At last, something good has happened, development-wise, in St. Louis’ long-suffering North Side. The grand opening last week of the massive new National Geospatial Intelligence Agency campus at Jefferson and Cass not only keeps some 3,000 federal jobs in the city, it provides an impetus for private development in the blighted neighborhoods surrounding the campus.

The problem — as so often seems to be the problem with North Side development in recent years — is a company called NorthSide Regeneration. Notwithstanding its optimistic name, the company and its owner, developer Paul McKee, have become stubborn obstacles to regeneration in the region by sitting on hundreds of acres of neglected properties it owns instead of selling them to those who would actually redevelop them.

It’s a specul

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