In St. Paul, Partnerships and
Developer Incentives are Working
to Restore Two Blighted Corridors
W,
St. Paul, MN
ith an emphasis on forming partnerships, involving the local
community, and providing incentives to developers, the St. Paul Port Authority
has a proven track record of restoring the area's brownfields. The Port
Authority's accomplishments include the transformation of a former concrete
production facility into the Williams Hill Business Center, a $28 million
redevelopment project that now houses six companies in more than 415,000
square feet of office space, retaining 266 jobs in St. Paul while creating 407
others. This type of success earned St. Paul a Showcase Community
designation in March 1998, an award that is hoped will assist in transforming 60
identified brownfields into 13 million square feet of business space—creating
13,000 new jobs and $25 million in annual property tax revenues forthe city.
Showcase Communities are selected by the Brownfields National Partnership
to demonstrate that through cooperation, federal, state, local, and private efforts
can be concentrated around brownfields to restore these sites, stimulate
economic development, and revitalize communities. Showcase Communities
serve as models for broad-based cooperative efforts to support locally based
initiatives. Showcases receive up to $400,000 from EPA for both
environmental assessments and to support the loan of a federal employee to the
Showcase for up to three years. Showcases receive additional financial and
technical support from more than 20 federal partners, depending on the
community need and program eligibility.
St. Paul's Showcase Community targets two areas for revitalization: the
Phalen Corridor and the Great Northern Corridor. At least 11 brownfields lie
along the abandoned rail lines of the Phalen Corridor, with tremendous potential
for redevelopment once those sites are made accessible. Already, nearly 125
acres of Phalen Corridor's brownfields have been or are being restored. The
Ames Lake Wetlands project at the corridor's east end saw the conversion of
an abandoned strip mall into wetlands decorated with wildflowers and grasses.
At the corridor's midpoint, a high school abandoned since 1964 is being
renovated into a new elementary school and YMCA. On the west end, a
former salvage yard and waste transfer station is on its way to becoming a new
transit facility that will create 300 jobs.
St. Paul's Phalen Corridor Initiative, with the assistance of the Showcase
Community, is involving the local community in developing reuse plans forthe
Phalen Corridor. Community workshops offer local representatives and other
stakeholders the opportunity to be involved in brownfields reuse planning. The
Port Authority is also ensuring that job creation and employment opportunities
are made part of the process. The Authority requires businesses to use local
residents to fill at least 70 percent of jobs created through site restoration. As
continued ^
JUST THE FACTS:
• St. Paul's Showcase Community
targets two areas for revitalization:
the Phalen Corridor and the Great
Northern Corridor.
• Already, nearly 125 acres of Phalen
Corridor brownfields have been or
are being restored.
• The Ames Lake Wetlands project at
the Phalen Corridor's east end saw
the conversion of an abandoned strip
mall into wetlands decorated with
wildflowers and grasses. On the
west end, a former salvage yard and
waste transfer station is on its way to
becoming a new transit facility that
will create 300 jobs.
State partnerships formed
by the Port Authority and Showcase
Community have leveraged $9.7 million
in cleanup grants and $4 million in
annual redevelopment grants from the
Department of Trade and Economic
Development, and as much as $7 million
annually from the Twin Cities
Metropolitan Council, to be used toward
assessment and cleanup. These and
other partnerships are helping St. Paul
reach its goal of returning the Phalen
and Great Northern Corridors to use.
-------
CONTACTS:
For more information on EPA's Showcase
Communities, contact Tony Raia of OSWER's
Office of Brownfields Cleanup and
Redevelopment at (202) 566-2758
Or visit EPA's Brownfields Website at:
http://www.epa.aov/brownfields/
an incentive to redevelopment, the Authority offers municipally owned brownfields to purchasers for $1,
providing that the purchasers follow certain requirements, such as building on no less than 32 percent of the
site, to provide for higher job creation potential; and creating at least one new job for each 1,000 square feet
of building space. Partnerships aimed at restoring the Phalen Corridor include those with
local community development corporations, the city of St. Paul, private developers, the
Minnesota Environmental Initiative, and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
Apartnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation provides more than
$12.2 million to help design roads that will allow access to the Phalen
Corridor's restored brownfields.
Restoration efforts in progress along the Phalen Corridor include the 39-
acre Westminster site, where environmental assessments funded by EPA's
St. Paul Port Authority Brownfields Assessment Pilot are underway. The
former Denny's Radiator building has been demolished and Pilot-funded
assessments are taking place. Lastly, the Port Authority's Assessment Pilot
is determining contamination levels on the Pierce Butler site, where a 60,000-
square-foot building will eventually be returned to productive use.
St. Paul's Great Northern Corridor (GNC) is also being addressed by the Port
Authority and Showcase Community. Once a rail crossroads and thriving
economic area, the GNC is now home to outdoor storage areas and vacant industrial
buildings. Restoration efforts are focused on the 58-acre Dale Street Shops/Maxson
Steel site, where lead and organic compounds have been found in the soil. All of the community-based
plans for the GNC indicate that restoration of this site is essential to revitalization of the entire corridor. In
1997, a collaboration between local organizations produced "The Great Northern Corridor: A Community
Vision," which proposed developing the Dale Street Shops/Maxson Steel site as a light industrial park that
would provide new jobs for the surrounding community.
As with the Phalen Corridor, the Port Authority is using financial incentives and valuable partnerships to
move this project forward. The Authority is offering parcels of the site for $1 to developers who adhere to
construction and reuse requirements. In addition, Minnesota will provide Certificates of Completion for sites
that have been cleaned up through the state's Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup program. The city and
Port Authority have partnered to provide new utilities and an access road for the site, and Northern States
Power will offer reduced electric rates for five years to companies who locate in the industrial park.
The Port Authority has already received inquiries from more than 28 companies looking at the site.
One of those companies is a multi-billion-dollar corporation interested in transforming the Maxson Steel
portion of the site into an operation that would create as many as 400 jobs. Eventually, the industrial park
will be surrounded by new and restored housing units, and new commercial sites will emerge to meet
residents' needs.
State partnerships formed by the Port Authority and Showcase Community to restore the GNC and Phalen
Corridor have leveraged $9.7 million in cleanup grants and $4 million in annual redevelopment grants offered
by the Department of Trade and Economic Development, and as much as $7 million annually from the Twin
Cities Metropolitan Council, to be used toward assessment and cleanup. These state partnerships—and
those formed with local and federal entities, with assistance from the Showcase Community—are helping
St. Paul reach its goal of returning both the Phalen and Great Northern Corridors to the industrial,
commercial, and economic levels the areas once enjoyed. Mayor Norm Coleman, addressing the city's
Chamber of Commerce, indicated that the Brownfields Showcase Community Initiative "is not just about
government action—it is about community development and interaction."
Brownfields Success Story
St. Paul, MN
Solid Waste
and Emergency
Response (5105)
EPA 500-F-02-166
December 2002
www.epa.gov/brownfields/
------- |