This is still in planning, but is a tantalizing prospect for not only St. Paul, but the Twin Cities in general.
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_7627919
photo and diagram available at link above
About the architect:
http://www.adjaye.com/docs/work.html
Mystery man developer sets sights on St. Paul
But city officials wary as he pitches ambitious skyscraper plans for downtown corner
BY LAURA YUEN
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 12/04/2007 12:31:16 AM CST
The skyway to nowhere - a remnant of Wabasha Court - crosses Wabasha Street from then Marshall Field's in 2003. (Craig Borck, Pioneer Press) One of St. Paul's native sons is vying to build the next sky-scraping darling of the modern architecture world.
Dean D. Johnson is one of the most enigmatic developers aiming to make his mark in St. Paul. Now a developer in Belgium, Johnson has set his sights on at least four downtown properties, including the site of the now-razed Wabasha Court complex.
Johnson's proposed tower would stretch about 40 stories and combine a five-star hotel with condominiums, an arts venue and offices - all on a parking lot where past development dreams have crumbled.
Now, people want to know: Is he for real?
"What I say is, 'Why don't you get one project going and then start talking about the others?' " said City Council member Dave Thune.
"Frankly, people get nervous when it looks like they're biting off an awful lot before their dishes are served."
City Hall and development sources have described Johnson as both elusive and ubiquitous. He regularly flies into town to meet with local officials and arts leaders to talk about his plans but bides his time before he submits proposals.
In August, he and business partner Henk Habers quietly bought the Minnesota Thunder and pledged their commitment to build a soccer stadium. Johnson also has been eyeing the old Diamond Products plant in Lowertown and said he has site control of the parking lot at Minnesota and East Fourth streets.
For the past couple of years, however, Johnson has been focusing most of his energy on a $200 million-plus opus at 415 Wabasha St. He has hired David Adjaye, a London-based "starchitect" who has modern-design experts in the Twin Cities salivating.
St. Paul powers-that-be are still sniffing out Johnson's track record. While his firm has begun work on projects around the world - including Chicago, Brussels, Frankfurt and a luxury resort in Mallorca, Spain - none has been completed.
Immediate applause will be hard to come by in St. Paul, a town still recovering from the divisive, and now-defunct, Bridges of St. Paul proposal. Having made his luck overseas, the Hamline University alum acknowledges he lacks the local connections a developer would typically enjoy in his hometown.
"I've always worked in environments where nobody knew who I was," Johnson said.
The surface lot on Wabasha Street stands for all that is wrong with downtown St. Paul. It's on a pivotal corner that has housed cars, not commerce, for years. Overhead, a rusted walkway from Macy's abruptly ends, earning its unofficial designation as "the skyway to nowhere."
That will change, Johnson asserts. He said an internationally known hotel operator has signed a letter of intent for the development. He would not name the hotel, saying they were fine-tuning details of their contract.
Ideally, construction would start by fall 2008 with the hotel to open in spring 2011. Johnson's behind-the-scenes approach to getting things done stands in contrast to other developers' styles. But he's taken one key step: His company owns the Wabasha Street parcel.
Brussels-based WingField Corp. N.V. also has brought on Sherry Hastings, a vice president at Bloomington-based Frauenshuh Cos., to head the company's real estate division in the U.S. Frauenshuh had wanted to build a $55 million mixed-use tower on the site but sold the property to Johnson about a year ago.
When Adjaye, the architect, spoke as a guest lecturer last month at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, he unveiled renderings of the St. Paul project. Each component of the tower was shifted slightly out of place, like three building blocks askew in a vertical stack.
"If you took a regular rectangular building and put two slices into it and jogged out the middle section - it's kind of a feat," said Andrew Blauvelt, the Walker's design director. "I don't know if we've seen that in a building."
If the Wabasha project succeeds, it would raise the architectural prestige of the entire Twin Cities, much like the Guthrie, the Walker and the Weisman, Blauvelt said.
The limelight soon will shine on Johnson, but for a different St. Paul project. He is bidding for the rights to redevelop the old Ramsey County jail and adjoining riverfront properties, considered one of the most lucrative real estate opportunities in the city. On Dec. 18, WingField and Minnetonka-based Opus Corp. will go before the county board to pitch their dueling plans for new condos, offices and hotel rooms.
For that project, Johnson tapped another big-name architect, Toshiko Mori, chairwoman of Harvard University's architecture department.
Johnson has proven that even East Siders can go to Europe and discover an inner fashion sense. At 50, he sports tastefully coordinated suits and cufflinks, shorn gray hair and a slight European accent.
The latter, he claims he always had. The grandson of Swedish immigrants, he was born in Dayton's Bluff and raised in Payne-Phalen.
"I grew up speaking English with a heavy Swedish accent," he said. "At Hamline, people would ask me, 'Where are you from?' "
After college, he went to Germany to pursue graduate studies in history. In 1980s Europe, as the London financial markets were being deregulated, Johnson became interested in finance. His banking career began with Commerzbank in Germany.
He moved to Belgium in 1994. As state-owned banks were being privatized, Johnson formed a company specializing in treasury advisory and structured finance. His WingField partner, Habers, has 26 years of experience in the hotel and tourism industry, according to the company's Web site.
Johnson can argue passionately the merits of St. Paul's downtown and why it deserves cutting-edge architecture. He believes in the city's narrow 19th century streets as well as its dense mix of parks, traffic, restaurants and condos.
"It feels more like TriBeCa and SoHo than anything in Minneapolis," he said.
Some local officials find Johnson's story compelling. Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, who has met with him to discuss his plans, describes him as "a hometown boy who wants to come back and invest in his city."
He has not submitted his Wabasha proposal to the city yet. The WingField team plans to spend the next several months on the design before it seeks a site plan review at City Hall.
John Mannillo, a real estate broker and member of downtown's CapitolRiver Council, said, "He's going around buying (land) and nobody knows the guy, and he hasn't done anything yet."
If St. Paul seems cautious, it's because it has been burned before.
In 1993, a con man posing as an Italian investment broker promised to arrange $45 million in financing for a horse arena on the West Side riverfront. Michael DePassquallo wore a topcoat draped over his shoulders and sometimes spoke with an accent.
As it turned out, he was not Italian but a Twin Cities native raised in Fargo, N.D. He conned hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors and pleaded guilty to fraud in an Arizona court.
Thus, many city officials are reserving their most rapturous praise for when Johnson's first shovel hits the dirt.
Said Thune: "Everything is potentially wonderful, but everything is potentially potential. Nothing is real until someone writes a check."
Johnson said he does not intend to ask for public subsidies, saying his firm has worked with major European investment funds, such as those operated by Germany-based Deka Immobilien, to help finance its projects.
And about that "elusive" label: Johnson doesn't care for it. He figures he'll ease suspicion over time, doing things his way.
"We're not promoting anything to anyone, and we haven't been asking for anything," he said. "In this market, with other developers, a lot has been talked about, but not a lot has materialized."
Laura Yuen can be reached at
lyuen@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5498.
DEAN JOHNSON
Age: 50
Birthplace: St. Paul; grew up near Larpenteur and Payne avenues.
Education: Johnson High School and Hamline University, where he majored in German and history.
Background: Became interested in business while a graduate student in Germany; banking career began there with Commerzbank; moved to Belgium in 1994 and formed a company that grew into WingField Corp., a Brussels-based real estate development and investment company.
In the works: One of WingField's current projects is a luxury resort on the coastal cliffs of Mallorca, Spain, scheduled to open in 2010.
On the sidelines: Bought Minnesota Thunder soccer team this summer with partner Henk Habers.
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