This article originally appeared in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal‘s website. It can be viewed in its original context here.
If a Phoenix developer’s plans come true, the former West Publishing and Ramsey County jail site in downtown St. Paul will become a mixed-use project with a balcony connection to the Mississippi Riverfront.
Cardon Development Group is planning a $225 million, three-building campus atop what would be a large parking ramp built up against the bluff where the jail and office building once sat.
Under Cardon’s proposal, the buildings would become a 200-room, four-star hotel, 300 apartments, 60,000 square feet of office space and 30,000 square feet of retail along Kellogg Boulevard.
Unlike West Publishing and the jail, Cardon’s commercial spaces wouldn’t be built up against the bluff, which is helpful when trying to capture natural light for housing and offices. Instead, the buildings would rise up above the bluffs atop the parking ramp, which will have 1,200 stalls and elevators that connect to a “river balcony” that city leaders hope to build along the bluff.
All of this is very preliminary. At a meeting Tuesday, the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners authorized its staff to begin negotiations with Cardon on the 4.77-acre, county-owned site. The county hopes to wrap up negotiations this summer and a phased construction could run from 2018 to 2021.
The old buildings have been demolished and stabilization should be done by August.
“We have been working for years to transform this riverfront property into an asset for our community,” Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega said in a press release. “We are excited to work with Cardon to turn this vacant property into a first-class development.”
Developing apartments will likely be the easiest part of the project, since downtown St. Paul developers are enjoying low vacancy rates even while thousands of units have come online in recent years.
Cardon was the only developer to respond to the county’s request for proposals this winter, but the firm has experience with massive redevelopment projects.
Cardon partnered with Red Development on a 1.8 million-square-foot mixed-use Phoenix project called City Scape and it is redeveloping the Williston airport in North Dakota.
“Redevelopment opportunities like Riverfront Properties – with its stunning location along the river bluff – do not come along very often, and we are committed to getting this project right,” CEO Don Cardon said in a press release. “We look forward to collaborating with Ramsey County on this transformative project.”
2037 Thure Ave is just a short walk to the Mississippi River a regional park and bus line! This
The Minneapolis Skyline (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)
The news and lifestyle website Patch of Earth recently ranked the 8 Absolute Top Cities In the US to Live In, and Minnesota’s Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul came out on top!
The St. Paul Skyline (Image courtesy of Wikipedia)
The top 10 finalists of seven different “Best Cities in the US”-style lists were compared and combined. They tallied up the cities that finished highly most often, and the Twin Cities came out on top:
First place winner:
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN! It shows up on five of the lists below. It’s considered very green, with a great food scene and fantastic job market. Plus it’s a good place to live without a car.
You can read the full article here.
Just listed and located only two blocks from Hamline University, 1478 Van Buren Avenue in St. Paul is waiting to be your new residence or rental property! The home has four bedrooms, two full baths, two kitchens, and two car garage!
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