St. Paul, Met Council review proposal from Indianapolis developer for land around Central Station light rail stop

With the goal of redeveloping the vacant land around the Green Line’s downtown Central Station, St. Paul teaming up with the Metropolitan Council to review a proposal from Indianapolis developer Flaherty and Collins Properties.

The city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority joined the Met Council this year in issuing a joint request for proposals for the site, which is bounded by Fourth and Fifth streets, as well as Cedar and Minnesota streets. The Met Council and St. Paul HRA own separate parcels of land around the station and are offering them together, along with air rights above the Green Line track, as one development opportunity. In their request for proposals, they noted a project could include restructuring the adjacent stairway-elevator tower, skyway and bus stop and incorporating a new building or buildings.

The Met Council “anticipates having a tentative development agreement identifying key project milestones in place early next year,” said a Met Council spokesperson on Tuesday in a written statement issued on behalf of the regional planning agency. A spokesperson for the city’s department of Planning and Economic Development referred questions to the Met Council.

Overall, the site has potential for 578,000 square feet of buildable space, according to the Met Council.

The Green Line opened in 2014. Flaherty and Collins have developed more than 70 properties in the Midwest, most of them in Indiana.

In 2016, they opened 2700 University, a $54 million, six-story, mixed-income apartment building between Emerald and Berry streets near the Minneapolis border and Metro Transit’s Westgate light-rail station. In 2019, the same company was one of several that pitched concepts to redevelop the space above the RiverCentre parking ramp.

Efforts to reach a spokesperson for the developer on Tuesday were not immediately successful.