The J.H. Allen Building sits kitty-corner from CHS Field in St. Paul’s Lowertown, where its nine-inch concrete floors and red brick exterior offer a glimpse into its turn-of-the-century origins as the site of a wholesale grocery and confectionary manufacturer. Constructed in 1905 by an associate of Minnesota State Capitol architect Cass Gilbert, the sturdy, six-story warehouse at Sixth and Wall Street was divided up for smaller tenants in 1920.
Pearson Candy left the Allen Building in 1965 and moved to West Seventh Street, followed by printing companies and other small-to-midsized manufacturers that have come and gone across the decades. Recent years have been less forgiving, with the Allen Building and other downtown structures sometimes hard-pressed to find office tenants in the modern era. Several floors now sit vacant.
But prospective new owners have entered the picture.
Global Commercial Real Estate Services, Inc. (Global CRES) — a subsidiary of Global Building, of Carlsbad, Calif. — has plans to buy 287 Sixth St. E. and use all the levels above the ground floor as a commercial storage facility.
The property is already zoned for businesses purposes, or “B5,” which allows for commercial storage to take up 15% of the gross floor area. Global CRES is seeking a variance from the city to convert 85% of the floor area to storage rental.
A hearing before the Board of Zoning Appeals is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Sept. 30.
Wide reactions
A call to building owner Tom Erickson was not immediately returned on Friday, but his attorney, Brian Alton, who on vacation, said in an email: “There are several floors that are empty. .. I have been told the leasing broker for the building is not able to secure new tenants. Storage would not be in lower level or first floor. Tenants leases would have to be honored according to their terms.”
On social media, Lowertown residents have expressed everything from relief to alarm. Residential neighbors have said the outside area needs better security and debated whether a storage company would provide it or prove to be more of an absentee landlord.
“Honestly, given the size of (Lowertown) apartments, some extra storage space so close would not be a bad thing,” wrote one resident on an online forum. “We need affordable housing,” wrote another. “It’s a prime candidate for anything and everything better, including residential conversion,” wrote yet another.
The Allen Building’s basement and ground level have drawn a variety of creative uses, including a small hard rock venue, the White Rock Lounge, which occupies a former School of Rock music studio around the corner from a gas station. Other lower-level tenants have included Empowered Percussion, a drum maker, the Lowertone recording studio and the organizers of the Twin Cities Jazz Fest. Upper floors have drawn small firms ranging in focus from engineering to healthcare.
“People are really wrestling with it’
A neighborhood organization, the downtown CapitolRiver Council, held a discussion about the commercial storage proposal before its Planning and Zoning Committee on Thursday morning, though the committee made no final recommendation around the variance request.
“People are really wrestling with it,” said Jon Fure, executive director of the CapitolRiver Council, in a brief interview Friday. He noted that the building has windows on only three sides, and most of the windows are situated above eyeball height, one of several elements that would likely complicate a conversion to residences or another dynamic use.
Historically, “it was used for storage,” Fure said. “That is what it was designed for. They used to stack boxes up to the window height.”
The surrounding Lowertown Historic District, which sits on the National Register of Historic Places, spans upwards of 40 buildings in a 16-block area. Given its lack of ornamentation and somewhat generic history, the Allen Building is officially designated a “supportive” structure within the district, neither “non-contributing” nor “pivotal.” As such, efforts to punch in new windows and make other adjustments could run up against historic preservation guidelines, depending upon their interpretation.
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