It’s been a year since owners of the Market House condos officially lost their parking lot by the site of the future Lowertown ballpark, and not much has changed.
Condo residents at 289 E. Fifth St. remain locked in a legal dispute with the city of St. Paul over their former parking lot, which was eliminated to make room for the city’s new 7,000-seat regional ballpark.
The 55-stall private lot bordered the old Gillette / Diamond Products factory building, which has been torn down to accommodate the future home of the independent league St. Paul Saints professional ball team.
Through legal proceedings in Ramsey County District Court, residents of the 58-unit condo building have asked to be justly compensated for the loss of convenient parking. That’s proven to be a difficult hole to fill.
“We won the initial legal battle- the judge ruled that the city does have to compensate us, but the lawyers continue to argue,” said Dr. James Bower, a Market House condo owner, via email. “Next court hearing is in in early September. I believe the issue now is the level of compensation, and whether the city will cover the tens of thousands of dollars of legal costs we have incurred through this.”
Beginning in September, a panel composed of three legal commissioners will review the issue at three hearing dates. “It’s likely that it will still get taken up beyond that date,” said Chris Mullen, a condo owner active in the condominium association.
To accommodate residents, the city has made multiple attempts to buy them permanent easements in private lots. Those efforts have fallen apart for a variety of reasons. Some sites are too far away from the condos, according to Market House residents. In other cases, a ramp owner has rejected the city’s monetary offer.
“The challenging part is there’s really nothing that is available close to our building,” Mullen said. “Our objective has been just to get replacement parking — all we want is what we had, essentially.”
The likely alternative would be to simply give the condo owners money to make up for their lost stalls, but even calculating adequate replacement costs has proven to be contentious, and the owners have rejected the city’s offers to date. Both sides are keeping numbers close to their vest.
The condo association has hired an appraiser to conduct an analysis by studying neighboring lots and ramps. “It’s more than likely going to monetary compensation,” Mullen said.
At the 6th and Wall Street ramp, a Dave Brooks property, “the city offered that ramp 68 percent more than they offered us,” Mullen said, “and the parking ramp owner said that was not going to be adequate compensation.”
Meanwhile, parking costs are rising. The condo association bought their 55-stall lot from the city for $175,000 — about $3,200 per stall — in 2006. If owners were to lease stalls somewhere, an equivalent amount of money could be gone in eight years, if not less than two, depending upon rates.
“That Brooks ramp went from $110 a month to $150 a month once construction on the ballpark started,” Mullen pointed out. “No matter what they give us, that well is going to run dry eventually paying for monthly parking.”
And even a permanent easement for part of the ramp would still require condo owners to pay monthly fees to cover maintenance and taxes, he pointed out.
As a temporary solution last year, the city allowed condo owners to take up 35 stalls at the farmers market site at 5th and Wall Streets when the market itself was not in session. That ended at the beginning of the year, which some residents took as a hardball negotiating tactic. “They pulled that on Jan 1,” Mullen said.
Market House residents say the situation is clearly impacting their property values for the worse. Mullen said he’s moving to South Minneapolis, and selling a condo that does not have permanent dedicated parking will be difficult.
In addition, the city is enforcing state building code mandates and forcing the condo owners to replace two elevators by next January. That will prove costly, as well.