Dayton’s Bluff Forum, May 15, 2024
Each day we open the Pioneer Press to another announcement of an exodus from downtown Saint Paul: TKDA Architecture and Engineering’s 300 employees are moving to Bloomington, 75 US Bank employees are leaving. Ramsey County is closing its East Office Center on Kellogg (which houses the “Safe Space” overnight homeless shelter). And Madison Equities, which owns over 40 percent of downtowns office buildings and commercial real estate just put most of its downtown portfolio on the market.
Many of our downtown employers are not requiring employees to come back to work, which means office tenancy is down, and with it the property tax valuations of these buildings will plummet. What does this mean to us as Dayton’s Bluff residents? Understanding property taxes isn’t always easy, but in this case it’s simple math. When Saint Paul’s commercial tax valuations decline, the tax burden shifts to residential property owners. And almost everyone I know agrees that it is hard for East Siders – especially families and elders on fixed incomes – to sustain ever increasing property taxes.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is confronting the same dilemma across the river, and he is alerting Minneapolitans that their city will face choices that will inevitably lead to an increase in property taxes. The Star Tribune met with Mayor Frey and his finance experts to discuss the problem, “We’ve got work to do” to figure out how to balance the city’s budget and manage its tax implications.
I’d feel a whole lot better if I saw Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter show a willingness to engage in those same difficult conversations here with us. Instead, we see our city at the legislature angling for bonding money for large new parks facilities downtown – like the proposed Mississippi River Balcony – an amenity now losing its constituency of downtown workers.
At a difficult time like this, we in Dayton’s Bluff can be proud of the ways in which we have faced challenges in our own community and the ways in which we come to together as neighbors, district councils, employers and workers, nonprofits, arts organizations, foundations and government leaders, to make things happen. Just the other day, at Swede Hollow Cafe, I overheard a customer say to her companion: “This neighborhood is looking GREAT! I can’t believe how much is going on here!”
When I have posted in Facebook about my deep frustration and concern about downtown, I’ve been asked, “Can the City Council play a leadership role, even if the Mayor does not? THE ANSWER IS YES. We have a great new City Council, made up of strong, smart representatives of our wards. They are learning quickly, and they are asking the right questions. I can attest, being a new councilmember can be like “drinking from a fire hose.”
At the same time, there is a vital leadership role they can and are playing right now, downtown. While we think of them as our city councilmembers, they also serve as the Saint Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority, the arm of the city that finances its housing and economic development activities, downtown and citywide.
The HRA Chair is Ward 2 Councilmember Rebecca Noecker, a diligent representative for downtown for the past eight years, and the HRA Vice Chair is our new Ward 7 City Councilmember Cheniqua Johnson. These two are a powerful duo who are already well known to our downtown partners. Councilmember Johnson worked as a program officer for The Saint Paul and Minnesota Community Foundation and brings powerful skills and connections to her new position.
I believe HRA Commission Chair Noecker and Vice Chair Johnson and their colleagues are in a wonderful place to convene our downtown partners, such as the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, the Capital River District Council 17, the Downtown Building Owners and Managers Association, the Lowertown Futures Fund, our philanthropic community, the Saints, the Wild, Visit Saint Paul, MPR and the Saint Paul Pioneer Press to activate strategies – some of which are in progress through Joe Spencer and the Downtown Alliance – to invite everyone to apply their strengths and knowhow to turn downtown around.
This effort should involve talented developers like Rich Pakonen and Chris Sherman currently investing in two vital downtown projects. We need to routinely seek and follow the wisdom of our Fortune 500 CEOs at Ecolab and Securian.
And just today, I learned from Councilmember Noecker that the Downtown Alliance on Friday, assembled a workgroup to focus its energies and expertise into spurring investment in vacant and underutilized downtown real estate; in particular the Madison Equities holdings that make up so much of our commercial space. And more good news: Securian CEO Chris Hilger and HRA Chair/Councilmember Noecker will chair this new initiative – where I’m confident the best ideas from our partners will be heeded.
I urge the workgroup to reach out to Governor Walz and Saint Paul’s legislative delegation to assist in reviving our Capital City. Governor Walz played a very important role in convincing the Target Corporation to reinvest in downtown Minneapolis. In Saint Paul, the state is part of our biggest problem, terminating leases where its workers have filled downtown buildings for decades.
We need everyone at the table so that we have maximum “intelligence” on which employers, bars, restaurants, and businesses may be weighing a decision to move. Was there an opportunity to persuade US Bank or TKDA to stay? In cases where downtown companies are contemplating a move, we need to make them part of the greater whole and a greater vision.
We need to strategically consolidate all of our economic development resources through the Saint Paul Department of Planning and Economic Development, the Port Authority, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to create new strategies and incentives to help restore vitality and confidence in our central business district. We have the talent; what we need is the leadership and the shared determination to overcome current conditions.