District Perspectives, President St. Paul Downtown Alliance

The St. Paul Downtown Alliance held its first Annual Meeting last month at the Palace Theatre. There, we painted a picture of how all the recently announced investments by public and private groups come together as an unprecedented, collective $1.293 billion investment in downtown. Because project by project, announcement by announcement, it can be hard to feel the scale of what’s happening here. Across multiple sectors, multiple partners and multiple years of aligned work—something extraordinary has taken shape since the Downtown Investment Strategy was unveiled just two years ago.

The City of St. Paul is investing over $242 million in downtown — in road improvements, parks, and a downtown vitality fund. They have also committed $200 million to the Grand Casino Arena Complex, which is being matched by the Minnesota Wild. That’s over $442 million flowing into downtown St. Paul from the City. The City is all in.

Ramsey County is committing $230 million to downtown St. Paul through their Building Stronger Together, Dynamic Downtown strategy. That means catalyzing projects like the Park at RiversEdge, investing in a housing fund to bring more residents into the core and infrastructure investment to spark connection and create spaces for events, culture and celebration.

The St. Paul Port Authority is taking the lead in readying the former St. Joseph’s Hospital campus for its next chapter. Just steps from St. Paul’s entertainment district, they are unlocking this long-dormant site through a unique, public–private partnership with Fairview. Together, they are tearing down vacant buildings, cleaning up the property, and preparing 5.5 acres for new investment.

We also have a number of active private developers. The value of the developments recently completed, under construction, or in the near-term pipeline are in excess of $250 million and growing. Each week, we hear of another interested developer being attracted to our downtown. The deals are happening and I expect the pace to increase to match the current effort being displayed by the public and corporate sectors.

The major downtown corporations of Ecolab, Securian Financial, Travelers and others are investing $100 million in upgrading their campuses. That is a statement of confidence. That is businesses saying: we are investing in our future here.

Metro Transit recently completed $21 million in new rapid transit systems and MN Dot is investing $16 million into the new John Ireland Bridge, making visitation faster and easier for our downtown events, which supports our local bars, restaurants, and shops.

And our own Downtown Development Corporation started an investment fund, seeded by the Bush Foundation and Securian Financial to the tune of $30 million, so that we could purchase and develop buildings that were in extreme distress and turn them into catalyst properties in our core.

This investment was leveraged by the people who showed up when showing up wasn’t glamorous. The small business owners who bet on this downtown when the odds weren’t obvious. The residents who chose this city and defended it when others wrote it off. Volunteer and nonprofit organizations such as the Friends of Mears Park, the Friends of Pedro Park, The CapitolRiver Council, the Friends of the Skyway, Rice Park Association, St. Paul BOMA, St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, Parks Conservancy and Sustain St. Paul deserve a special shout out.

That is sweat equity.

This investment is a credit to everyone who ever refused to give up on downtown St. Paul. We have always believed in this place. And that belief has attracted the capital to make dreams come true.

But this is just the start. What we are seeing now is momentum. Investors and developers across the region are beginning to recognize what those of us closest to downtown have known for years: St. Paul is a great place to invest. We expect additional investment announcements and new partnerships to continue building on this foundation into the future. The story of downtown St. Paul is no longer about potential. It is about progress already underway and a future that is becoming impossible to ignore.