St. Paul Reporter

In St. Paul, the old Sears Department Store on Rice Street stands vacant and the future of the building remains unknown. Business advocates do not believe that the empty, 17-acre building is right for any future businesses to be built. However, it's been suggested that the building would be a perfect fit for additional housing in the St. Paul area.

"We should see a residential development there," Joe Spencer, president of the Downtown Alliance, told the Pioneer Press. “A lot of the people at the Capitol want more retail amenities, but you need the residential base to support the retail amenities."

Since the Sears building retired its business, several groups have pitched concept plans but nothing is concrete. Paul Mandell, the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board’s executive secretary, told the Pioneer Press that several plans have been pitched to create housing for all income types at the location. The housing would be above different restaurants and retail mixed on the first floor. Mandell also believes that some of the floors could be used to lease out to the government for office space, however, he does not believe that state ownership was in future goals for the reconstruction plans.

The Pioneer Press reports former St. Paul mayor Randy Kelly let his plans be known during the final days that Sears had its doors open. Kelly is now a business consultant with the St. Paul-based Synergetic Endeavors. Currently, the two are working with Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Construction with a plan to turn the old Sears into a mixed development area that would provide mixed-use office space, residential areas and retail stores. There has already been a conversation with the Minnesota Department of Administration officials to discuss the conversion.

As of right now, the state's main focus is on the 500 parking spaces on the property that are leased out in the site's surface lot. There is already a space available for development that the state owns at Rice Street and University Avenue. While Kelly and Kraus-Anderson shared plans two years ago, nothing has come of those plans since they were originally brought to attention.

Gov. Tim Walz recommended an 18-month contract of $1.5 million to create a real estate plan that would be put in place to guide the department in the capital budget. This would guide the department to locate new property or build new property for future state facilities.