The owner of St. Paul Brewing is suing the city of St. Paul and its housing authority for pushing to rezone parts of the Hamm’s brewery site for new housing development, a move he says will eliminate parking vital to the continued success of his businesses.
Rob Clapp, a developer who owns St. Paul Brewing, a distillery and a fabrication shop at the Hamm’s site, is hoping to block a city plan to rezone parcels of land that are currently industrial into neighborhood zones to accommodate proposed affordable housing.
St. Paul’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority sold property at the Hamm’s site to businesses starting in 2012. The aim was to encourage private development of the site of the former brewery, which closed in 1997. As part of the agreement, the HRA agreed to maintain a parking lot for use by businesses, according to the lawsuit.
Clapp’s lawsuit comes ahead of an Aug. 20 St. Paul City Council vote to approve a plan that would rezone five parcels of industrial land at the 19th-century Hamm’s Brewery campus off Payne and Minnehaha avenues on St. Paul’s East Side.
“We’re done trying to change minds and hearts,” Clapp said last week as he prepared to sue the city. “They’re just not interested in looking for solutions or compromise, and they’ve told us that they’re not interested in creative solutions.”
Expanding businesses
Clapp, who also owns Dark Horse Bar & Eatery in Lowertown and Can Can Wonderland in Hamline-Midway, acquired property on the Hamm’s site in 2021. Since acquiring Hamm’s property four years ago, Clapp’s businesses have expanded. St. Paul Brewing now has a sprawling patio, and there are plans to open a cocktail lounge tied to the 11Wells distillery in another building on the site. Clapp has also stated a fabrication shop where artists build new works for display at his businesses.
Without clarity on parking and zoning, plans to expand into the second floor of the St. Paul Brewing building at 688 Minnehaha Ave. and other growth plans remain on hold, said Clapp, who argues the city needs to continue honoring the parking agreement. Further, the rezoning plan would violate state law, he and others have argued.
Three of the five parcels up for rezoning haven’t drawn controversy, but two parcels on the Hamm’s site will be changed from industrial zones into a mixed-use traditional neighborhood zones.
Those parcels would be islands inside a larger industrial zone, which the city’s Planning Commission found constituted illegal “spot zoning” in a 9-2 May decision. Spot zoning is the reclassification of a small part of a land parcel to allow a project to go forward.
Despite that finding and Clapp’s objections, council members are still moving forward with the plan.
City response
In response to the lawsuit, city council member and HRA chair Cheniqua Johnson referred back to a July 23 statement when the city council voted 6-0 to set the rezoning plan at the Hamm’s site in motion.
“The future of this site is not manufacturing — it’s housing, mixed-use development, and walkable neighborhoods,” Johnson said. “We support bringing affordable housing to this historic site. We want housing, thriving local businesses, and a site where East Siders can live, work, and visit.”
Over the last four years, Clapp’s businesses have invested more than $1.7 million in the property, according to the lawsuit. That total includes the price of the property and improvements, as well as a new distillery. Clapp’s companies are spending about $1.2 million on renovations for the distillery, which will include a cocktail room and patio that could open later this year.
Clapp has told the city council he has no problem with installing housing in the existing brewery building. But a new building in a parking lot on the east side of the Hamm’s site would make it challenging for customers and workers to find parking.
Housing project
St. Paul’s HRA chose the developer JB Vang to build the housing project in 2023. The initial proposal called for 259 affordable housing units and a two-level indoor marketplace.
The brewhouse building would hold the marketplace and 84 artist lofts. The east parking lot would have been turned into 11 rowhomes and 164 rental apartments.
Rowhome plans are no longer moving forward, and JB Vang cut the number of proposed units from 164 to 110 to allow for a parking lot with 70 spots.
But Clapp says that still won’t allow for enough parking at the complex. His lawsuit claims that if fully developed, the area could require as many as 450 parking spaces under the parking minimum requirements the city repealed in 2021
Management for JB Vang couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.
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