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ST. LOUIS — Paul McKee’s troubled grocery store and gas station are in foreclosure after the developer defaulted on debt payments.

McKee opened Zoom, a gas station and mini mart, and Greenleaf Market in 2019 with the help of a $10 million loan from the Bank of Springfield. He had pitched the projects as part of his NorthSide Regeneration plan, which promised to revitalize north St. Louis but ultimately failed to take off.

In 2024, Greenleaf Market, located at 1400 North 13th Street, closed after months of empty shelves and sparse staffing. Zoom, which operates next to an Amoco gas station at 1300 North Tucker Boulevard, remains open and sells hot to-go food.

The properties are scheduled to be auctioned Aug. 6 on the steps of the 22nd Circuit civil courts building in downtown St. Louis.

But McKee told the Post-Dispatch that he is “in serious discussion with the lender.�

“Our goal is to avert the foreclosure and bring back food to the community,� McKee said Tuesday. “[We’re] making great progress.�

Loan trustee Douglas Dove did not respond to requests for comment.

Two decades ago, McKee started buying up hundreds of acres of land north of downtown.

But to date, only three projects have been completed and all three have faltered: the grocery store and Zoom business are in foreclosure, and the Homer G. Phillips Memorial Hospital, a 15-bed care facility in Carr Square, closed its doors in December and officially surrendered its hospital license in March.

McKee is no stranger to financial disputes. Last year, the Post-Dispatch reported that properties affiliated with McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration owed more than $1.6 million in back taxes.

And, since last December, medical providers and a construction contractor have filed eight lawsuits against the shuttered hospital, seeking more than $3.5 million.

A McKee entity that owns the properties, St. Louis Grocery Real Estate LLC, owes a Maplewood-based construction company $15,471 and the Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council over $1.8 million, according to two pending lawsuits.

This isn’t the first time the developer has faced foreclosure on his NorthSide Regeneration properties. In 2015, Kansas-based Titan Fish Two LLC bought 46 NorthSide parcels at auction with a bid of $3.2 million. At the time, McKee’s spokesperson said the loss would “not adversely affect the NorthSide Regeneration project.�

And last year, NorthSide Regeneration faced foreclosure on about 1,000 properties due to years of unpaid property taxes, but McKee managed to pay the roughly $1 million tax bill by the deadline.