It has become increasingly evident to our whole community that Saint Paul needs a strong, vibrant and growing downtown for the health and wellbeing of the entire city.
Before the pandemic, Downtown St. Paul carried only 12% of the citywide tax revenues compared to peer cities, which had an average of 22% of tax revenues. The goal should not be to simply recover these tax revenues, but to dramatically increase the percentage of the tax load carried by downtown.
Strategic investments will unlock a tremendous benefit to the whole city. It’s exciting to see the City of Saint Paul make a meaningful commitment to moving this work forward. The approved $5 million increase to the Department of Planning and Economic Development budget dedicated to downtown vitality and housing in the core signals that we’re treating this issue with the urgency and seriousness it deserves.
The reality is straightforward: We can’t afford to let obsolete and underused towers sit empty, dragging down confidence in the heart of our city. At the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance, we anticipated the necessity of this transition and started preparing. In March 2024, we released the Downtown Investment Strategy — a blueprint to dramatically increase density, vitality and desirability in downtown St. Paul. We also commissioned a feasibility study showing that many of downtown’s buildings have floor plates and infrastructure that make them strong candidates for more efficient conversion. That gives St. Paul a competitive advantage over many other cities wrestling with similar challenges.
And we’ve already seen what’s possible. Landmark Towers’ recent transformation and the nearly completed Stella Apartments, along with the dozens of conversions in Lowertown, show that converting obsolete office space into housing doesn’t just fill buildings, it fuels street-level activity, supports small businesses and strengthens the case for essential amenities like cafes, restaurants, grocers and pharmacies. With Hamm Building’s conversion tracking toward 2026, and the Galtier conversion not far behind, momentum is building.
But we know these projects and the activity and tax base they fuel are only the start toward advancing the health and wellbeing of our entire city.
Our Downtown Investment Strategy calls for adding 20,000 new residents to the core. With apartment occupancy rates at 96%, demand is clearly there. More people living downtown means a broader tax base, healthier retail and restaurant ecosystems and more activity on our sidewalks — one of the most effective ways to enhance safety.
This new investment is critical because it helps attract a wider range of developers and investors.
Downtown’s recovery won’t happen on the backs of a few committed partners. It will take a broad coalition. That’s why the Downtown Alliance is deeply involved in a community engagement process right now, gathering input, listening and shaping a shared vision for the future of our downtown. That work will guide not only us, but also future development teams looking to understand what our community wants for their city’s center.
When community, business, government and investment work in sync, we unlock real progress toward improving our city for the good of our residents, businesses and the entire region.
To be clear, this $5 million commitment is not enough to stimulate a strong and rapid recovery of tax base for downtown that is critical for the health and wellbeing of our city. We’ll need more resources from the City, County and State in order to realize the full economic power for our city and region. Our Downtown Investment Strategy specifically calls out key development strategies and assets critical to this effort, such as developing RiversEdge, renovation of the Grand Casino Arena Complex, and the development of Central Station for example. However, this important start sends a clear signal that Saint Paul is ready to do the hard and creative work needed to build a stronger, more resilient downtown and city as a whole.
If you want to get involved with this vision, the Downtown Alliance just launched Reimagine Downtown Saint Paul: Transforming the Core — a comprehensive, community-driven initiative designed to inform the future of downtown’s economic vitality and urban experience. Learn more and provide input in an online survey at downtownstpaul.com/reimagine.
Joe Spencer is president of the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance, a nonprofit organization that represents downtown businesses, nonprofits, government entities, residents and entrepreneurs.
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