Kiel Center fails to file return, will pay penalty. (Kiel Center Partners)

Kiel Center Partners will pay the city of St. Louis between $43,000 and $60,000 in penalties for not filing a 1995 personal property tax return on the Kiel Center.

The amount is still uncertain because the penalty is calculated as a percentage of the assessed value of personal property and that value is a matter of dispute.

Kiel Partners has paid its 1995 property tax bill of roughly $350,000 under protest but is appealing the city's property tax assessment before the State Tax Commission.

"The point of this story is not so much the tax appeal as the penalty. The city has to treat the Kiel Center Partners as equally and fairly as Ma and Pa Kettle on Bates, …