee Road and includes buildings from a long-vacant manufacturing complex. Under the last version of the Bi-National plan, the old buildings would have been rehabbed and financing would include state historic tax credits.
Boeing plans to tear down the buildings and replace them with new construction.
The new Boeing lease, which was approved by aldermen in September, also includes a larger area of airport-owned property on Lambert鈥檚 eastern end in Berkeley.
Boeing has said its expanded facilities would involve advanced manufacturing but hasn鈥檛 elaborated.
The plan, which could bring 500 jobs, was announced amid the aerospace industry鈥檚 preparations to bid to build the next generation of American fighter jets. The expansion would occur only if Boeing was successful in winning such a contract.
Nicolopulos earlier this year had notified Boeing in a letter about the lawsuit. He said in an interview in September that Bi-National was open to negotiating a settlement, saying that his company had invested more than $11 million in the project.
The Bi-National project was initially approved by the city in mid-2015 and was expected to be in operation as soon as 2016.
However, the project stalled until a new financing plan that was worked out in 2019. CRG, the real estate arm of the Clayco construction firm, was added to the project team at the time. But just a few months later, Hamm-Niebruegge ended the deal.
Nicolopulos, at the time his firm sued the city, alleged that they had been advised by city employees and officials that the project wouldn鈥檛 go smoothly unless Bi-National included 鈥渁 certain construction firm鈥 favored by the city and some of its officials.
The suit didn鈥檛 name the firm but Nicolopulos said in a 2019 interview that he was referring to CRG.
In response, Bob Clark, who heads Clayco and CRG, said in an email at the time that 鈥渨e have no knowledge鈥 of the city pushing for CRG鈥檚 addition and that CRG had been approached by Nicolopulos and an associate.