Summit Hill and Crocus Hill : Development News

It's hard to imagine a bookstore not being in the basement space of the historic Blair Arcade building in St. Paul--at least that's how building owner June Berkowitz feels.

So, when Common Good Books, which writer and radio personality Garrison Keillor owns, relocated to the Macalester College campus, she got to work finding a new bookstore tenant. (See The Line story here.)
 
Today, Berkowitz is a partner in the venture; Sue Zumberge owns the shop. Berkowitz, who also owns Nina’s Coffee Café, which is above the basement-level bookstore, is helping by offsetting the cost of rent and utilities. She went that route because “I decided it was important to do what I could do," she says. 
 
Although the place’s redesign is still in progress, it has already taken on a different atmosphere from the former Keillor bookstore, with plenty of soft seating and a red-tufted bar that dates back to the 1940s. They're going for sort of a parlor feel, Berkowitz says. The bar had once been in a building on Summit Avenue, she adds. “It’s very cozy. It’s supposed to be an extension of Nina’s as a community gathering place.” 
 
The built-in bookshelves, which will be a design centerpiece, are getting a facelift, too. 
 
Already, the space is starting to live up to the community vision that she and Zumberge share, she says.
 
Besides author readings and other kinds of art-related events, including a teen program, the space is a good spot for meetings or quiet readings. The idea is to “fill it up with people. It’s not just [for] browsing for books, but people are able to hang out,” she says.  
 
The bookstore plans to have its grand opening in September. 
 
Source: June Berkowitz, Nina’s Coffee Café and building landlord for Subtext
Writer: Anna Pratt

An old mansion on Cathedral Hill in St. Paul, which had gone through foreclosure, will soon be converted into a Montessori school and a bed and breakfast.

Whitney Blessing, along with her husband, Andy, who is a contractor, are fixing up the place, which once belonged to Frank P. Shepard.

The Shepards were a prominent family who had four homes within a block of one another, she explains.

Through the years, the 14,000-square-foot mansion had gone through many changes, most recently serving as a boarding house for an international school, according to Whitney.

This month, the Blessings will open the Cathedral Hill Montessori School in the home’s 1950s addition.

It’s just the first part of the Blessings’ concept for turning around the place, which is also their sixth home renovation.  

The couple and their two children will move into the 1884 portion of the house. But the 1881 original structure will become a four-guest bed and breakfast. Separately, large dining and living rooms will become community meeting spaces.

Altogether, they'll probably end up spending $500,000 on the renovation, she says.

“I think this house will never be the original Queen Anne Victorian that it was before the 1940s, when it turned institutional,” she says.

That being said, “We wanted to put something here that would be available to anyone in the neighborhood who should need those services.”

The 1880s areas of the home and the carriage house are considered to be contributing structures to the surrounding historic district. "We want to maintain the historic character," Blessing says.

Much of the work that they’re doing, from restoring the original hardwood floors to uncovering fireplaces, is cosmetic. Utilities also need to be upgraded, while previous mop closets will be turned into bathrooms for the bed and breakfast’s guest rooms.

The neighborhood has been supportive of the project, she says. “[The house] is part of the history and we want that to stay intact and maintain the integrity and open it up for the community to see and be a part of and enjoy.”  

Source: Whitney Blessing, homeowner, Frank P. Shepard mansion
Writer: Anna Pratt

A 2.6-acre parcel in the heart of the storied Crocus Hill area in St. Paul has long been underused, says developer Ellen Brown, who has a plan to turn it around.     

Brown, who has often been a consultant to the city and the St. Paul Foundation on development issues, is partnering with Dick Zehring, the owner of MSP Commercial in St. Paul, on a proposal for an upscale condo complex for 180 S. Grotto St.

She and Zehring have entered into a purchase agreement with the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, which they're scheduled to close on in the spring.

On the site, the Wilder Foundation previously operated the Bush Memorial Children's Center, a residential treatment program for troubled youth. Following recent budget cuts, the Wilder Foundation closed the home and listed the property for sale, she says.     

Brown and Zehring's redevelopment proposal includes 39 condos, each a single story, to be spread throughout multiple buildings within a three-story complex.  

The condos will closely match the neighborhood's Victorian-era homes in style and scale, with features such as gables, clapboard siding, front porches, and more, she says.    

The place will have underground parking and a courtyard, while a caretaker will be hired to help with the property's upkeep.  

Brown believes the project, for which the price tag hasn't been determined, will appeal to empty nesters who already live in the neighborhood and want to downsize, but don't want to stray too far off. "That's the population we think that will find it attractive," she says.  

Brown says the proposal will help diversify the area's housing, which is largely made up of single-family dwellings. Additionally, after over a century of being off tax rolls, "this would get it back as a tax-paying property."  

The next step is a city rezoning process to allow for the planned number of units, she explains, adding that if all goes as planned, construction will likely be underway in the fall of 2011.

 
Source: Ellen Brown, consultant and developer
Writer: Anna Pratt

The unlikely pairing of local history with Segway rides has propelled tour operator Mobile Entertainment, LLC, to success in both Twin Cities. Marketed as Magical History Tours, the $80-per-person excursions are now in their seventh season in Minneapolis and second in St. Paul.

The appeal of joining the lines of "people on a stick" that snake through the downtown Minneapolis riverfront and the elevated outskirts of downtown St. Paul is a "yin-yang thing," says owner Bill Neuenschwander. People enjoy experiencing the novelty of Segways while they take in historic sights and stories.

Many people in other cities have tried to copy Neuenschwander's model but have fallen short, he says. He has tried 27 Segway tours around the country and found some to be joy rides minus the joy. Without the element of history-on-wheels, he says, riding at 12.5 miles per hour from Point A to Point B gets dull fast.

Last year, the St. Paul tours operated out of the Minnesota History Center. This year the Segways have a storefront of their own on Grand Avenue. Next year they'll move to another a couple blocks down the street. (The company will also begin offering tours focused on sculpture and architecture in downtown Minneapolis, and possibly outlying locations like Stillwater or Northfield.)

The tours have proved different in St. Paul, where the emphasis of the narrative is on the Who--colorful personages who populated the frontier town's blufftop Gold Coast, Summit Avenue.  In Minneapolis, Neuenschwander says, the focus is on the What--the technological advances that built the city's industries, especially flour milling.

At 7.5 miles long, the St. Paul tour takes as much time as Minneapolis but is a mile longer--a difference made possible by full-throttle travel on the flats of Kellogg Boulevard between Cathedral Hill and the state Capitol.

Elsewhere on the circuitous St. Paul route, the Segways take an off-beat path that cars, pedestrians, and bikes wouldn't or couldn't follow, Neuenschwander says.

From a Segway perspective, he says, "St. Paul is eclectic, gnarly, and kind of bizarre."

Source: Bill Neuenschwander, Mobile Entertainment, LLC
Writer: Chris Steller