What’s with the turmoil in downtown St. Paul? Mayor Carter responds
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Commercial tenants in the mostly vacant Alliance Bank Center in downtown St. Paul have a brief reprieve from the threat of moving suddenly. Mayor Melvin Carter managed to buy them some time by keeping the lights on — literally.
B’s Barbershop, Pino’s Pizzera and other businesses were told Monday they had less than 48 hours to leave because the building would shut off its heat and lights. Carter negotiated with Xcel Energy and District Energy Tuesday to maintain service until April 1.
This is just the latest blow in a series of left hooks to downtown; Lunds and Byerlys is closing, many St. Paul Skyway stalls remain empty and thousands of feet of office space are vacant. Madison Equities, a multi-million dollar organization and downtown St. Paul property owner, continues to sell off its portfolio, following the death of owner Jim Crockarell last year. Alliance Bank Center is one of its buildings.
The mayor joined Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer Wednesday to talk about the turmoil, and what’s behind it.
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What’s next for the Alliance Bank Center tenants?
“I think very few people would say [Madison Equities has] maintained [its properties] really well,” Carter said, blaming the company for the chaotic situation. Pino’s Pizzeria has been in that building for 37 years, paying rent for 37 years and then the owners of the building give them, what, 48 hours to get out of the building? That’s just unacceptable.”
Carter said the city is collaborating to get the businesses up and running quickly elsewhere.
“Many of them have plans to relocate, and we're doing what we can to work with them to make that, to facilitate that process as quickly as possible.”
This is a larger issue with Madison Equities. Will there be other shoes to drop as it sells off its portfolio?
“That’s hard to predict,” Carter said, adding that the city has a team trying to meet with Madison Equities every couple of weeks. “They haven't been exactly forthcoming with the information that you know that we need.”
“Obviously, it would be great to have had a list of businesses in Alliance Bank from them yesterday that we could kind of contact ahead of time. Instead, we end up having to kind of walk through the building and try to connect with people in person,” Carter said.
Carter’s biggest concern is the way Madison Equities is shutting down buildings and treating tenants, which, he said, is taking up an “enormous” amount of his staff’s time to mitigate.
“Hopefully this rings a new day for us where we can move forward,” he said, “get some better property managers in there.”
How do you respond to criticism that downtown St. Paul feels pretty desolate?
“I think it’s actually a bigger question than that. The question is, what's going on with downtowns?” Carter posited. He pointed to office buildings in the suburbs, greater Minnesota and downtowns nationwide that have emptied out during and post-pandemic as more people work remotely.
“We have to rethink what downtowns are across the country.”
Carter said there’s good news on the horizon, including the capital city attracting big events like the Yacht Club Musical Festival and the 2026 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.
According to Carter — who referenced a study commissioned by the St. Paul Downtown Alliance (SPDA) and the City of St. Paul — vacancy in office buildings is higher than he’d like but residential properties are close to full. MPR News is working to independently verify that information.
“We need to be able to give people more chances to live downtown. Those are the types of things that will help us renovate and help us bring more vitality back,” Carter said.