[St. Louis Post-Dispatch, no date]
TNT PLANT SITE BUYER
DISPUTES NEW APPRAISALS
R. Newton McDowell of
Kansas City Says Valuation by Federal Agents ‘Won’t Mean a Thing.’
CITES CONDITIONS OF
HIS PURCHASES
Asserts He Worked
Under Requirements of Speed and Preservation of Owners’ Good Will.
R. Newton
McDowell, the Kansas City contractor engaged by the War Department to acquire
the 16,000-acre site in St. Charles County for a TNT plant, protested to a
Post-Dispatch reporter today that new appraisals now being made by agents of
the War Department and Department of Justice “won’t mean a thing” because he
operated under requirements that the land should be obtained speedily and that
the good will of the land owners should be preserved.
McDowell,
who is to get a 5 per cent commission on the $3,000,000 the Government has
agreed to pay for a tract it had estimated could be acquired for $1,000,000,
stopped in St. Louis on his way to Kansas City after conferring in Washington
with John J. O’Brien of the Department of Justice, who has recently been placed
in charge of the Quartermaster’s Construction Division. The new appraisals
followed complaints that original prices to which the Government agreed were
too high.
In his
conference with O’Brien, McDowell said, three major criticisms against “this
type” of defense project were discussed. They were that land prices were too
high, that commissions were paid on commissions, and that the 5 per cent
commission was too much.
His Commissions.
Explaining
what was meant by payment of commissions on commissions, McDowell said that in
some cases a landowner and the agent might agree on a figure—he took $100 an as
example—but the landowner would insist on getting the full $100 and the option
price would be put at $105, giving the agent a commission on an extra $5.
McDowell maintained this had occurred in but few instances in St. Charles
County and the total of commissions involved, he said, was $277.
[one or more lines missing]
for property along the Missouri River bluffs, on the ground
that they were the last bluff tracts available for home site development in the
immediate vicinity of St. Louis. There are 957 acres in this strip, of which
the Government has acquired 893 acres. A condemnation suit to acquire the other
64 acres is contemplated. Assessed valuation of the bluff property acquired is
$14,580, and for this the Government has agreed to pay $222,184.
Mahaffey Deal.
The largest
holder of bluff property, as the Post-Dispatch told yesterday, is Birch O.
Mahaffey, St. Louis capitalist, who is to get $123,487 for 630 acres assessed
at $4600. The Mahaffey holdings are in five tracts, including one of 40 acres
which he bought in 1937 for $2000 and sold to the Government for $8202. Another
is a 202-acre tract which he bought in 1929 and sold for $41,441. This tract
had been owned by Charles V. Seelinger and Isidore Stahldahl. Seelinger told a
reporter yesterday they got $16,850 for the property, but today, after checking
records and conferring with Stahldahl, he said they had sold it for $5500.
Stahldahl
added the sale had been to a real estate agent, not directly to Mahaffey. He
and Seelinger had bought the property for $4000 eight months before they sold
it, Stahldahl said.
Other
holders of bluff property acquired by the Government are George C. Willson, St.
Louis attorney, who got $32,000 for 52 acres assessed at $780; Thomas H.
Rogers, director of the legislative bureau of the Chamber of Commerce, who got
$24,000 for 17 acres assessed at $4800; C. E. Fridley, who got $15,000 for 56
acres assessed at $1920; Mrs. Jennie Paul, who got $17,697 for 86 acres
assessed at $940, and Mrs. Hattie Mades, who got $10,000 for 55 acres assessed
at $1420. The 64-acre tract to be condemned, assessed at $660, is owned by
Agnes Kalodzey of Yorktown, Tex. The Fridley and Mades properties mentioned
include some bottom land.
McDowell’s 5 Per Cent.
In
connection with the prices paid for the bluff land, McDowell mentioned that the
transactions for the first three of the five Mahaffey tracts acquired by the
Government were closed by Charles H. Smith, a special representative of the
Attorney General, who was sent from Washington to assist McDowell in getting
the movement started. McDowell said, however, his 5 per cent commission is to
apply on these transactions as well as the others.
Another St.
Louisan who sold property in the tract was Kenneth H. Bitting, investment
broker. For 231 acres of farm land and improvements including an eight-room
house he got $29,414. The property was assessed at $3600. Bitting acquired it
five years ago. He told a reporter he could not recall what be paid for it
without checking his records.
