Eager to jumpstart 450 residential units and a series of commercial buildings on long-stalled development parcels at Highland Bridge, the St. Paul City Council voted 5-2 on Wednesday to amend a longstanding tax incentive district, delaying construction of some internal sidewalks and landscaping for up to five years.

The amendments — the sixth to the former Ford Motor Co. site’s $275 million tax increment financing district since 2016 — do not alter the total spending planned within the TIF district, but they do alter payment schedules. A new “minimum assessments agreement” shifts some TIF payments from interest to principal and saves the master developer, the Ryan Cos., some costs upfront as the taxable value of particular land parcels are lowered.

“This does not impact the city budget or the general fund,” said Council Member Saura Jost, addressing the city council on Wednesday. “This reduces the holding cost to the developer, enabling it to move forward as foreseen in the master plan. … We’re not changing the public investment at the site.”

Getting county assessors to agree to drop land values took a joint effort from both the city and the Ryan Cos.

At Highland Bridge, Weidner Apartment Homes now plan construction of two market-rate apartment buildings spanning 350 housing units in the near future. Nearby, the Ryan Cos. had once planned to have started work on a series of commercial or mixed-use buildings on the parcel known as “Block 2” back in 2021.

Neither project has moved forward in recent years, with both developers blaming the city’s rent control policies for adding to an already-complicated financing landscape weighed down by high interest rates, rising construction costs and other barriers.

3,100 units instead of 3,800

The Ryan Cos. have since redrawn their plans for four one-story commercial buildings, as well as a four-story, mixed-use residential building consisting of 97 market-rate rental units attached to ground-floor commercial space, a rooftop deck, streetscape improvements and a public promenade. Also planned is a 190-stall structured parking facility.

“You would see immediate development at this site,” said Maureen Michalski, a regional senior vice president of development with the Ryan Cos., referring to the TIF agreement.

So far, the developer has secured a letter of intent for a daycare to operate in one of the stand-alone commercial buildings.

Both Council Members HwaJeong Kim and Nelsie Yang voted against the new TIF arrangement and the related agreements.

While 20% of Highland Bridge is set up for affordable housing through a master plan, Yang expressed concern Wednesday that there was little clarity about the specific rents planned in the new residential buildings. The overall number of residential units planned for Highland Bridge has been redrawn at 3,100 units, down from an initial projection of 3,800 units, according to city staff.

Rents at an existing market-rate development — The Collection at Highland Bridge — average about $2,000 per unit, according to a spokesperson for Weidner Apartment Homes, who said he expected the new construction to proceed along the same grounds.

“Is this truly the biggest win that we can get for the city of St. Paul at the negotiation table?” said Yang, noting that Ramsey County had delayed a vote this week on the new minimum assessments agreement. “I don’t know what an alternative agreement could have looked like. … Also, where is the county on this, too? This is something that is going to be impacting them.”

With Weidner refusing to move forward until the company was released from rent control obligations, the city council voted 4-3 last week to relieve all buildings citywide built after 2004 from the city’s voter-approved 3% cap on annual rent increases.

A lack of communication

Council Member Cheniqua Johnson, who chairs the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, said Wednesday she was excited to see new housing move forward, though she was disappointed with Weidner’s lack of communication with her office, as well as with the city in general, prior to the council vote on the rent control amendment.

“I want to add you to that discussion,” said Johnson, addressing Weidner development director Nick Nowotarski, who promised better days ahead. “That was the first time I had ever met you.”

Added Council President Rebecca Noecker, “I have been on this council for 10 years, and I’ve never had any contact with Weidner. … It matters to have you show up, and it matters to have this communication.”

The Ryan Cos. now hope to build the stand-alone commercial structures and the mixed-use building on Blocks 2 using both a public business subsidy and some $24 million in additional loan principal, supported by tax increment financing through a pay-as-you-go note. “TIF” tax incentives allow private developers to complete public-facing aspects of their developments using money that would ordinarily pay off city, county and school district tax obligations.

The city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority hired the tax firm Baker Tilly as a fiscal consultant to evaluate project costs, financing and operations and confirm the need for TIF to move the Ryan Cos.’ Block 2 project forward.

New lower land values

A fresh agreement involves lower new tax values for the buildable land.

The original “minimum assessments agreement … places a tax burden on the properties without an offsetting income source,” reads the city staff report. “Both the city and the developer have incurred debt to advance the infrastructure and have carefully evaluated adjustments to the minimum values to entice the stalled development to proceed.”

“We have worked with the assessor, who is supportive of adjustments to certain lots,” the report states. “The resulting … amendment will reduce values for the certain lots in the short term.” The lot values will exceed the original values in 2041 and continue to increase through the year 2047, the final year of the TIF district.

Separately, the Weidner agreement will require the construction of two buildings resulting in approximately 350 housing units over the next few years, as well as pre-payment to the city of all of their “Green Infrastructure” assessments. Jost noted that form of binding development agreement was not in place previously.

The two developers have agreed not to apply for additional city or Housing and Redevelopment Authority funds on land they own for any future “vertical development” at Highland Bridge.

“Highland Bridge is important to Ward 3,” Jost told the council Wednesday. “It’s important to the whole city. … Our city will see one of its vacant spaces replaced with something of purpose. … We’re expanding the housing options available to our residents in Highland.”

Hopes of state lawmakers passing a more than $60 billion two-year budget on time are fading at the Minnesota Capitol.

Daily marathon negotiation sessions between Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor majority Senate and the House tied 67-67 between the DFL and Republicans, have failed to produce a final budget deal.

On Wednesday, Democratic-Farmer-Labor leaders said it’s increasingly likely lawmakers will have to go into overtime, as it’ll be difficult to beat the May 19 deadline to pass bills. The government shuts down on July 1 if they can’t reach an agreement.

Speaking to reporters outside the governor’s cabinet room Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said it’s important the Legislature gets the budget right and doesn’t push its staff too hard in the final days of the regular session.

Sen. Erin P. Murphy. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)

“I do think it is important to recognize that human beings work here and human beings need sleep,” she said, later stating more plainly: “I think a special session is very, very likely if not inevitable.”

House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman said weeks ago that she expected a special session. Republican leaders say they remain hopeful a deal can be reached before Monday’s midnight legislative deadline, but as of Thursday, there are only five days remaining to pass bills.

Gov. Tim Walz.

“I still think there’s a chance we can get this thing by the time, but I think as the hours go by, it becomes a little more difficult,” Walz said at a Tuesday news conference unrelated to the budget.

He added that the special session may happen soon after next Monday’s adjournment and needn’t drag on for days if he and leaders can reach a deal before officially returning to the Capitol for business. The governor calls a special session.

Taxpayer cost?

State leaders’ inability to finish their work on time will cost Minnesota taxpayers, though exactly how much is hard to pin down. It will depend on the number of days and the amount of work they’ll need to complete. The cost could be more than $17,000 a day.

Senators and representatives earn a yearly salary of $51,750, and they can collect $86 per day per diem for meals and other incidental expenses.

Legislative salaries are fixed, but if all 201 members of the Senate and House collected their full per diem, it will cost the state $17,286 per day.

That’s the maximum, and it’s not likely all lawmakers will claim the full amount. They haven’t in the past. House Public Information Services in 2019 estimated that a special session costs the state anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 per day.

Other costs that are harder to pin down include pay for seasonal legislative staff who will work overtime. Operations at the Capitol also carry costs.

Lengths can vary

The lengths of special sessions can vary greatly.

In 2021, lawmakers returned to the Capitol for 24 days from mid-June to early July to pass the 2021-2023 budget and address an extension of Walz’s COVID-19 peacetime emergency. In 2017, lawmakers convened for three days to complete the budget.

In 2019, lawmakers only returned to the Capitol for one day immediately following the regular session to pass a previously negotiated budget bill, which didn’t have quite enough time to reach the finish line of the regular session.

Walz told reporters this week that his hope is that this year’s special session would be the same if he ends up calling one.

Overtime is more common

This year’s legislative session got off to a slow start as the House DFL, temporarily at a one-seat disadvantage, boycotted the session for three weeks to deny a temporary Republican majority quorum to pass bills and conduct other business.

That ate into the Legislature’s time, but special sessions have become increasingly common in recent history, especially during a budget year.

Often, the governor calls a special session to address emergencies, as Walz did several times during the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve also become the norm for passing a budget under divided government.  The last time a divided government passed a budget without a special session was 2007.

DFL trifectas — where one party controls the governor’s office, Senate and House — passed budgets with no special session in 2013 and 2023. In all other years without one party control, lawmakers had to return to the Capitol for overtime.

In 2011, Minnesota’s government shut down for 20 days after Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican-controlled Legislature couldn’t reach an agreement on the budget.

Sticking points

The Legislature is working with a $456 million surplus for the next two years, but a $6 billion deficit looms in 2028-2029.

What the state should cut to prepare for that bleaker outlook is central to the debate between DFLers and the GOP. Many Democrats are hesitant to water down new social programs and mandated employer benefits they created in 2023.

Key sticking points include unemployment benefits for hourly public school employees, which Republicans want to end. The DFL budget frameworks lean on funding cuts for nursing homes and long-term disability waivers, which Republicans oppose.

There are also debates over whether the state should continue offering MinnesotaCare coverage to people without legal immigration status. Republicans claim that it will cost the state a significant amount in the future based on higher-than-expected enrollment, but so far, the costs they predict have not materialized.

Related Articles

MN moves to strengthen DWI laws after fatal St. Louis Park crash

With one week left, what’s happening with the MN budget at the Legislature?

Joe Soucheray: No other governor has tried to pull off this pathetic budget stunt

Gov. Walz encourages legislators, and anglers, to get the lead out

Minnesota Senate OKs new anti-fraud office, but much work remains

It’s become an annual spectacle across the NFL.

Every team trying to come up with the most creative way possible to announce their schedule.

This time around the Vikings convinced various fans to get tattoos to help them make their announcement.

Here’s a look at the full schedule for the Vikings:

Week 1: Vikings at Bears, Monday, Sept. 8, 7:15 p.m. (ESPN)

Week 2: Vikings vs. Falcons, Sunday, Sept. 14, 7:20 p.m. (NBC)

Week 3: Vikings vs. Bengals, Sunday, Sept. 21, Noon (CBS)

Week 4: Vikings at Steelers (Dublin, Ireland), Sunday, Sept. 28, 8:30 a.m. (NFL Network)

Week 5: Vikings at Browns (London, England), Sunday, Oct. 5, 8:30 a.m. (NFL Network)

Week 6: Bye

Week 7: Vikings vs. Eagles, Sunday, Oct. 19, Noon (Fox)

Week 8: Vikings at Chargers, Thursday Oct. 23, 7:15 p.m. (Amazon Prime)

Week 9: Vikings at Lions, Sunday, Nov. 2, Noon (Fox)

Week 10: Vikings vs. Ravens, Sunday, Nov. 9, Noon (Fox)

Week 11: Vikings vs. Bears, Sunday, Nov. 16, Noon (Fox)

Week 12: Vikings at Packers, Sunday, Nov. 23, Noon (Fox)

Week 13: Vikings at Seahawks, Sunday, Nov. 30, 3:05 p.m. (Fox)

Week 14: Vikings vs. Commanders, Sunday, Dec. 7, Noon (Fox)

Week 15: Vikings at Cowboys, Sunday, Dec. 14, 7:20 p.m. (NBC)

Week 16: Vikings at Giants, Sunday, Dec. 21, Noon (Fox)

Week 17: Vikings vs. Lions, Thursday, Dec. 25, 3:30 p.m. (Netflix)

Week 18: Vikings vs. Packers, Sunday, Jan. 4, TBD (TBD)

Related Articles

Cheers! Vikings will play back-to-back in Dublin and London this fall

Now with the Vikings, Max Brosmer is right where he’s supposed to be

How the son of Vikings legend Randy Moss is stepping out from his dad’s shadow

Five undrafted players to keep an eye on at Vikings rookie minicamp

Vikings legend Randall McDaniel gives his take on rookie Donovan Jackson

By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A former model reproached one of Harvey Weinstein ’s lawyers for suggesting that her sexual abuse allegations against the ex-studio boss are lies.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Kaja Sokola retorted. In her fifth and final day of testimony at Weinstein’s sex crimes retrial, she maintained that she was telling the truth and that Weinstein’s alleged conduct in her teens had changed the course of her life.

“It changed the course of your life in that you got $3.5 million from false accusations?” defense lawyer Mike Cibella pressed, referring to compensation she was awarded through civil proceedings in recent years.

“No. That’s very unfair,” Sokola said softly. “That’s not true.”

Kaja Sokola appears state court in Manhattan to testify in the sex assault case against Harvey Weinstein, Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in New York. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)

During her days on the witness stand, she said Weinstein repeatedly offered to foster her acting ambitions but then made unwanted physical advances, beginning when she was 16 in 2002.

Weinstein, 73, faces a sexual assault charge related solely to her allegation that he forced oral sex on her when she was 19. He also faces charges based on two other women’s claims. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and his attorneys assert that his accusers had consensual sexual encounters with the Oscar-winning producer because they wanted movie and TV work.

Weinstein’s lawyers grilled Sokola about her requests for career help from him after the alleged assault, her motives for her civil lawsuits and criminal trial testimony, as well as her personal struggles, and even a private journal she kept for an alcohol-abuse program in her native Poland.

After apparently getting the decade-old writings via the witness’ sister, the defense was allowed to bring up portions in which Sokola said two other men had sexually assaulted her over the years but didn’t say the same about Weinstein. Instead, she wrote that he promised her help but didn’t deliver.

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in New York. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)

Sokola testified Wednesday that she had left out Weinstein’s alleged sexual abuse partly because she couldn’t come to terms with it at the time. Also, she said, her sponsor was in the film business in Poland and knew who Weinstein was.

Cibella questioned that explanation, noting that the text mentioned only “Harvey W” and nothing about his profession. Sokola said her sponsor nonetheless knew his identity because they talked about it.

Tearing up as she spoke, she said she hadn’t seen the black notebook for 10 years, never gave anyone permission to share it and was stunned and appalled to be confronted with it in court.

“I felt very violated,” said Sokola, now 39 and a psychotherapist.

She was the second of Weinstein’s accusers to testify at the retrial, and the only one who wasn’t involved in his first trial in 2020. That proceeding led to a landmark #MeToo-era conviction that was subsequently overturned, setting up the retrial. Prosecutors decided to add Sokola’s allegations to it.

Another woman, Miriam Haley, already has told jurors at the retrial that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006. The third accuser, Jessica Mann, is expected to testify in the coming days or weeks. She alleges that Weinstein raped her in 2013.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted unless they give permission to be identified. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so.