A peek at St. Paul's glitzy Upper Landing development

Standing on Mississippi River frontage that was once St. Paul's flood-prone Little Italy, Golden Valley resident Don Yager clutched brochures describing the townhouse and his partner, Rick, just bought for more than $500,000.

"I'm not worried about it," Yager said when asked about living in what used to be a flood plain. "But we asked a lot of questions about it."

Four years after city leaders announced the Upper Landing as the biggest housing development in St. Paul history, buyers are settling in. The first moving van arrived Friday on the seven-block construction site that is planned to include $170 million worth of new townhouses, apartments and shops when completed in 2007.

As the new neighborhood opens along Shepard Road, across the river from Harriet Island Regional Park, St. Paul marks an important advance in its effort to reconnect with the river and to expand its tax base through new housing.

"It's probably the project I get asked about the most," said Martha Fuller, the city's director of planning and economic development. "I think it's going pretty well."

The project's visibility has been so high that two mayors have pointed to it as a sign of their leadership in housing. Former Mayor Norm Coleman got the ball rolling in 1999, when Centex Homes of Dallas was chosen as lead developer. And because the first unit sales are occurring two years into Mayor Randy Kelly's term, he's tapping the Upper Landing to help him reach his first-term goal of 5,000 new homes citywide.

Matt Anfang, land project planner for Centex, said the Upper Landing should produce as many as 250 for-sale townhouses and flats. On the three blocks closest to the Xcel Energy plant beneath the High Bridge, plans call for 348 market-rate apartments and 90 subsidized apartments for working people with low incomes.

Jenny Hansen Thomas, a sales agent for Centex, said that buyer interest has been steady but that construction of the first block of townhouses won't hinge on the number of presales.

"We're going to build regardless," she said.

The economy will determine whether the 2007 goal for completion will be met. "It's still pretty speculative," Fuller said. "But from my perspective, it's what we were looking for."

While the Upper Landing still draws fire from people angry about the project's intensive government subsidies and consumption of ideal public space, it has proceeded with strong backing from the City Council.

Erik Hare, a resident of the nearby Irvine Park neighborhood, said city politicians have unjustly favored splashy development projects over common-sense redevelopment of individual city blocks that cry out for help.

Dan Dobson, a neighborhood political activist who lives near Grand Avenue, said the Upper Landing is a "giveaway of our most precious land to the rich and privileged."

And contrary to the city's assertion that the project revitalizes the riverfront, Dobson said, the development is foreboding. "If anything, it is isolating the public from the river," he said.

Anfang said what critics overlook is that the land was heavily polluted. To build a big park there, the city would have had to spend $13 million or more, he said. A similar investment in the Upper Landing remediated the pollution, added much-needed urban housing and created a visitor-friendly riverfront trail and park space on both ends of the development.

There still could be wrangling between Centex and City Hall over a requirement for 23,000 square feet of retail space on the block nearest downtown. Anfang said the retail component should probably be downsized.

But the biggest curiosity about the project remains its location on a levee where Italian immigrants were flooded out in the 1950s and 1960s. The land was taken over by industrial uses and reclaimed by the city in 1989. Most recently, the space was dominated by a scrap yard and grain elevators.

But Moran said she hasn't heard many other complaints. In fact, "everybody just loves" the project's riverfront pedestrian path and regional bike trail, she said. The path runs where Shepard Road used to before it was moved back along the bluff to accommodate development.

To keep the new homes out of harm's way during floods, Centex hauled in more than 33,000 truckloads of dirt. After compaction, the site was literally raised out of the flood plain.

Anfang said no residential floor in the housing development will be built below an elevation of 717.5 feet. The Mississippi's highest recorded elevation at the Upper Landing was 708.63 feet in 1965. Some garages will be built below the grade, but they are designed to shed water and remain usable during most floods.

"The housing itself is protected," said Dale Homuth, regional hydrologist for the state Department of Natural Resources.

Subsidies

A site cleanup grant of $3 million came from the state Department of Employment and Economic Development, and another $700,000 in cleanup funds came from the Metropolitan Council.

For the affordable housing piece, Ramsey County's Housing and Redevelopment Authority issued $5.7 million in housing redevelopment bonds. Another $3.7 million came from investors who bought federal tax credits, and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency contributed a grant of $1.8 million.

Jay Jensen of Shelter Corp., developer of the "workforce housing" component, said the subsidies were needed to establish two-bedroom rents of $760 to $950. Three-bedroom units will rent for $895 to $1,100, he said.

In addition, St. Paul will spend about $3 million to build Upper Landing Park next year on fewer than 4 acres of land adjacent to the east end of the housing development. Tim Agnes, principal designer for the Parks and Recreation Department, said the park will be the ornamental "front yard" of downtown St. Paul. He said he's working on a concept that will recall the steamboat-docking history of the site.

Phase 2 of the park will depend on a $3 million contribution still in the works from the Army Corps of Engineers, Agnes said.

"I had excellent choices," Thorson said. "I think both communities are so fortunate to be reconnecting with the river. I think it speaks to the health of the entire community."