The city’s legislative hearing officer will recommend that the St. Paul City Council order the demolition of the vacant CVS store at the corner of Snelling and University avenues.
The eyesore property has become a visible metaphor for the city’s retail challenges and general setbacks plaguing the Green Line, the Midway and the once-promising University Avenue business corridor. Before the installation of protective fencing around its parking lot, as many as 40 loiterers at a time could be seen gathered outside the building at 499 Snelling Ave. N., which had developed a reputation as one of the neighborhood’s most embarrassing open-air drug markets.
Legislative hearing officer Marcia Moermond held two public hearings over the past month on potential repair or demolition orders for the building, which dates to just 2007. In addition to a $5,000 performance deposit, she said last month that property owner would need to provide a complete abatement plan laying out future lighting, cameras, bids for trade labor improvements in particular parts of the structure and other evidence of a detailed scope of work.
On Tuesday, in light of obvious damage and neglect, she recommended ordering the property owner to remove the building within 15 days, with no option for repairs.
The city council will hold a public hearing on the demolition orders on Nov. 5, at which point Moermond is expected to present her formal recommendation to the council.
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Two parties have expressed interest in purchasing the property, but representatives of the building owner and CVS did not appear at Tuesday’s hearing, according to Jay Willms, the city council’s director of operations.
If the demolition order is approved by the council, the building owner would then have 15 days to demolish the structure, or it would fall to the city to put removal out to bid and pursue a hazardous materials inspection and utility disconnections, a process that could take several weeks.
Pointing to the often unseemly condition of nearby vacant lots, some residents have expressed concern that if the property owner simply sits on the lot without selling it after demolition, the site would remain a dirt lot for the foreseeable future.
CVS permanently closed the store in April 2022, and it has since become a visible magnet for litter, graffiti and vandalism.
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