An announcement from the largest property owner in St. Paul paints a shaky financial picture for the future of the city's downtown core.
Business owners in the Alliance Bank Center were notified by Madison Equities on Monday that they had to immediately vacate. But tenants now say the city has promised to keep the lights on until at least April 1 thanks to a deal worked out with Xcel Energy and District Energy.
Former St. Paul City Council member Jane Prince tells WCCO Radio's Vineeta Sawkar on The Morning News that occupancy rates in downtown office buildings have yet to rebound from the pandemic - and it's time for city leaders to take action.
"We've got to get back to basics, focus on basic services, and stop looking at pie in the sky developments like a downtown river balcony that we can't afford," says Prince. "We've got to take care of what we have."
Business owners inside the Alliance Bank Center in downtown St. Paul can breathe a little easier after initially being told they had 2 days to vacate the building.
"Today is a whole lot better day," says Bob Wolf of Green Wolf Hemp and Organics.
That follows the day prior when Wolf and every other small business owner in the building, received horrible news.
"Kind of really weird to get a notice saying you have less than 48 hours to get out with all your stuff," says Wolf. The mayor personally called Xcel Energy and got an extension for them cutting the power off and that was a big dilemma. How are we gonna move when the elevators don't work and you can't get your stuff out?"
For Wolf and his business, they quickly have found a new home.
"The lady from next door, Town Square Building, Julie Pettit, she came over and introduced herself and said, 'all of you welcome to come over there, pick a spot if you want it, and we'll make it work.' So everybody went to Town Square."
It's a somewhat happy ending to what could have been a disaster for the businesses, but it is far from solving all of the city's issues downtown.
Prince says one solution could be getting St. Paul's remote workers to come back to work downtown.
Prince says these are a sign of mismanaged priorities by city leadership.
"We have got to stop borrowing money," says Prince. "We've got to stop spending money on anything that isn't an essential service."
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter has promised to help impacted business owners in speeding the permitting and licensing process if they plan to move to open spaces elsewhere within the city.
In addition to office space, there are 14 small businesses in the Alliance Bank Center including a barbershop, a pizzeria, a printing shop and more.
Earlier this week, the city's only downtown grocery store, Lunds & Byerlys, announced it was closing due to staffing issues and financial challenges, adding to the issues in the central part of the state's capitol.