St. Paul officials announce the master plan development for the former Ford plant is finalized and set to go before the city council by the end of 2019.
The 122-acre site is currently filled with gravel, concrete and empty fields. After the Ford plant in the Highland Park neighborhood ceased operation in 2011 after 84 years, it took about a decade to clean up the site and find a solution. In 2017, officials adopted a proposal described as a "sustainable mixed-use village" and "21st Century community" of 40 full, new city blocks to be completed with the help of Minnesota-based Ryan Companies.
"When Ford Motor Company opened a sprawling auto manufacturing plant on the banks of the Mississippi River, they laid the foundation for nearly a century of opportunity and growth in our city," St. Paul ward 3 Councilmember Chris Tolbert said. "I believe that today we are embarking on another once-in-a-century project that will reap benefits for generations to come."
"In addition to the public-private partnership we were just discussing, there will hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment to bring the actual projects to life, which is all the vertical development," said Mike Ryan of Ryan Companies.
According to the city: "The proposal includes an investment of $92 million for new public parks and infrastructure, realized in part through $32 million in private infrastructure investment in addition to the private investment required to develop the numerous individual projects and $53 million in tax increment financing."
"It's the investment in the infrastructure," Ryan said. "You have to build all of the streets, all of the parks, the utilities, all of that."
It will take up to two decades for the site to be fully finished. The first residents could be living there as soon as three years from now.