Night after night, children from St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood have spent the past week exploring the vertical tower, swings, sensory panels and other key aspects of PK’s Place — a privately operated, publicly accessible playground, which may be the most elaborate playground in the city.
Constructed along Pascal Street immediately adjacent to the Allianz Field soccer stadium’s eastern wall, the all-abilities playground features 25 structures, many of which are designed with accessibility for the disabled in mind. Gently sloping ramps within the vertical tower are wide enough to allow a wheelchair user access nearly to the top, and a separate wheelchair-accessible swing is one of the first structures kids encounter toward the playground’s entrance.
PK’s Place — named for Penalty Kick, Minnesota United’s loon mascot — was donated as a gift from the William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Family Foundation, which also funded the creation of Gold Medal Park in Minneapolis.
St. Paul’s newest playground, PK’s Place, sits next to Allianz Field on Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Officially a private park, the playground will be managed much like a public parkland, but overseen by the development team led by Bill McGuire, owner of Minnesota United. For the city, that’s potentially a cost savings in terms of litter pick-up, security and maintenance alone, as well as amenities such as a future water fountain and lighting.
“The water fountain is not installed yet, and the lights are not installed yet, but it’s fully operational,” said Mike Hahm, the city’s former Parks and Rec director, who is now a consultant to the team and spokesman on development surrounding Allianz Field. “It’s a pretty great example of how partnerships can come together to provide great public spaces. The public didn’t have to pay for it.”
During a presentation to the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority on Wednesday, St. Paul City Council member Anika Bowie asked how the P.O.P.S. — or “privately owned public space” — arrangement will work in terms of private rentals and special events, as well as public hours.
“It is the developer’s responsibility to establish those rules,” Hahm said. “It will be open regular hours. Those spaces are generally not reserved for private uses.”
Hotel, office, restaurant to come
The all-abilities playground, designed by Landscape Structures and Flagship Recreation, is one of the most inclusive in the city. The same designers created playgrounds at the new Assembly Union Park at Highland Bridge and St. Paul-Gillette Children’s Hospital.
It’s also the first major addition to the United Village development — the former home of the Midway Shopping Center — since the 19,000-seat stadium opened in April 2019, and city officials and neighborhood residents hope it’s a sign of positive things to come.
The 34-acre Snelling-Midway “super block” was identified in 2015 as the preferred location for the Major League Soccer stadium, with residents and city officials soon shown concept plans for housing, hotel rooms, offices and possibly a movie theater. None have been built yet.
Sill, McGuire and his development team say a hotel, office building and at least one of two restaurant pavilions could be well under construction along University Avenue by this time next year. City staff have offered conditional site plan approval for all three projects, though specific restaurant partners or office tenants have yet to be announced, and the team has yet to confirm whether it will move its offices from Golden Valley to the site.
Up first is the installation in late July of a giant loon sculpture, some 35 feet high, with a wing span 90 feet across. The loon will anchor a sculpture garden at the southeast corner of University and Snelling avenues.
While the $250 million professional soccer stadium has been a major draw for fans and has hosted some international events, it’s been slower to host musical acts and community programming. Most of the funding for the publicly-owned stadium has been private, but a term sheet approved in December for future development around the site includes up to $17 million in tax increment financing, or TIF, a type of city-driven tax incentive where property tax revenue generated on site can also be used on site.
Some of those TIF dollars will be used to boost housing efforts nearby.
“Whatever gets built on this site generates TIF increment for affordable housing along University Avenue,” explained Council President Mitra Jalali.
Also rolled into development plans is a special assessment agreement, which has yet to be finalized. A public hearing on the special assessments, which will be used to fund on-site improvements, will be held this summer.
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