BRENTWOOD • The 10-story Meridian parking garage in Brentwood is rarely, if ever, even half full.
And yet, with hundreds of empty parking spaces available for commuters using the adjacent MetroLink stop, the Metro transit agency paid about $5.9 million in 2010 to buy several hundred additional spaces from the development firm that built the garage.
This is the garage that, in 2004, almost did not get built when then-Metro chief executive Larry Salci rejected the proposed $19 million construction cost as way too high — and out of line with what the agency had paid to build a garage in North County and one that ºüÀêÊÓƵ County had built in Clayton.
But in two later transactions, Metro eventually paid $20 million. First, it paid $14 million for a two-thirds share of the structure in a partnership with the developer, Don Musick.
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Then later, it paid the additional $5.9 million to buy the rest of the garage from the developer. The transaction helped Musick in a time of need — he faced a lawsuit from lenders on the project for defaulting on a loan.
That last transaction is branded as a bailout of a politically connected campaign contributor in a whistle-blower suit that was unsealed last week. The allegation, levied by Metro engineer Eric Fields, only became public when Fields withdrew the filing after failing to get U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan to join the suit.
In such suits, whistle-blowers can sue on behalf of the government. The filings are kept secret for at least 60 days to allow the Justice Department to evaluate the claims. If a suit succeeds, the whistle-blower can reap up to 30 percent of the final judgment. The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on specific allegations in Fields' suit but said the call not to join the case was "a joint, unanimous decision" among his office and the departments of Transportation and Justice.
His office, which covers eastern Missouri, sees about 10 such suits a year, he said, but declines to join in about 80 percent.
Salci, in an interview, echoes some of the claims in the suit, saying he felt pressure in 2004 from ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Executive Charlie A. Dooley's administration to make a deal with the developer on the garage.
"I was adamantly opposed to it," Salci said. "I told Metro's board of commissioners that there was no way we could afford to do this deal sole-sourced," without competitive bidding.
He said the tension ultimately resulted in the compromise that produced the shared ownership arrangement in the garage — which Salci signed off on. Salci was fired by Metro in 2007. Later, under the administration of Salci's successor, Bob Baer, Metro made the deal to purchase the developer's share.
The Metro board voted on Oct. 22, 2010, for the Meridian purchase. Lewis McKinney cast the only negative vote. McKinney, who is no longer on the board, could not be reached for comment.
The suit alleges that the $5.9 million purchase made little sense for Metro and was instead aimed to benefit the developer, Eager Road Associates, and its principals, Musick, Adolphus A. Busch IV and Alan Skop. Those three had been sued for $11.6 million by a Birmingham, Ala.-based bank that helped finance the Meridian project.
Musick and his companies were major contributors to Dooley's successful 2010 campaign and to the campaign supporting an increase in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County sales tax by a half-cent to fund Metro, which passed in April 2010.
Fields, 40, of Richmond Heights, has worked at Metro since 2003. He declined to comment beyond his suit, which detailed no evidence to support his allegations on the Meridian deal.
DOOLEY RESPONSE
Dooley, a Democrat, called the allegations "ridiculous and insulting" but declined to address specific questions about the garage's cost and public value.
"There's nothing there," he said. "It's a fabrication, and that must be why the individual withdrew the lawsuit."
A spokesman for Musick said the developer adamantly denied that the Meridian deal was done to help get ERA out from under the bank lawsuit. He declined to comment further.
Metro President and CEO John Nations characterized the allegations as "unsubstantiated and unfounded." Nations said the agency's business and real estate strategy is to own the parking around its stations "to the degree we can."
He said the Brentwood garage fills up with MetroLink riders when sporting events are held downtown.
However on Friday night, when the Cardinals played before a big crowd, only the first floor of the garage was full. The second floor was about half full, and floors 3 through 10 were nearly empty.
Baer called the arrangement a "great deal" for taxpayers.
"I think it was a reasonable and responsible business decision that I think will serve the taxpayers well now and into the future," he said.
Asked whether Dooley pressured Metro to purchase the garage, Baer replied: "Absolutely not."
Nations said ERA's original asking price for its share of the garage was $8.5 million, which Metro rejected.
Baer said Metro used Richard Shepard of Real Estate Strategies to independently evaluate the deal, and he determined Metro bought the developer's share of the garage at or below market price.
Nations said Metro did not gain any additional parking for commuters. Instead, Metro leased some floors back to Eager Road Associates, which subleases to businesses for employee parking. So parking provides ongoing source of revenue to the agency, he said.
The whistle-blower suit made other allegations involving work on two bridges. It alleges that the procurement process favored a specific contractor for work on the Vandeventer bridge. The suit also alleges the Vandeventer bridge foundation was not sunk deep enough and might be unstable. Fields further criticized the bidding process for work to rehabilitate the Eads Bridge, saying the winning contractor was tossed out because the company was not union affiliated.
Nations flatly denied both assertions. He said there are not any safety or design issues with Vandeventer, and that the agency rebid the Eads project because the initial bids were much higher than expected.
MUSICK PROJECTS
Musick's companies have pursued other development opportunities near MetroLink stations. In 2001, Don C. Musick Construction Co. was the general contractor for a redevelopment project near the Swansea MetroLink Station. The $25 million retail center was to include a Home Depot and Garden Center, but the project never materialized because the developer never acquired the major piece of property, said Village Administrator John Openlander.
In September 2009, Dooley asked the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Council to support tax increment financing — a subsidy to encourage development — for another Musick project, an office and store project near the North Hanley MetroLink station parking lot.
Dooley asked that Geiger Road Associates LLC, a Musick company affiliate, be designated as the preferred developer. Musick's company owned much of the 17.4 acres on the southeastern corner of Hanley and Geiger roads.
Glenn Powers, ºüÀêÊÓƵ County planning director, said he has not heard anything about the project since then.
Musick is the chairman of Citizens for Modern Transit, a group that has long advocated light-rail and mass transit in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region. The group was formed in 1985 to promote MetroLink.
He was also a major contributor to Proposition A, the half-cent Metro tax proposal that voters overwhelmingly approved in April of 2010, with donations of $25,000 in cash and $1,250 in in-kind donations. Musick, his associates and his companies contributed $20,000 to Dooley's 2010 re-election campaign.
$20 MILLION IN SUBSIDIES
The 1,200-space Meridian garage is part of ERA's Meridian at Brentwood project, a mixed-use development for which the company received $20 million in tax increment financing from the city of Brentwood in 2000. Major tenants include offices for BJC Health Care, as well as retail outlets such as Best Buy and Sports Authority and several restaurants.
The garage itself opened in June 2007, months before the recession struck.
It had a turbulent start. Three years earlier, in 2004, Salci, then the Metro chief executive, rejected ERA's original bid to build a 1,000-space garage for $19 million. At the time, Metro had a memorandum of understanding with ERA to do the job and had not sought other bids.
An internal Metro document written in January 2004 by then-Metro Vice President Steve Knobbe to transit agency officials noted that the ERA bid equated to about $15,000 per parking space — while construction costs at Metro's North Hanley and the county's Clayton garages were about $9,000 per space.
"The main reason for this difference is the lack of competitive bids," Knobbe wrote.
Salci said that almost immediately after he canceled the deal, he began getting pressure from Tom Curran, who at the time was an aide to Dooley on transportation and development matters. (Curran now serves as Dooley's director of governmental affairs.)
"Curran told me, 'You need to understand who Don Musick is. He is a major campaign contributor,'" Salci said.
"I told him that I didn't care who Musick was, there was no way I was going to do this sole-sourced.
"And Curran told me, 'We want Don Musick to build this garage and Don Musick is going to build this garage."
County officials said that Curran would not be available for comment.
Salci said he finally gave in to the pressure and reached a joint-use agreement with ERA to share the garage expenses.
Dooley denied that he or anyone in his office pressured Salci.
"As if Salci would ever have done anything I told him to do," Dooley said. "That would have been a first."