Ramsey County will go ahead with plans to raze a string of empty buildings along the bluffs in downtown St. Paul in hopes of spurring development for the prime riverfront property.
The County Board on Tuesday approved issuing $11.5 million in bonds to pay for demolishing the former county jail and Ramsey County Government Center-West Building.
The complex is made up of seven separate buildings, including five that had once been the headquarters of West Publishing Co.
"It might seem like sticker shock … but if we reach the optimum development there, we're talking $7 million in property taxes," said Commissioner Rafael Ortega, who represents downtown St. Paul.
Of that new tax revenue, about $2 million would go to the county and $5 million to the city, school district and other taxing entities.
Ramsey County has been shopping the 6-acre site for redevelopment since 2002. In 2007, Opus Northwest reached a $200 million deal for a project that included an office tower, hotel and luxury condos. But the Great Recession intruded on those plans, and they were scuttled.
Meanwhile, the county took advantage of the depressed real estate market and bought the former state Agriculture Department building across the river, along with the old Metro Square building downtown, and began moving employees there out of the cramped riverfront offices.
County officials last year began looking at the idea of demolishing the buildings, ranging from six to 10 stories tall and set like a fortress into the bluff. The buildings are sandwiched between Kellogg Boulevard, facing downtown, and Shepard Road running along the Mississippi River near the Wabasha Street Bridge.
