Minneapolis-based nonprofit Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) has a purchase agreement in place for the struggling Renaissance Box building in downtown St. Paul, but it's not clear that the city of St. Paul will endorse the plan.
"It is in considerable financial distress, obviously," said Alan Arthur, president of CCHT. "We're in the midst of putting together a plan to reconstitute Renaissance Box so that it can be a strong asset for the neighborhood."
CCHT's primary mission is providing affordable housing. Currently, CCHT operates 1,252 units of housing, with another 342 units in its development pipeline and approximately 500 more in various stages of planning.
Arthur acknowledged that a particularly complicated due-diligence process lies ahead.
Current building owner Martin Lubell borrowed $337,000 from the city of St. Paul's STAR (Sales Tax Revitalization) program, but stopped paying the city in 2002. The city foreclosed on Lubell in April, but it is standing in line behind Lubell's lender, Maplewood-based Premier Banks.
Allen Carlson, development administrator for downtown St. Paul for the city's Planning and Economic Development (PED) department, said city planners haven't made any decisions about potential reuse ideas for the Renaissance Box.
"We're staying our course of action to follow through on the foreclosing," Carlson said. "In regards to CCHT, we have not made any commitments on the reuse of that building. If we should obtain control of that property, we do not know at this time what the best reuse of that property may be."
Carlson added that if the city were calling the shots, it would prefer a competitive bid process for potential redevelopers.
Carlson also noted that the city has already invested heavily in downtown St. Paul's northwest quadrant through land acquisition, financing and public infrastructure. "Our public investment in that area exceeds $10 million," Carlson said. "It was our strategy that at some point in time that market would become self-sustaining, and the city would no longer have to play a role in the renaissance of that neighborhood."
"I don't know if we can sort it out with the city or not," Arthur said. "We're problem solvers, and we'll do our best. It requires a lot of conversations with the people who are affected. We've already started the process of trying to schedule meetings to do that."
That list of people includes the city of St. Paul, current tenants, neighbors and bankers.
Arthur said that based on preliminary analysis, CCHT could envision developing 50 to 60 units of workforce housing at the Renaissance Box.
Under Lubell, the Renaissance Box carved out a quirky niche with tenants such as the Loading Dock Theater and the nonprofit Sibley Bike Depot, a bicycle repair, retail and education hub. "Certainly places like the theater and the bike shop are strong assets for the community, and our goal is to retain a reasonable amount of that on the bottom floors and try to do some workforce housing on the top floors," Arthur said.
First-time building owner Lubell bought the former home of the O'Donnell Shoe Co. for $986,000 in 1999, but struggled to find tenants for the Class C property at 509 Sibley St. In March, Lubell told Finance and Commerce that his 67,000-square-foot building was 40 percent vacant as foreclosure deadlines loomed.
Lubell cultivated an eclectic mix of tenants in an ad hoc business incubator. The largest tenant has been Medvec-Eppers Advertising, with about 5,000 square feet. Patty Wetterling's U.S. Senate campaign is also based in the building.
If CCHT's deal moves forward, the project would mark the group's second foray into St. Paul. Later this month, CCHT will break ground on its rehabilitation of the Crane Ordway building in downtown St. Paul, converting the long-dormant warehouse into 70 affordable, efficiency housing units.
"I think structurally the building's a great asset; we just have to figure out how we solve all the problems and put it on solid footing," Arthur said of the Renaissance Box. "We're excited about the possibilities."
No matter what happens, Lubell's tenure at the building is clearly drawing to a close. "I support wholeheartedly CCHT taking over the building. They're a really good bunch of people," Lubell said. "I really feel strongly that this is the best compromise that's out there."
