Plans for an artist-inspired mini-golf installation at the Schmidt Artist Lofts on West Seventh Street haven’t come together as once hoped, but don’t scratch the entrepreneurial venture known as Blue Ox out of the increasingly pretty picture that is St. Paul.
They may be on the verge of setting up mini-golf somewhere else within the city limits. Until the lease is signed, mum’s the word on where, says Blue Ox organizer Jennifer Pennington via email:
Unfortunately, we were unable to secure land at the Schmidt Brewery site despite our best efforts. However, we are pursuing an alternate location in St. Paul, and we will disclose as soon as we have a signed lease. We are hopeful that this will occur within the next two months.
Thanks for thinking of us! Have a great day.
Best wishes,
Jennifer Pennington
Meanwhile, the Schmidt Artist Lofts are hopping with activity. Dominium, one of the country’s largest private providers of affordable housing, has rented out 260 artist lofts at the Bottlehouse and Brewhouse.
The lobby of the Schmidt Artist Lofts Brewhouse building.
Where giant generators once stood, Schmidt Artist Lofts tenants now enjoy 40-foot ceilings and a two-level clubhouse.
Commercial landlord Craig Cohen has a contract with the West Seventh Street / Fort Road Federation to redevelop the federation’s crumbling Keg House, and the federation has high hopes for landing tenants in the long-vacant Rathskeller building, which remains home to a gorgeous basement pub space that’s just longing to serve pints again.
Former brewery owner Bruce Hendry is this close (the Scoop presses thumb and forefinger together here) to selling his adjacent warehouse on the south side of the property to an outfit that wants to install mini-storage and retail. Hendry still sells the public pristine well-water from his West Seventh Street well house.
Even a replica of the iconic Schmidt sign now shines brightly over West Seventh Street.
That’s not a shabby set of circumstances for a brewery campus that once faced possible demolition. Community advocates rallied to keep the more-than-century-old Schmidt Brewery from being razed when it fell into foreclosure a decade ago. “If life hands you lemons, you’ve got to figure out how to make lemonade,” said Ed Johnson, executive director of the Fort Road Federation.
The converted Bottlehouse and Brewhouse span 260 apartments, most of them with their own unique layout.
The buildings, taken together, now sit within a National Register Historic District, which allowed Dominium to access historic tax credits and make historically-sensitive improvements to the two factory buildings, which now house artists.
“It’s quite stunning. The amount of production space for the artists is unbelievable,” Johnson said.
Having more than 260 new residents move onto West Seventh Street sits just fine with City Council Member Dave Thune, who represents the ward and still owns the old Rybak building across the street. After all, isn’t West Seventh Street where all the cool kids hang out?
Since 1855, eight different beer companies have run the massive campus along the 800 block of West Seventh Street, and an ethanol plant that made headlines for its heavy odors operated in the site from 2000 to 2004.
As the property changed hands over the years, workers and residents rallied to save the campus, Thune said. “People had faith in this neighborhood — the people who lived here and worked in the brewery,” Thune said.
The Bottlehouse and Brewhouse are connected via secret tunnel.
The Schmidt Artist Lofts are home to artists, and to their art, thanks to ample gallery, performance and studio space.