More than $1 billion in public and private investment is flowing into downtown St. Paul, city and business leaders announced Tuesday during the St. Paul Downtown Alliance Annual Meeting at the Palace Theatre.
Leaders with the St. Paul Downtown Alliance said the combined $1.293 billion total reflects projects underway or committed across downtown, including infrastructure improvements, redevelopment efforts, housing, corporate campus investments and the proposed overhaul of the city-owned arena complex.
“We wanted to actually show the full picture of all these investments,” Downtown Alliance President Joe Spencer said during the event. “We’ve all heard about these different individual projects, and they’re all great, but it may feel from time to time like that one doesn’t quite rise to the needs that we have in this moment.”
The announcement marks a major milestone in the city’s Downtown Investment Strategy, launched in 2024 to guide redevelopment and reposition downtown following the pandemic-era decline in office use and rising property distress.
“A few years ago, we looked around at each other and realized, like, the world has changed, and waiting around for it to go back to normal was just not going to be a winning strategy,” Spencer said. “We pulled everybody around that table and we said, ‘There’s a million ideas out there, but we all agree if we can get on the same page around what those key strategies are and work together in coalition, we’re going to set the stage for success.’”
Projects highlighted Tuesday included the proposed $600 million arena redevelopment partnership between the city and the Minnesota Wild, Ramsey County’s “Building Stronger Together” downtown initiative, more than $250 million in housing and private development projects, and $100 million in corporate campus investments by companies including Ecolab, Securian Financial and Travelers.
“The city of St. Paul is investing in over $225 million in downtown in road improvements, parks and Downtown Vitality Fund,” Mayor Kaohly Her said. “And we’ve committed $200 million to the Grand Casino Arena complex, which the Minnesota Wild is matching. So that’s over $425 million flowing into downtown St. Paul from the city. So we are not on the sidelines. We are all in.”
Ramsey County Manager Ling Becker said the county is committing $250 million toward downtown projects focused on housing, infrastructure and public spaces.
“The time to act is now,” Becker said.
Officials also emphasized the role of the newly launched St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation, which has spent the past year acquiring distressed downtown properties and building a $30 million investment fund backed by major institutional partners.
“We are using it to acquire properties, to handle their carry costs over time and also to begin pre-development,” said Dave Higgins, president of the development corporation. “It’s symbolic of commitment. It’s symbolic of leadership.”
During the event, the Downtown Alliance also launched a new downtown-focused website, downtownstpaul.com, featuring event listings, residential resources, visitor information and business data intended to serve as a centralized hub for downtown activity.
“There’s a lot that is going on in downtown St. Paul,” Spencer said. “There’s a lot of events. There’s a lot of visitor destinations. There’s a lot of restaurants and businesses and storefronts. And if nobody knows where to find it, we are all sort of not living into our potential.”
The annual meeting also recognized Downtown Improvement District ambassador Jerry Agnew as the organization’s first Ambassador of the Year for his work cleaning streets, removing graffiti and assisting visitors downtown.
Despite ongoing challenges in the downtown office market, leaders repeatedly framed Tuesday’s announcement as evidence the city is entering a new phase of redevelopment momentum.
“We are still just getting started,” Spencer said. “We haven’t even seen a hint of boredom yet.”
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