My open letter that was sent to the Saint Paul City Council & Mayor Coleman.
I am writing to you today to bring light to an issue I feel needs to be addressed in regards to the Saints Stadium. You may or may not be aware, but the City is taking the privately owned parking lot of the Market House Condominium Association to build the stadium. This on it’s face is a stretch for the use of eminent domain in my opinion, but I believe there is a possible solution to keep the 55 homeowners at Market House that are having their owned parking taken from them.
A little more on the issue… There are no replaceable spots for them to purchase and with parking not being incorporated into the design of the stadium, the owners lose out on any benefit of having the Saints next door. They likely won’t even be able to park along Broadway once the stadium is complete. Meaning homeowners would have to carry groceries blocks to get it home. There is no other condo building in downtown that would have anything remotely as bad as this.
From my understanding, Ryan Companies has said the drawings from 2009 were being scrapped and new ones were going to be done. This is a prefect opportunity to incorporate a small sliver of land along the freeway where Market House residents could park.
I do not own a home at Market House, but as a Realtor that has sold many condos in this building and many others in downtown, I feel it’s my duty to make this issue be known. With parking stripped from the building, I fear we may seen another waive of foreclosures that will lower the values of their building and the surrounding buildings even further than the lows they’re at now. Owners will want to move because of the horrible parking situation and will simply walk away from their property since there will be no buyers that will pay anywhere near what the current owners have into them.
Councilmember Thune has told me he feels the same way as I do, but needs support in the Council to make something happen. I’m urging you to work with Mr Thune to see a reasonable solution be reached with the residents of Market House Condominium Association.
Sincerely,
Bud Kleppe
Hi Bud!
You and your readers may find the following link interesting. Here is Ryan Cos. submission to the city’s RFP for the project. New renders, site plans, schedules, bios, etc. (Bill Hosko, aka Raising St. Paul, could learn a lot from these guys, LOL).
http://www.stpaul.gov/DocumentCenter/View/63107
Page 116 shows a 32-stall parking lot directly east of the ballpark. How about those for the MarketHouse residents? Still a bit of a walk, but better than nothing. Saints employees and player can park at one of the nearby public ramps.
Also pages 110, 119-122 show some pretty cool new renders of the project. 110 and 122 in particular. Wow!
I am interested to hear your thoughts on this …
http://www.startribune.com/local/yourvoices/192723641.html
Enjoy. -Nate
Hi Nate,
I like the idea of the outdoor cafe. Although, I question the need to make that permanent. When that space will go unused for 6-7 months out of the year. I know the cost of having a removable outdoor cafe would be expensive, but I still think that’s the best option.
Also like your idea on the removing the one-way streets. Such a cluster, especially when you’re hunting for a parking spot.
Finally, many of the lots on your map are not actually available for “guest” parking. Obviously, the lot where Market House parks is going away, along with all the over-flow parking for the Farmers Market. That alone is going to make a mess on the weekends. Add another 3k cars… oh my…
Then there’s the old building that was converted to a parking ramp – which is being converted to a residential use (finally).
One final opinion on the plight of the residents of Market House:
Guests don’t mind walking 3-4 blocks for an event. When you’ve got your hands for of groceries, kids, etc – walking even 2 blocks is problematic, especially in the winter. Are there lots available to them now? Yes. But as you know, parking lots are the lowest form of land use and ripe for redevelopment.
I think there are two scenarios that need to be addressed separately here. The first is the issue addressed in Bud’s letter, which is the issue of using eminent domain to take property that will ultimately impact the long term value of a condo building. The lot that the Market House residents are losing is a lot that they own and I agree with Bud that this can significantly impact not only convenience, but also resale value and the cost of living in that particular building as residents will be forced to purchase or lease parking elsewhere. This issue should be dealt with by City Officials and the condo owners and be in a somewhat separate discussion from one of perceived parking scarcity in Lowertown. The second issue is the larger issue of “free parking” and convenient parking in downtown Saint Paul. On-street parking in a downtown area is not meant for all day parking. The purpose is for high-turnover parking so that visitors can come to shop, eat, see a show and then return where they came from. In Saint Paul, however, street parking is free after 5pm, which results in these spaces being used as free all-evening and overnight parking for residents and guests of downtown residents. As someone who works downtown and visits restaurants frequently I rarely opt to pay for parking (apart from my daytime spot) since on-street parking can usually be found nearby quite easily.
As Nate shows in his post, there are plenty of lots in the surrounding area, yet it I will agree with the parking scarcity folks in that a number of those are not in operation after 5/6pm and therefore don’t help alleviate evening parking issues. Granted, smart ramp owners will see this market and respond by making investments in automation or attendants at their lots/ramps.