What the hell is going on in St. Paul.
A proposal for the St. Paul riverfront by the WingField corporation includes three spectacular glass towers, designed by renowned architect Tashiko Mori, a one-time winner of the Medal of Honor from the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Developer Dean Johnson said the design would attract worldwide attention to St. Paul. Image from WingField corporation.
This rendering shows the Opus Corporation's initial proposal for the St. Paul riverfront, although the drawings may not reflect the final design. The plan includes an office tower to the left, a hotel and condo tower at center and residential development, possibly town homes, on the east end of the parcel where the empty Adult Detention Center now sits. Photo provided by Opus.
Source says Opus has edge on developing old West Publishing property
BY DAVE ORRICK and TIM NELSON
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 12/19/2007 12:17:44 AM CST
Ramsey County wants to sell a prime swath of riverfront land in downtown St. Paul for at least $10 million as part of a deal with Minnetonka-based Opus Corp., the Pioneer Press has learned.
On Tuesday, the company pitched a $200 million mixed-use project with two towers, 19 and 23 stories high, on the site of the former headquarters of West Publishing.
County Board Chairman Tony Bennett declined to confirm the board's decision, made during a closed session after a two-hour presentation by Opus and a rival developer with its own vision for the site.
"We don't have a deal, and the property is not sold," Bennett said.
Opus Executive Vice President Tim Murnane said he hopes his project can fill the gap left by West Publishing when it relocated to Eagan in 1992 and abandoned its Kellogg Boulevard headquarters - an economic blow from which the city still is struggling to recover.
"That's what we're trying to do, and I think that the Opus experience, combined with our track record, has the best chance to make that happen," Murnane said.
He told the County Board he thought the project's office element might lure a major company and said in a later interview that Opus is in discussions with companies, at least one of them local, looking for new corporate headquarters.
Murnane declined to name any of them.
"It's the next Lawson that may or may not be out there," he said. "It's people that may be looking to St. Paul or looking to upgrade their building."
He cited Cargill's decision to occupy his company's Excelsior Crossings development in Hopkins as an example of what could happen on the St. Paul riverfront.
According to a source close to the negotiation, the county decided to open negotiations with Opus in earnest, after hearing from the company and Belgium-based rival WingField Corp., headed by St. Paul native Dean Johnson. The source did not want to be identified because the talks are legally secret.
WingField pitched a $600 million project that called for three blade-like high-rises of transparent glass next to a low-lying new home for the Minnesota Museum of American Art. But in the end, commissioners seemed drawn to Opus' résumé.
Opus is a national developer with completed projects that include Medtronic's headquarters in Mounds View, Best Buy's corporate campus in Richfield and Grant Park in downtown Minneapolis.
Murnane, whose family roots go back a century in St. Paul, outlined three buildings:
A 23-story, 504,000-square-foot office building with river-level parking for 252 cars.
A 19-story building with nine floors of hotel space topped by 10 floors of condos.
"Cliff Dwellers," an Anasazi Indian-inspired, six-story high-end condo building that stands no taller than the bluff, which opens a view of the river and allows Kellogg to enjoy more boulevard-style park space.
Murnane pegged the price "in excess of $200 million" and said he would seek government-backed tax subsidies to make it happen.
"At this point, it's too early to say how much," he said.
Murnane said Opus' idea is based on economics.
"Our plan is an exciting plan," he told commissioners. "It may not be as aggressive as some others ... but we have to make sure the market is there."
Minutes later, Johnson made his pitch for a mixed-use project, also an aesthetic effort to climb the limestone bluff separating downtown St. Paul from the Mississippi River.
Johnson, who also plans an architecturally striking high-rise hotel at Sixth and Wabasha streets, was joined by architect Toshiko Mori, chairwoman of Harvard University's architecture department, and offered a list of his projects spanning the globe, from Qatar to Mallorca, Spain.
Johnson said he was asking for no tax breaks and outlined a trans-Atlantic financing plan anchored by German equity firms.
But neither he nor his 13-year-old company could boast a finished project, a fact Bennett seized upon.
"Is there anything that I can see, concrete, that you have done?" Bennett asked. Johnson responded that WingField had secured funds, tenancy commitments and even sold buildings.
"You're the dreamer," Bennett responded. "Where are those projects that I can see?"
While several of Johnson's projects are under construction, none is finished, he acknowledged.
The riverfront site is a slice of land across the street from the City Hall-Courthouse that runs between Kellogg Boulevard and Shepard Road from the Wabasha Street bridge to District Energy's downtown plant.
Ramsey County owns the land, an awkward assemblage of buildings extending about eight stories below Kellogg. Much of the 550,000 square feet of space is vacant. It includes the former county jail and sheriff's office, county records division and other administrative offices.
The county wants to unload it all and have private developers demolish the existing buildings and transform the area into a mix of hotel, luxury residential and office space, all with some of the choicest views in the Twin Cities.
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