St. Paul received a $748,000 grant last week from the Metropolitan Council to help clean up soil and groundwater pollution at the site of the Saints' downtown ballpark.

It was one of four contamination grants awarded to St. Paul redevelopments, including $850,000 for the Custom House apartments project, $177,600 for the Western University Plaza housing and retail project and $8,200 for the Cross Given project.

Last summer, the ballpark site in St. Paul's Lowertown district, a former factory site, was found to be more polluted than previously thought and required an additional $6.2 million to clean and stabilize the soil. That money came from an internal city loan that officials planned to repay in part with environmental grants.

The cost of the ballpark, scheduled to open in 2015, is $63 million.

KEVIN DUCHSCHERE