Ramsey County $140M riverfront dream
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A rendering of the land bridge park. Image: Courtesy of AECOM/Ramsey County
Nick here. I've been covering Ramsey County's lofty goals to redevelop the St. Paul riverfront for years and today I'm raising the idea that instead of swinging for the fences, maybe it's time to hit a single or double in order to restore some momentum to a downtown that is struggling.
Why it matters: The county announced Tuesday that for the third time in about 20 years, it's looking for a new master developer and even more money as it hopes to reignite the project.
The latest: Ramsey County officials at a press conference Tuesday outlined a $320 million economic development initiative centered on a $140 million park, parking ramp and land bridge that would provide a long-desired connection from downtown to the Mississippi River.
Between the lines: The numbers on this plan require mental gymnastics to figure out. There's a $20 million state bonding request, perhaps $70 million the county thinks it could raise by selling vacant land, plus tapping into existing bonding authority and infrastructure funds.
Zoom in: That's not even the most complicated aspect of the "RiversEdge" project, which was born in 2018 when Ramsey County chose Dallas-based AECOM — a giant engineering and architecture firm with no local development experience — over Twin Cities firms.
- AECOM's fanciful design included four massive towers with 1.2 million square feet of office space, housing and a hotel, all built over a land bridge to the river. It won out over more modest proposals that might have broken ground already.
Yes, but: A land bridge requires Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroads to grant the county air rights over their tracks that run between the bluff and river.
- When this plan was hatched, real estate sources told me that getting railroads — or, more specifically, their insurance companies — to sign off on running oil trains beneath skyscrapers would be a nonstarter.
- Emails between AECOM, the county and the railroads — obtained by Axios through a public records request — show that little progress had been made on those air rights as of 2024.
Here's another complicating factor: AECOM is out as master developer, and the county will have to put out another call to find new ones who could, in theory, build housing atop the parking ramp.
Reality check: It all sounds very complicated — air rights, money from a Legislature in a stalemate, land sales and other financing hurdles.
- That's why I asked the county's top economic development official, Josh Olson, why not do something easier — sell the 5 acres of land to experienced St. Paul developers and let them build something like 1,000 housing units, with a couple of narrow pedestrian bridges down to the river.
The other side: Olson brought up valid points. This, to him, is the most appealing development site in the metro and a land bridge would solve a huge problem for downtown, which is that there's no good way to get to the river.
- He also said that the county is making progress in negotiations with the railroads, since the designs make it clear that the towers would not be built above the tracks but set back toward the bluff, easing their concerns.
- In earlier negotiations, in the emails, county officials raised the idea of some kind of swap.
- Olson said Tuesday that the county owns land next to the tracks, farther up the river, that could be used for bargaining if the railroads want to expand capacity on the route.
The bottom line: "It's a challenging project," Olson said. "It comes with lots of partners, but I think we're up for it, and we'll continue to be up for it. We're going to make it happen."