The Saint Paul Condo Blog

To the birds…  The art on the Northwest corner of the 1st National Bank Building removed the art that has been there since the early 60’s.  I was told it was because of Pigeon’s calling it home (or maybe better a bathroom).  At any rate, it’s kind of sad to see it go, but I’d probably have a different opinion if I stood under it for any amount of time.

The building itself is under a transformation of sorts.  They are modernizing the elevators (read, expensive) and adding a fitness center, tenant lounge, and more.  They are trying to make the building a hallmark property.  I hope they do, since it’s an absolutely gorgeous building!

If you live at MarketHouse, you must be asking that question a lot right now!  Part of the building improvements MarketHouse had planned, included removing their chiller and using District Energy for their cooling (MarketHouse already uses District Energy for heating).  The building improvements relied on both the residential AND commercial parts of the building making their payments to DE.  The commercial space at MarketHosue is in foreclosure and the redemption period is up in August 2008.

Where does this leave the residents of MarketHouse?  Without AC.  Under the contract they signed with DE, if the activate the chiller now, they will be penalized nearly $80,000 for 2007 & 2008 seasons!  The homeowners have now been put into the precarious position of having to pay for the delinquent account of the commercial space, $32,000.

It looks as if the association is close to a remedy with District Energy and hopefully will have AC by second week of July.  That's still a long time to go with no AC because of the actions of the commercial entity that they have no control over.

I guess the good news about the whole situation is that the bank will own the commercial space shortly and will start paying bills.  Hopefully a new owner will step forward that can get some tenants into the building and alleviate the problems there.

After the pressure of the rumors, the developer finally caved - they are no longer building the Penfield.

The developer says that within the next 30 days he will have a new plan for the site, which does NOT include condos.

Farewell, Penfield!
R.I.P.
10/06/2006 - 06/30/2008

OK, I guess I've got some explaining with that title, I'll explain later...

This morning(or yesterday morning, for those of you looking at time stamps), promptly at 7:30am Xcel Energy brought down their old power plant.  I had intended to head up to the bluffs and watch from there, but I am just recovering from being sick since Wednesday night.  Being active at 7:30am didn't sound appealing to me when the alarm went off.

Well about 15 minutes before the demo started, I had a change of heart.  I've got some great pictures here in a slide show for you, I hope you enjoy!

(the above is a BIG file, it might take a minute or so on slower connections)

If you haven't figured out the title.  It's the name of a children's book and it's one of the first things my almost 4 year old daughter and I thought about when we talked about the boom we heard.  My daughter was talking about the smoke stack ALL day.  Where did it go? - Why? - What's that thing called again? - Maybe Jesus took it away?

Young children sure have an interesting take on things. 

CapitolRiver Council held their annual meeting on Wednesday evening.  The meeting was held at the Q Kindness Cafe and the Lowry lab Theater, both located in the Lowry Building.

At the annual meeting, half of the 22 board members are elected.  I was only able to stay for the first part of the meeting, but I got the results from the meeting.

Here's the list newly elected board members:
Julio Fesser, Securian (New member)
Rod Halvorson, City Walk resident
Michael Heelan, Great Northern resident
Kim Hyers, resident and BWBR Architects
Karl Karlson, City Walk resident (New member)
Lynda Koren, American Bank
John Mannillo Womack & Associates
Chamath Perera, Tilsner resident
Caitlin Skinner Marlotte, Rossmor resident
Jan Thomas, Lancer Service
Dina Vaynerman, resident and Landmark Center (New member)

To learn more about what the CapitolRiver Council does for downtown, visit their website at www.CapitolRiverCouncil.org

The work at Galtier Plaza (home of the Airye Condos) has begun.  The job entails fixing all the joints as they were never installed correctly.  This is a million dollar project which was funded by a massive assessment to the homeowners at the Airye.  The assessment was anywhere from $15,000 to $80,000!!!  Ouch!

On the flip side, as an association sometimes you have to make difficult decisions, but ones that are best for the health of the building.  Having persistent leaking problems with the glass since the building was constructed and after several failed repairs, drastic measures were needed.

I'm glad that the owners of Airye were able to make this difficult decision, as it was the right one.

Rumors are bouncing off the wall right now about the demise of the project.  We’ve been waiting for this “big announcement” for about three months now and nothing.  Now the rumor mill is full of "the plug has been pulled" variants.

So, I strolled down to the sales center hoping to get the scoop.  Instead, a hand written note on the door… “Sales Center is Temporarily Closed”  Also, the place is starting to look a little run down - it almost looks abandoned.

If the rumors are true, it’s a sad day for Saint Paul real estate.  During the boom of the 2001-2006 Saint Paul was not able to add one single new-construction high rise.  Minneapolis on the other hand added more than I care to admit.

The truly sad part about this is we will likely get another ugly State office complex on the site instead of a the remarkable piece of architecture that would alter the skyline forever, aka the Penfield.

EDIT: June 27th, 2008
OK, so I hear from a trusted source that it's not completely dead, but dead to hopeful condo buyers.  It's going high-end apartments, with the ability to convert to condos when the market returns.

I thought I should at some point explain how this site works and how our company works.  I am the broker/owner of Saint Paul Home Realty.  We are a small, independent real estate company serving Saint Paul.  I am also the neighborhood realtor for downtown.  I live down here and we office out of the Empire building (Robert & 5th Street).  Our site delivers some of the best, most accurate information about the Downtown condo market.  Every listing that is listed in the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota is available at your finger tips.  I can show you anything that you find on this site, regardless if it’s listed by our company or not.

What makes this site work, is when you as a buyer or seller contacts us to represent you in the sale or purchase of your next home.  Most of our business comes from representing buyers and a lot of them are first-time buyers.  We know the in’s and out’s of the buildings and if you hire us to represent you, we can make sure you are making an informed decision and that you are not paying a penny more than you need to.

So when it’s time to buy in Downtown, pick up the phone or fire up your email.  We’re here for you!

Well well well, looks like I owe the wranglers over at the City an apology!  Not that long ago I was complaining that the old fhima’s restaurant space sat vacant for way too long, low and behold they signed a lease!  With Pop, no less!

Pop, the family-style restaurant that gets all the acccolade’s in NE Minneapolis, pulled the trigger and is opening another restaurant in St Paul.  This is just want downtown needs and I am so excited for Pop (and myself).

Hopefully with a new one coming to town now, the others out there will sign on the dotted line too.

Or crash fest 2008.  I made it down to Mears Park tonight to watch the men’s race and oh what a race it was.  I was at the corner of 5th and Broadway, right outside of MarketHouse.  I thought that might be a good corner to watch – it was if you like crashes.  It seemed like every time the pack came by, someone slipped up on the wet street.  The race was eventually called off – just not the right conditions for racing.  After nearly a dozen crashes and an official dumping his motorcycle, I’m pretty sure they made the right call.  The prize money was all donated to the Children’s Hospital, which I thought was pretty cool.  After the race was called off, I walked out to the spot where everone was going down.  IT WAS SLICK!  I almost wonder if someone spilled something there, very strange.

Here's a few links to some vides I took with the camera as well
http://tinyurl.com/3rfofw
http://tinyurl.com/4h82lx
http://tinyurl.com/4l3o7p

I LOVE when a new business opens in Downtown!  The newest (and most exciting) addition is the Tea Garden.  It’s not officially open yet, but they have signs up on their new windows in the US Bank Building (near US Bank, Bell Mortgage, and Four Inns Restaurant).  They started with one store in Uptown Minneapolis, then opened a successful store on Grand by Macalester.  Now they’re taking a gamble on Downtown.  I’ll probably single-handedly keep them in business by ordering Royal Tea Lattes nearly daily.  They’re fat free and calorie free, right??

Syndicated from www.SaintPaulHomeRealty.com