Downtown St. Paul office buildings are emptier than previously thought
![Building with no parking sign](https://img.apmcdn.org/c449aef603b8f206db5ce58c97aab3dfc924c79d/uncropped/24dc64-20231229-building-with-no-parking-sign-600.jpg)
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Empty downtowns are not a new story in our post-pandemic news cycle. But what is new is just how empty downtown St. Paul office buildings actually are.
Axios reporter Nick Halter dug through documents detailing office buildings for sale by the city’s largest landlord — Madison Equities owned by the late Jim Crockarell — and found the company underreported its vacancy rate to the St. Paul Building Owners and Managers Association.
“He was telling everyone that the buildings were mostly full, and it turns out that they’re more like half empty right now,” Halter said. “And these are some of the biggest buildings in downtown St. Paul.”
That represents about 610,000 square feet of vacant office space that was previously not known about. It would bump the official vacancy rate for all of downtown St. Paul commercial buildings from 22.5 percent to about 31 percent, Halter said.
Listen to full conversation by clicking play on the player head above.
Support Local News
When breaking news happens, MPR News provides the context you need. Help us meet the significant demands of these newsgathering efforts.