Dayton's Bluff : Development News

The St. Paul site where the Margaret Recreation Center once stood is now a pile of rubble. But many community members who live or work close to the center are optimistic about the site’s future.

Brad Meyer, a spokesperson for the city’s parks and recreation department, says, “Margaret is one of those unique sites that has a very active immediate neighborhood surrounding it.” That being said, the center “hasn’t received a lot of use beyond its tot-lot for many years.”

It probably didn't help that the building was in bad shape. A system-wide parks planning process, which the department undertook last fall, found that if the building’s partner left, it would need to be torn down. In this case, a partnership with the Hmong Youth Education Services didn’t work out.

Because resources are limited, a timeline for redevelopment at the site is yet to be determined. “At the very least, the site will receive new grass immediately this spring and access to the popular play area/tot lot will continue,” he says.

Part of the site could stay open for athletics while renovations are underway. “We are very optimistic we can find a solution that the neighborhood will be happy with, and are looking forward to working with them as part of the next steps for the site,” he says.

A group called the Stewards of Margaret Park (STOMP) is getting organized to help guide the site’s redevelopment. The preliminary plan calls for a walking path, ice skating rink, grading of the park’s hill for sledding, bathrooms, picnic pavilions, and a basketball court, according to a story from Lillie News.  

Also, a sort of “truck stop” might be set up to park and host mobile programs like the Artmobile or Bookmobile, the story states.

Source: Brad Meyer, spokesperson, St. Paul Parks and Recreation
Writer: Anna Pratt

180 Degrees, Inc., in St. Paul, which has a mission to turn lives around, has big plans to establish a youth development campus on East Seventh Street.    

To pull it off, the organization is trying to raise $2.8 million. It invested $1 million into acquiring the W.B. Martin Lumber Company site in 2011, developing a parking lot and converting one building into space for offices and programming, according to Richard Gardell, the president and CEO of 180 Degrees.

The 1.5-acre lumberyard, which dates back to the early 1900s, had been pretty rundown, and it was vacant for several years, he says.  

Where there were “quite a bit of old buildings and dilapidation, we saw a vision for a youth development campus,” he says. The organization had outgrown its former site on the East Side at that point.

To carry out the plan, the organization needs to remove a building, once a barbershop, on Seventh to make way for a youth crisis center. The new building will be in keeping with the area’s architectural style, Gardell says.

A pole barn on the site will stay intact for recreational purposes while another building will provide for various entrepreneurial activities for youth, including several related to construction trades.  

180 Degrees also plans to turn the old English Street, a dirt road, into green space, with community gardens, to connect the properties on the site.  

The organization is working with neighbors to “make sure to address concerns related to access on Seventh Street,” he says. “We hope it’s a win-win,” especially as that relates to improving the lot’s appearance.

The green space will help reduce dust and traffic and improve the quality of life in the area. “We’re planning on the community garden being a space to gather and grow together,” Gardell says, adding, “We hope the rest of campus provides services to neighbors” and the larger community.

The organization hopes to break ground in the spring, he says.

Source: Richard Gardell, 180 Degrees
Writer: Anna Pratt

A century-old building on Saint Paul's East Seventh Street, which has sat empty for nearly a decade, could soon be redeveloped to include office and retail space along with loft-style apartments.

Covenant Capital, a local developer that specializes in residential properties, plans to renovate the two-story brick building, which previously housed a cigar factory, a bowling shoe manufacturer, and a police station.

Ben Hosfield, a spokesperson for Covenant, says, “It’s kind of a property that’s been unnoticeable over the years,” explaining that a couple of other buildings, including a former discount tire store, covered it up.   

However, the tire store building will soon be torn down. “That will open up the space to the property,” he says. “Something could be done with that large space further down the road. It’s a big lot.”   

Although the project’s details, including the cost, are still coming together, it’ll likely take $340,000 to make the building meet modern code requirements, the Pioneer Press reports.   

To fit the building’s historic character, Covenant wants to add an exterior awning to the entryway. That will be subject to approval by the city’s heritage preservation commission, as the building belongs to the Dayton’s Bluff historic district, Hosfield says.

Potentially, there could be a restaurant on the main level, or some other type of storefront retail. Office suites, which will be built to suit, and apartments will go on the second floor, while a basement level, which the police had used for a gym, could become storage space or some other type of amenity. “’It’s a matter of how do we use that space?’” Hosfield says. “It’s still in question.”
 
Construction will probably start next year.

With other projects underway nearby, “We’ve seen the neighborhood start to redevelop,” he says, adding, “We hope we’re part of the neighborhood coming back.”

Source: Ben Hosfield, Covenant Capital
Writer: Anna Pratt  

Metropolitan State University is working with the local architecture firm BWBR to design a new $25 million science center for its St. Paul campus.

The 59,000-square-foot facility includes laboratories, lecture and demonstration classrooms, seminar rooms, offices, and support spaces--all in one place, according to BWBR information.

Beyond its biology and life science tracks, the school will be able to add chemistry and physics minors along with earth, space, and environment courses.
 
John Strachota, a vice president at BWBR who is a principal on the project, says that the school's existing science facilities are limiting.

Right now, the school has to "triple up students and it has to schedule things so everyone gets a chance. It's hard to deliver their programs that way because there are so few resources."

Although the design is still coming together, he says he envisions an open, flexible style of lab design that brings together experimentation and discussion.

On a broader level, one goal of the project is to design the center so that "The moment you see the building, it will express and teach science."

Passersby might be able to catch a glimpse of what's happening inside the labs through windows, while technological tools could display the building's real-time energy use.

The building will also have gathering spaces for students to continue learning in informal ways.

Metropolitan State wants to pursue a high level of LEED certification, which recognizes green building accomplishments.  

At this time, the school hopes to open the center in the summer of 2014.

Source: John Strachota, AIA, LEED AP, vice president, BWBR
Writer: Anna Pratt

St. Paul city officials, community members, and other stakeholders are mulling over ideas to help preserve, restore, and improve Indian Mounds Regional Park. A 20-member task force will present plans at an open house this week. 

The century-old Indian Mounds Regional Park, in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood, is a segment of the Battle Creek Regional Park, according to city information.

Indian Mounds Park has a history as a sacred Indian burial ground going back 2,000 years, starting with the Hopewell culture. Later the area was sacred to the Dakota Indians. Only six of at least 37 original mounds still exist today.

The park hasn't been updated much since the 1970s, according to parks spokesperson Brad Meyer.  

Meyer says the planning process dovetails with a larger visioning effort that's underway, including the Great River Park Plan, which is about making the St. Paul riverfront more natural, more urban, and more connected, project materials state.  

The Great River plan will outline where the city's parks will be in 25 years, Meyer says. In the future,Indian Mounds Park could have volleyball and bocce ball courts, gateway features, and a garden, for instance.

Other ideas are for a dog park, tennis courts, exercise stations, and a revamped amphitheater, according to project materials. Some mounds may be relocated, while native plantings would help restore the prairie.  

The core idea is that Indian Mounds is a destination park, with a lot of potential for becoming a unique place, Meyer says, adding that it's "a significant step into the future of what could be another premium park."  
    
The plan will move to the City Council in February before heading to the Metropolitan Council.
 

Source: Brad Meyer, St. Paul parks public information officer
Writer: Anna Pratt

It was the way the last rays of the setting sun lit up the red brick of the old Hamm's brewery that struck Murph Dawkins one evening six years ago. "It glowed like a ruby," she recalls. As she stood agape in Swede Hollow, a ravine park on St. Paul's near East Side, Dawkins said to herself, "Wow, I've got to share this."

Dawkins called Karin DuPaul, hoping to spark interest in the wondrous if fleeting sight she'd just beheld. DuPaul, who heads the Friends of Swede Hollow group and is a longtime organizer for the Dayton's Bluff Community Council, is quick to recognize a good idea and handy with a phone tree. "She doesn't need any extreme encouragement," Dawkins says.

The pair dreamed up a community gathering, dubbed simply "Watch the Glow," to be centered on viewing the sun's spectacular lighting of the brewery. The first "Watch the Glow," on a late October day in 2005, drew about 50 people who took in the transitory sight of the glowing brewery then shared a picnic dinner.

Saving the vacant brewery complex was a not-so-hidden item on the revelers' agenda. When brewing ceased in the mid-1990s, private developer Everest LLC took over the property, successfully renovating buildings on the north side of Minnehaha Avenue for artists' lofts and other uses.

But the discovery that the brewery land included part of Swede Hollow itself led the City of St. Paul to purchase the parcels south of Minnehaha that also hold the historic buildings neighbors hold dear. "Watch the Glow" invitations went out to city leaders who then were considering demolition--a threat that has now passed, DuPaul says. The buildings are safely mothballed, and three are poised to house an Asian Pacific Cultural Center when funding is found.

Some years, cloud cover or uncooperative weather mutes the event's eponymous effect. DuPaul recalls one year when the assembled were resigned to the show having been a bust--before the sun burst through at precisely the right moment to set the vacant Hamm's brewhouse ablaze.

This year's Watch the Glow was held last Saturday, preceded by a performance of the operetta "Tales of Hoffmann" in the Hollow. DuPaul was ready to document the glow, should it happen. She snapped a photo from the back of the crowd as they watched the sunset's sudden appearance. By the time they turned to face her for another picture, the show was over.  

Sources: Murph Dawkins, Friends of Swede Hollow; Karin DuPaul, Dayton's Bluff Community Council
Writer: Chris Steller