From B’s Barbershop to Pino’s Pizzeria and Allegra Printing, the remaining commercial tenants at the Alliance Bank Center in downtown St. Paul were informed late Monday afternoon they should “immediately vacate the premises” as the 16-story building — which offers a major skyway connection — will lose all heating, cooling and electricity on Wednesday.
Shop owners and business proprietors received an otherwise unsigned notice from “Alliance Center LLC” — the limited liability corporation owned by Madison Equities — around 4 p.m. Monday encouraging them to pack up and leave, followed by a notice of “power shut-off” issued by the city of St. Paul.
“If the power is shut off, the building’s management company, Madison Equities, plans to walk away, and the bank … will not assume ownership,” reads the notice issued Monday by the St. Paul Fire Department. “This will result in the building being left vacant with no protection systems in place or maintenance being conducted.”
The news came as a nasty surprise to business owners, some of whom said Monday night they were at a loss to understand how a tobacco store, print shop, jewelry store and other longstanding tenants would relocate heavy equipment or myriad supplies in less than two days. Their leases, they noted, were month-to-month, not overnight.
Small businesses out of business
In addition to office tenants, “you’re putting 14 small businesses out of business,” said Bob Wolf, owner of the Greenwolf Hemp and Organics holistic products store, which has operated out of a skyway storefront in the Alliance Bank Center for the past five years. “Someone’s got to step up. This is crazy. I saw the look on people’s faces. They’re just heartbroken.”
Through the foreclosure process, Madison Equities has lost various properties to lenders in recent months even as it attempts to unload the majority of its downtown portfolio.
The company, long known as downtown St. Paul’s largest property owner, placed 10 buildings on the market together en masse last April following the January 2024 death of company principal James Crockarell.
At the time it went up for sale, the Alliance Bank Center’s 300,000 square feet of commercial space was about 44% occupied, according to the sales offering. Major tenants have, until recently, included the accounting firm Red Path, which relocated its headquarters months ago to the Securian Financial building.
Alliance Bank also moved its bank branch out of the building that now bears its name and into Wells Fargo Place on East Seventh Street.
Madison Equities blames city
Alliance Bank Center, located at 55 E. Fifth St. and once the home of Wells Fargo Bank and its predecessor, carried an estimated market value of $8 million last year. It was sold to Madison Equities in February 2020 for $4.1 million. It offers a major skyway connection between Osborn Plaza on Wabasha Street, over Cedar Street and on toward Minnesota Street, raising concerns about the loss of skyway access at a time when downtown residents are increasingly hard-pressed to find accessible skyway entrances.
The building’s announced closure is the latest setback to befall downtown St. Paul in the era of remote work, coming just three days after Lunds and Byerlys said it would exit Lowertown, leaving downtown without a grocery store.
Tenants of Madison Equities’ residential and commercial properties have long accused the property owner of neglecting maintenance and mismanaging some of downtown’s most iconic properties, several of which are low on or completely devoid of lease-holders. Legal fights have also erupted in recent years over the company’s management of security guards.
On Monday, Madison Equities cast blame on the city for not stepping up to pay the private property owner’s utility bills, and issued notice that “landlord Alliance Center, LLC is facing significant hardships due to the deteriorating condition of downtown St. Paul and the flight of tenants away from the Central Train Station that is located across the street from the Alliance Bank Building.”
“You should also know that the landlord has been in contact with representatives of the city of St. Paul and have asked the city of St. Paul to step in and help pay utilities at the building for the benefits of all of you. Unfortunately, the city of St. Paul has so far refused to provide any financial assistance to maintain utilities at the property.”
The notice indicates that Madison Equities had reached out to its lender, Royal Credit Union, which “has shown no interest in providing any additional funding for the building.”
Storeowners hope city will help with relocation
Late Monday night, some storeowners who close shop before 4 p.m. had yet to come across the notice that they’d been ordered out.
“There’s been rumors they’re going to turn off our electricity,” said Bilal Saleem, better known as Mr. B, who has run B’s Barbershop downtown for nearly 20 years and in the Alliance Bank Center for eight of them. “I’ve had other business owners call me but that’s all I know.”
Saleem took news of the Alliance Bank Center closure in stride, noting he had already made arrangements to relocate to the Town Square building at 445 Minnesota St. by April 1. For that to happen, he needs city inspectors to greenlight a wash sink or shampoo station and multiple electrical outlets in his new space.
“They can’t move forward until the inspectors come, and the inspectors are taking their time,” he said.
Saleem and Wolf both predicted they would land on their feet, but they hoped the city would at least help businesses fast-track relocation to Town Square and other properties downtown, if not help find a buyer for the Alliance Bank Center, which dates to 1967.
“I don’t know anybody who is going to be able to move in the dark on Wednesday,” Wolf said, noting a ground-floor tenant sells tobacco. “A tobacco store has thousands of products. It’s sad.”
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