Dogfight Over Metro East Air Park Project

In the latest episode of a story line worth of television drama, Troy D. Martin, head of Martin Aviation Group, a company that announced plans for a $4 billion air park in Metro East, said that he fired The Korte Co. as his general contractor prior to their announcement this week that they had quit.

Martin's biggest claim to fame prior to the announcement of the condominium project at Downtown St. Louis Airport was as the passenger in a Cessna that was almost shot down by military jets over the White House in 2005.

He has said that the project — which is projected to have 42 buildings with two expansion towers totaling 4 million square feet — will cater to non-U.S. companies wishing to establish a North American headquarters. The website for the the project claims, among other things, that the condominium project, where buildings are projected to sell at $950 per square foot, will have a 10,000-space parking garage and helicopters and chauffeured Rolls Royce limosines for executive tenants. The mile-long campus, which is termed the "Golden Mile" on Martin's website.

Martin said that Korte had not performed and that he has hired Holland Construction Services to replace Korte.