City of St. Paul releases plan to revitalize downtown

The city of St. Paul and its Downtown Alliance on Tuesday released a report with strategies to revitalize downtown.

Downtown St. Paul, like other cities across the country, is struggling to get people to work, live, and visit. The report goes on to state that some of the challenges were created by the COVID-19 pandemic and others existed before the pandemic but were worsened by it.

The Downtown Alliance would like to add 20,000 more residents, create 20,000 more jobs and generate a 20% increase in visitation in comparison to baseline numbers from 2018, according to the report.

To accomplish this, the report outlines three priorities to work on:

• Create incentives to convert office buildings to residential buildings. This would support downtown businesses and strengthen the commercial office market
• Make the area more pedestrian-friendly by reconstructing streets. The report also recommends the city commission a skyway traffic study.
• Take actions to advance the city’s most strategic redevelopment projects, including Central Station, the Park at RiversEdge, and an entertainment district connecting the Xcel Energy Center to the core of downtown.

The full report can be read below: