The Saint Paul Condo Blog

Aeon, the same company that made the successful conversion of the Crane Ordway building in Lowertown, is now taking on the Ren Box in Wacouta Commons.  They plan to start renovations in December with construction lasting about 15-17 months.  When finished, the building will house roughly 77 units of affordable rentals - Most being efficiency or one bedroom apartments.  Aeon is hoping to get the building LEED Gold certification when all is said in down.

I know some in the neighborhood were worried about another rental in the neighborhood, but the Crane Ordway building is one incredibly run building!

Not like you couldn't see this one coming, but Wireless Toyz in the Bonnie Jean building has closed.  From what I hear, the lease was insanely high for that locale and that type of store.  My gut tells me it will be a bit before the space is released, but who knows.

In other store front news...  The O'Connor building sounds like it has a finally landed a tenant!  Look for another liquor store to join the fray, called Steins and Vines.  They are going though their public opinion phase right now (as is required by the city for new liquor stores).  The O'Connor building is the place that houses the super secret cigar club in the basement with something like a $3000 membership fee.  Oops, I guess it's not much of a secret anymore, LOL.

Do you miss the Dakota Jazz club when it moved from St Paul and moved across the river?  Well fret no longer.  There's a jazz club in the works for the Lowry Building.  I have been also hearing rumors of a Fine Line concept next to Barrio in Lowertown, but I'm not sure if these rumors are one in the same, still trying to figure it all out from the noise.

I was walking by a building and snapped this shot, I couldn't resist!

I actually got to sneak out for a few hours this evening and check out a few artists!  I'm going to try and hit a few of the missed buildings in the morning, but there's a lot of great art out there.  If you go, make sure you bring a few bucks.  The guides this year are $2 a pop - and it goes to a good cause.  Keeping the crawl alive.

One suite not to miss?  Say hi to Toni at the Wild Dog Studio display in the Northwestern Building (Suite 820)  She's got some amazingly cool fused glass and fine silver jewelry.  She may or may not be a past client ;)