St. Paul has something of a hole in the middle of its downtown. Building after building after building and then a piece of property with a light rail station, but nothing much else. And the City Council wants to do something about that.
A few months ago, along with the Metropolitan Council, the Housing Redevelopment Authority released a request for proposals for the site, looking for something that will create vibrant use of the recently struggling downtown.
City Council Member Rebecca Noecker said that the future building will be the “focal point of potential” for St. Paul’s downtown. Noecker, who chairs the Housing and Redevelopment Authority for St. Paul, sat down with Finance & Commerce to talk about the site, why the council is looking to the market for ideas on what the site can become, as well as other policies and programs that are being considered to revitalize the core of Minnesota’s capital city.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Request for proposals are not due until July 25. Do you have any idea of what the potential timeline will look like for choosing a developer?
A: I think there’s a real sense of urgency amongst everyone involved in this project. The Metropolitan Council and the Housing and Redevelopment Authority of St. Paul are jointly issuing this request for proposals. And we really want to see development on that site as soon as we can. I think we’ve gotten to the point working together where we can really streamline our efforts. We’re prepared to move really quickly.
Obviously, any development of the size that we’re looking for in the middle of a major downtown is going to be complicated, and it’s going to take time to line up all the financing and line up the permitting and construction plans and all of that. I certainly hope we are able to select someone within the end of this year, certainly. And then be working very closely with the developer to make it happen just as quickly as it can.
Q: What exactly are the HRA and council’s hopes for Central Station overall? What is the ultimate end goal?
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A: The end goal is to bring vibrancy to this section of downtown, by which we mean people, by which we mean activity. We have been purposely open in the request for information and the request for proposals as to exactly what that looks like and what the end uses are.
We want to recognize that we’re in a fluid environment, and we want to let the developers in the market tell us what they think will work best. But we know we want more people, and we want more activity at all times of day on that site.
This could be almost a block long development to be activated with street level retail restaurants, entertainment. This is the central station of our transit line. And in many downtowns that you visit, the central station is the place where there’s an information booth, a newsstand, where tour groups meet up, where you can buy St. Paul swag, where you can go to the restroom, where there might be a police substation or an information desk. Things like that. I’m hopeful that all of those different uses can coexist on the site at ground level.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit more about some of the efforts you or the city council are taking to try to push forward revitalizing the downtown? A: We have the Downtown Investment Strategy that the Downtown Alliance has put out just recently as well. That calls for several different things to happen. One is for the development of Central Station and several other key development sites like River’s Edge, like the Xcel Entertainment Complex.
It calls for public infrastructure improvements. Making sure that our major thoroughfares like Fifth Street, like Kellogg are not just places for cars to pass through, but are really inviting places for pedestrians with roads, sidewalks and trees, with street furniture and art, making it attractive to walk from one end of our very compact downtown to the other.
Also, something I’ve been working on piloting is a coworking pilot that Downtown Alliance is going to be spearheading, where we’re going to be making coworking spaces available free of charge along with free parking, to folks who want to give it a try to work in downtown St. Paul. The theory here is that there are a lot of folks who are still working but sometimes it’s happening in your basement in your PJs. And that might be good some days of the week, but there might be other days of the week where you’d really like to get out and about and be in an exciting downtown, which St Paul has to offer. Making a few spots available via lottery system to those who might want to try working downtown and then seeing if that might be something we can expand to take up even more square footage. There’s just a lot of energy and ideas right now.
Q: Can you talk to me a little bit about some of the efforts that are happening in specifically St. Paul City Hall for trying to push forward more building conversions? A: I plan to sponsor ordinances that will reduce or waive permit fees, which can sometimes range into hundreds of thousands of dollars, for downtown development. We plan to dedicate one person within our Planning and Economic Development team who will be the point person for developments that fall into this program. There’s someone who can help you navigate through the bureaucracy; we’ve heard that some of it is money, but some of it is just time. And time is money. We want to make sure that we can get from the idea to the construction in a streamlined way. And we plan to develop an application and promote it heavily to developers not just locally, but regionally and beyond. We’ve seen other cities do this. In my opinion, it’s not a matter of waiting for the state to take action, we may need to move forward ourselves. And all of those ladder pieces can happen at the city in at the HRA level.
Q: What is the first thing that you do when you get into the office? A: First of all, I drop my kids off at school and after I’ve done that, I sort of feel like I’ve done the hardest part of my day, if you know what I mean. I think all the parents listening will know what I mean.
But when I get to the office, finally I get my coffee, I usually come into my office, I don’t turn on the lights, because I like to sort of have that moment when the sun is just rising outside my window.
I am pretty methodical. I have a to-do-list that I put together with quarterly goals and weekly goals. And I try not to open my inbox until I first figure out what I’m supposed to be doing that day. The minute you start looking at email, you’re just kind of down a rabbit hole and doing what other people have asked of you to do that day. I want to make sure I’m staying true to the things that I know my constituents want me to work on so.
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