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Frogtown News Development Round Up: New Building and Fresh Green Space, While Victoria Theater Project Moves Forward Frogtown will get another jolt of development along University Avenue as upgrades get underway at Victoria St., where a new commercial/residential building is set for a June groundbreaking, and near Western, where a green space with public access is under construction. Meanwhile, efforts to develop the Victoria Theater continue. AT VICTORIA: The community-building organization Model Cities is planning a four-story building that will hold 35 units of affordable housing, plus 20,000 square feet of retail office and community space. Another 7,000 square feet on the eastern end of the development will be devoted to a pocket park and green space. Groundbreaking is planned for 11 am to 1 pm, Wed., June 1, at 849 University. The anchor tenant at the new building will be Que Nha restaurant, says Model Cities CEO Beverley Hawkins. The popular and well-reviewed restaurant was a fixture on the corner for years. Affordable housing at the site will be mostly one-bedroom apartments, with rents that #")&(!*#(+!+,(& 1#".+/(& -#".+/(& ".$ *,("0(& (and lots of other yard waste) will range between $756 and $926. Twobedroom apartments will go for $946 to $1112. It’s housing intended for seniors, working people or young people just out of college, says Hawkins, with most rents set at 60 percent of the area median income. With the light rail stop just steps away from the front door, tenants will have an easy commute to either downtown area. Model Cities will move back to Frogtown from Fairview and University when the new building opens in fall of 2017. The structure will also feature a reading room devoted to the history of Pullman porters. Starting shortly after the Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on railroad sleeper cars. The porters rode the rails from the late 1860s until the late 1900s. Until the 1960s, Pullman porters were exclusively black. They’re credited with playing a large role in the development of a black middle class. The reading room will feature books, art and exhibits that explore the role of the porters, both locally and nationally. !"#$ %"&'( RamseyRecycles.com #RamseyRecycles PAGE 4 MAY/JUNE 2016
Frogtown News Above: Renderings of Model Cities development at Victoria and University (left), and the green space to be built near Western. NEAR WESTERN: A new privately owned but publicly accessible green space — Little Mekong Plaza — will be the result of a collaboration of Hmong American Partnership, the Asian Economic Development Association and St. Paul’s Planning and Economic Development department. The space will be a home for the Little Mekong Night Market, which drew throngs last summer to the space south and west of the Mai Village restaurant at Western and University with food, entertainment and vendors. The city contributed $300,000 to demolish the former St. Paul Meat Market and make room for the expanded green sward. The new community space will include a stage, benches and patio furniture, a water feature and plenty of green, says HAP”s Kevin Xiong. HAP will own the space but operate it as an area open to the public, with outdoor eating space also available for patrons who want to take food out from Mai Village. The next Night Market is scheduled for July 23-24. VICTORIA THEATER: The project to restore the historic theater located near Victoria on University continues as the planning group works to tie up loose ends on the concept design and move forward on fundraising, says steering committee member Aaron Rubenstein. The group is working with newly-hired real estate and fundraising consultants to hone ideas generated in public planning meetings and then start to raise money for the purchase and renovation of the building. The theater initiative came up with $150,000 in city funding through the Capital Improvement Budget process, but that money came with strings attached. The group needs to show it has the building purchase price and a business plan that shows how the performance and gathering space will sustain itself. The building, currently owned by the Twin City Community Land Bank, has a price tag in the neighborhood of $350,000. The currently gutted building will need extensive rehab work to make it functional space for performance and other gatherings. Next steps are to nail down rehab cost estimates, then launch a major fundraising campaign. “It will take a year or two to raise the money,” says Rubenstein. “Then another nine to 12 months to build out the project. In the meantime it is going to be important for the group to keep the community engaged.” It’s a Plan: Effort to Create Blueprint for Future Begins As exciting prospects go, the chance to be part of a lengthy process to create a 10-year plan for a neighborhood ranks pretty low. But this effort in Frogtown got started in a lively and hopeful way at an April 26 meeting. The meeting, orchestrated by the Frogtown Neighborhood Association, was a first part of the work to create an overall plan for city development. Neighborhoods feed their ideas to the city via what’s called a Small Area Plan. The many small area plans are cobbled into a master plan for the city. The neighborhood plans typically deal with land use, transportation, parks and recreation, housing, water resources and historic preservation, though they may also include other topic areas, such as the arts. Typically the process of writing a plan involves a lot of dreary meetings with a predictable cast of characters. This version, led by local activist Tou Saiko Lee, drew a crowd of about 40 to City School. The meeting got started with a spread of food and light-hearted Jeremiah Ellison introductions. The compelling news of the night was that FNA will be experimenting with new ways to keep neighbors informed about the issues and choices involved in putting together a plan. The group hired North Minneapolis artists Jeremiah Bey Ellison to help figure out ways to get neighbors involved and to explore ways of telling the story of what’s at stake. In Minneapolis, Ellison has created comic book-like handouts that explain complicated situations an easy-tounderstand format. Interested in participating? Contact FNA, 651-236-8699 for details on meetings. Greening Frogtown is published six times per year by Health Advocates Inc. 843 Van Buren Ave., St. Paul, and is distributed door-to-door in the area from Lexington Pkwy. to 35E, University Ave. to Pierce Butler. Publisher: Patricia Ohmans Editor: Anthony Schmitz Contact us at 651.757.5970 (Patricia) patricia.ohmans@gmail.com 651.757.7479 (Anthony) apbschmitz@gmail.com Ad rates & more at GreeningFrogtown.com Acknowlegements “Green Giants” (page 2) is a year-long series about Frogtown neighbors who are preparing for climate change by protecting the environment. The series is funded by Ready & Resilient, a partnership of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the City of St. Paul and Macalester College. “Trashed” (page 9) is a five-part series funded through the office of Ward One Councilmember Dai Thao in response to concerns of Ward One residents. MAY/JUNE 2016 PAGE 5
Page 1 and 2: MAY/JUNE 2016 Inside… Frogtown Co
Page 3: A Natural Play Area at Our New Park
Page 7 and 8: MAY/JUNE 2016 PAGE 7
Page 9 and 10: Trashed! Are You Getting a Deal, or
Page 11 and 12: On the Cover Frogtown’s Greatest

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