St. Paul Reaches Agreement on Ford Site Development
Ryan Construction and the City of St. Paul agreed on a $1.4 billion redevelopment of the Ford Motor Site in Highland Park this week. The redevelopment will cover the whole 122 acre site and is expected to bring 3,800 housing units; 265,000 square feet of office space; and 150,000 square feet of retail space. The development will be headed by Ryan Construction; however, two non-profits will develop 760 units of affordable housing within the development. Plans also call for 50 acres of open public space.
The plan relies on $53 million in city tax increment financing (TIF). TIF is a public investment that recycles new property taxes generated at the site to fund improvements in the same place. More TIF funds will likely be needed in order to ensure the creation of a sufficient amount of affordable housing. The $53 million in TIF will pay for more than half of the site’s public infrastructure, with private investment making up the remaining half.
The development will start around the Mississippi River and Ford Parkway and progress east and south from there. Construction is anticipated to take between 15 and 20 years to complete. Around 1,000 permanent jobs are believed to result as an outcome of the development, but construction of the development itself will create around 14,500 jobs throughout the 15 to 20 year period.
Ryan Construction’s officials believe that if city approvals come together block by block then construction may begin spring of 2020, with the first residents moving in three years later. Ryan hopes that the infrastructure on the site will be mostly developed within five years. The final development plan will be submitted to St. Paul’s city council by the end of this year.
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Development deal means 3,800 housing units, carbon-free electricity for St. Paul Ford site