The St. Paul Downtown Alliance filled vacant retail space by setting up businesses with free six-month leases.
Alexandra Johnson was searching for a storefront to move her dog sporting equipment business, Jack and the Pack, out of her garage. The old Heartthrob Cafe space on the ground floor of downtown St. Paul’s Wells Fargo Place had been vacant for more than a decade.
All they needed was a matchmaker.
Enter the nonprofit St. Paul Downtown Alliance, which has been pairing small businesses with empty storefronts through its Grow Downtown program since 2022...
...“Even though we have this large building, we’re still considerably a small business,” said Lillie Rosen of Halverson and Blaiser Group, which manages the building. “Being able to work with other small businesses and help them out is a great benefit.”...
The Minnesota Museum of American Art’s “Here, Now” exhibition highlights building renovation and connections in a time of division...
Begun first as a project space in 2013, the M launched phase 1 of its renovation of the Pioneer Endicott building complex back in 2018.
Both the museum’s and the building’s histories go back long before that, just before the turn of the 20th century.
“Both of these buildings were really created around the same time as our organization was founded,” Beane said. “We like to show the connections between the past and the present, between historic and modern, and to show the ways in which these things can be in conversation in really beautiful ways.”
Marshall Avenue Flats is St Paul's newest apartment and features 98 income-qualified apartments. The project offers stylish 1,2 and 3-bedroom units in the beautiful Marriam Park East neighborhood. Marshall Avenue Flats opens in March 2025.
Located in Bryn Mawr, Minneapolis, The Theodore features 100 affordable units for 55+ adults. The apartment offers beautiful 1 and 2-bedroom layouts with direct access to Theodore Wirth Park. The community features a community room, fitness studio, a greenhouse and community gardens.
The Theodore is located at 2840 N. Wayzata Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55405.
Located in Bryn Mawr, Minneapolis, The Eloise features 100 market-rate units for active 55+ adults. The apartment offers beautiful 1 and 2-bedroom layouts with direct access to Theodore Wirth Park. The community features a golf simulator, fitness studio, a greenhouse, pet spa and rooftop lounge.
The Eloise is located at 2850 N Wayzata Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55405.
Developed by JO Companies, Wangstad Commons is Brooklyn Center's newest apartment, featuring 54 income-qualified units. The project offers spacious 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedroom layouts with beautiful finishes including granite counters, maple cabinets and in-unit washer/dryer. The community features a fitness center, rec room, coworking space, and more. Wangstad Commons opens in December 2024.
Looking in part at the past to create a roadmap for the future, downtown St. Paul boosters are counting on office-to-housing conversions like the Pioneer Endicott project to create a more vibrant central business district.
In 2011, PAK Properties and Halverson and Blaiser Group Ltd. paid $1.1 million for the 1889-vintage, 350,000-square-foot Pioneer Endicott complex at 141 E. Fourth St. in downtown St. Paul and spent to $42 million turn the former offices into 234 apartments.
More than 20 years ago, developer John Wall, President of The Wall Companies, had a vision for turning a former industrial site in Minneapolis’ Prospect Park neighborhood into a home for cutting-edge businesses tapping into research coming out of the University of Minnesota.
The development team of St. Paul-based Pak Properties and Halvorson Blasier Group LTD has started construction of Marshall Avenue Flats, a 98-unit affordable housing project first proposed about four years ago.
The $33.5 million project will bring a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units to a development site at 1606 Marshall Ave., according to a project fact sheet. Included are five three-bedroom units for households at or below 30% of area median income, 29 total units at 50% AMI, and 64 units at 60% AMI.
With a major boost from the city of St. Paul and other partners, PAK Properties and the HBG Group are moving closer toward starting work on a new six-story, 98-unit affordable rental housing development at Marshall Avenue and Fry Street.
Local developer Johnny Opara is nearing construction on what he calls a “luxury affordable” apartment building that’s been long anticipated in Brooklyn Center.
JO Companies, led by Opara, is building Wangstad Commons on four city-owned parcels with an emphasis on creating high-quality living with affordable rents. The four-story, 54-unit apartment will be highly amenitized and include family-sized units.
Construction is underway on the Malcolm Station Apartments in Minneapolis, Minn., Big-D Midwest Construction’s latest housing project.
The seven-storey apartment building, part of a large-scale neighbourhood development by The Wall Companies, features 210 units and 6,878 square feet of retail space and will be a key piece of ongoing development in the city, converting a former industrial area into a modern, mixed-use centre of activity, indicates a release.
Mike Sowers talks to Clint and Noah Blaiser on his podcast about Commercial Real Estate.
