Former Lowry tenants booted from temporary accommodation

Tenants who endured mold, vermin and break-ins in a downtown St. Paul apartment building have been ousted from the hotel where their landlord placed them after the building’s condemnation just three weeks ago.

Now those who had lived in the former Lowry Hotel have been suddenly displaced a second time in a month.

Emergency assistance keeping the 71 tenants of the Lowry building in a hotel ended Monday, according to the city.

The property’s managers, Halverson and Blaiser Group, agreed to provide alternative housing for tenants for up to 30 days, Deputy Mayor Jaime Tincher said in December, but that assistance instead lasted only 18 days.

Ramsey County used emergency funds to keep the tenants in the hotel over the weekend, and tenants were offered transportation to the St. Paul Opportunity Center on Dorothy Day Place downtown.

The Ramsey County Housing Stability Department is working with the tenants to find places to stay, and the building’s receiver is working with tenants to retrieve belongings from the Lowry.

The building’s problems had been piling up, with residents saying perennially broken doors let trespassers roam the halls of the 11-story building. Stolen copper wire, broken pipes and cockroaches became commonplace, residents said.

On Dec. 9, city staff responded to a plumbing leak in the building at 345 Wabasha St. N. Officials reported significant damage and signs of vandalism, including copper wire theft that left electrical systems exposed. The leak also raised concerns about mold, which tenants complained of in numerous lawsuits against the property.

Repairs meant shutting off the water, which would have left the building without plumbing, radiator heat and fire sprinklers.

The building was condemned, and residents had to leave with little notice.

On Monday, workers boarded up the ground floor windows of the former Gray Duck Tavern, closed since July and condemned in August.

The restaurant had been part of Madison Equities’ portfolio, along with the Handsome Hog on Selby Avenue on Cathedral Hill and three other now-closed St. Paul restaurants. Chef Justin Sutherland, who this year pleaded guilty to charges that he pointed a gun at his girlfriend, had run the restaurant group.

Madison Equities owned the Lowry, the restaurants and almost a dozen major downtown buildings, now all on the market after the January 2023 death of owner Jim Crockarell.

Crockarell’s widow put the Lowry up for sale last spring, along with the rest of the Madison portfolio.

Then, lender Colliers Funding LLC moved to foreclose on the Lowry, saying Madison stopped making its monthly payments in February 2023 and had defaulted on its $16.9 million mortgage. Halverson and Blaiser Group was appointed by a Ramsey County court to manage the building.

A Halverson and Blaiser community manager said she was unable to answer any questions Tuesday. The company owns or manages numerous other apartment buildings in Minnesota, and several office buildings in downtown St. Paul and Midway.

Other lenders are racing to recoup debt from Madison Equities, with many of the company’s downtown buildings now worth less than their debts.

Katie Galioto of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.