Tony Bol has seen pockets of improvement in downtown St. Paul, “but not on Wabasha.”
Once a central business corridor, Wabasha Street's suffering in the modern era is near-legendary. A Macy's Department Store closed more than a year ago, ending the last vestiges of major retail downtown. A shuttered skyway bridge extends out from the Macy's site over Wabasha, leading to exactly nowhere, ending in space like a pirate's plank. That's a story in itself.
The once-popular Palace Theatre on Seventh Place hasn't opened its doors to patrons since 2005, and then only to host comedic performances in the lobby. The movies stopped showing regularly in 1982. Across the street, the legendary Artists' Quarter Jazz Club shut down at the beginning of January, though it could reopen again under new auspices.
Despite some bright spots, such as the opening in recent years of the popular Amsterdam Bar and Hall, the list of Wabasha's ailments goes on. “We just have some forgotten plans for our street," Bol said.
Bol, board chair of the Wabasha Partners business and residents association, thinks tenants and property owners along the street need to get organized and advocate for the once-thriving and now-beleaguered business district. “Nothing’s been working to make Wabasha look and feel better so far," he said.
On the bright side, meetings of the Wabasha Partners group draw some 25 to 35 participants, and big names at that. He's seen representatives show up from the Minnesota Children's Museum, Ecolab, Minnesota Public Radio's Fitzgerald Theater (which he used to manage), Wells Fargo Place, the Amsterdam Bar and Hall, Candyland and other employers.
The group will be four years old next March. “It’s a really good, active group," Bol said. “When you’re part of a tired, broken down street, it’s harder to get support for your renovations. When you’re part of something (collective), then you can get more support for your individual needs.”
That said, members of the association pay no dues, which gives Wabasha Partners just enough money and clout to sit around talking and write a letter or two. So they're talking and writing a letter or two. Here's what they're talking and writing about:
A BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT
In Minneapolis and elsewhere throughout the country, businesses have pooled funds to create Business Improvement Districts, or BIDS. The funds can pay for helpful wayfinding signage, public art, extra litter pick-up, special events or, as is the case across the river, even downtown ambassadors to greet passersby and alert police when trouble brews.
These BIDS, “they live and thrive in Minneapolis," Bol said. "They do not live and thrive in St. Paul.”
Whether Wabasha Street would benefit from its own BID remains unclear in the eyes of many. Convincing building owners to cough up more money than they already do in city property taxes and street assessments could be a tall order.
And Wabasha may lack the critical mass of destinations. After all, why pay ambassadors to greet passersby and direct them to an empty Macy's department store?
Another approach would be to widen the Business Improvement District so it includes properties outside of Wabasha Street, as well, though that might undermine the focus and defeat the purpose. “We haven’t made a decision," Bol said.
DOWNTOWN BIKE LOOP
Wabasha Partners has, on the other hand, spoken out decisively on plans to create a downtown bicycle loop. The group wants some tweaks that would bring the loop closer to home.
Not long ago, city planners unveiled a draft Bicycle Plan that would add dozens of miles of bike amenities within and around the city. The proposal includes a downtown bike "loop" -- a 10-foot bike path at sidewalk elevation along St. Peter, 10th and Jackson streets and Kellogg Boulevard, forming a rectangle. Curb, trees, plantings and markings would likely separate the 1.7 miles of biking paths from both pedestrian and street traffic.
Though there's some disagreement within the ranks, many members of Wabasha Partners like the concept but not the location. Bol said the group has met with city representatives, including the mayor's office, and authored a letter asking that one leg of the loop be taken off St. Peter Street and placed on Wabasha.
"We wrote a letter, and we had a majority of the business on Wabasha Street sign it, and we are asking that the bike loop … be on Wabasha Street, not St. Peter," Bol said. "St. Peter is outside of the vitality. If the bike loop is inside the vitality, that also comes with improvements.”
Some business owners -- developer John Rupp and art gallery owner Bill Hosko, among them -- oppose the idea of a Wabasha Street bike path, noting that it will likely come at the cost of parking.
"There is a traditional view that customers want to pull up right next to your store, buy your item and go," Bol acknowledged. "That’s not the tone and tenor of Wabasha Partners. You always want to have opposition, or you can’t get very articulate."
Rick Pakonen, who redeveloped the popular Pioneer-Endicott buildings close to Lowertown, would like to see a leg of the bike loop moved to 4th Street. Wabasha and 4th meet (in front of a building with ties to Rupp), so those two tweaks might actually serve to bolster one another.
Pakonen "shares the philosophy that you put the bike path where the vitality is," Bol said. “He thinks that’s true for 4th Street. We think that’s true for Wabasha. We’re probably parallel in our beliefs. We both developed that idea separately, and it just so happens 4th Street meets Wabasha.”
Folks who have signed on to the letter of support for the Wabasha bike path include representatives of Ecolab, the Amsterdam, shops in the Lawson Building, the Fitzgerald Theater, and the Children’s Museum, among others.
PALACE THEATRE
Wabasha Partners also plans to work on a letter to the city in support of renovating the vacant Palace Theatre. City officials say they've been working on the theater's revival for quite a while, and they hope to have it reopened by 2016, under the management of First Avenue and Chicago-based JAM Productions.
The state bonding bill this year dedicated $5 million to the project, and the mayor has proposed another $8 million in the 2015 budget, which will be finalized in December. The city spending has yet to pass muster with the St. Paul City Council, where some elected officials remain skeptical of the city buying an old movie theater.
Wabasha Partners met Tuesday with Joe Spencer, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's Director of Arts and Culture, for an update, and Spencer explained that the complicated transaction requires business negotiations on multiple levels, Bol said.
As an aside, all of Bol's statements are his own and do not reflect the views of Minnesota Public Radio.
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