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May 15, 2010
Contact: Tom Madsen
763-230-7925
A big leap for Frogtown: Dirt finally being moved at St. Paul project
May 15, 2010
A big leap for Frogtown: Dirt finally being moved at St. Paul project
by Brian Johnson Staff Writer
Building will include retail, senior housing
The long-anticipated Frogtown Square mixed-used project in St. Paul has taken a big leap forward.
Working through rainy weather that only a frog could love, construction crews began moving dirt this week on a $13 million project that will bring 50
affordable senior apartments and a variety of retail offerings to the northeast corner of University Avenue and Dale Street.
The project, scheduled for completion in December, will cater to “neighborhood-based” retail businesses, such as a barber shop, a coffee shop, a
grocery store and a restaurant with outdoor seating, according to general contractor Benson Orth Associates.
An official groundbreaking took place in late 2009, but the development team — led by Episcopal Homes and a neighborhood partnership called
NEDU — just closed on its U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) financing last week.
The project has additional funding sources, including the city of St. Paul and the Metropolitan Council, but the HUD money was all-important.
Tom Madsen, director of business development for Benson Orth, said some site prep-type work took place in December, but the project team had
to wait for HUD approval before it could move ahead with actual construction.
“The city had wanted to have an actual groundbreaking so the people could see that something was going to happen at that location,” said Madsen,
whose firm is teaming with Meyer Contracting on the project. “It has been a long time coming in that neighborhood.”
Indeed, Frogtown Square is the culmination of an effort that began about 15 years ago, when the four neighborhood groups that make up NEDU
— Model Cities, Neighborhood Development Center, Greater Frogtown CDC and Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Center — began
brainstorming plans to breathe life into that struggling intersection.
“It really started getting into high gear about three years ago, when we finalized the concept and starting securing funding,” said Ponterre Group
consultant Becky Landon, the project manager working on behalf of NEDU.
The developers hoped to secure tax-exempt bonds and low-income tax credits for the project. After the market for those funding sources dropped,
the developers turned to HUD, which is providing about $7 million in funding.
“If we had not gotten the HUD funding, I don’t know what would have happened with the project,” Landon said.
Meanwhile, the retail component of the project has been shrinking, a reflection of the poor economy. The current plans envision 11,000 square
feet of retail, down from earlier proposals of 23,000 and 20,000. The developers were hoping to bring a Walgreens store to the property, but those
negotiations broke down.
“We had to reassess the appropriate amount and type of retail,” Landon said.
On the plus side, the project will rise up in the shadow of the soon-to-be-built Central Corridor light rail line, which is getting set for the start of
heavy construction. The developers hope the $957 million transit project will boost business at Frogtown Square.
However, despite the prospects of new transit-oriented development in the area, Frogtown remains an economically distressed neighborhood that
has seen its share of crime. Will concerns about safety keep shoppers and home-buyers away?
Landon is confident that won’t be a big problem. She said the retail is targeted to businesses owned by people from the neighborhood — people
familiar with an urban setting.
“They are not intimidated by that,” she said. “[Crime] is a perception and there is a bit of reality there. It is a higher-crime section of St. Paul. We
hope this development will have a domino effect on other positive development in Frogtown.”
She says the project team won’t have trouble filling the senior housing.
“We think it will be full on the day it opens,” she said.
Marvin Plakut, CEO of Episcopal Homes, hasn’t been part of the Frogtown revitalization effort as long as the neighborhood groups, but he’s happy
to be involved now.
“It feels terrific to add 50 units of housing to a community that needs it, and be part of a project that is going to have a dramatic impact on the gateway to Frogtown,” Plakut said.
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Excavation begins at Frogtown Square |
