Midway Shopping Center tenants hoping more answers coming soon

To the tenants of St. Paul's Midway Shopping Center, there was one problem with early renderings of the development tied to a new professional soccer stadium: They didn't see their businesses on the drawings. Neither did their customers.

"A customer of mine came in and asked me, 'Did you see that they have a hotel in your space?' " said Mary Lau, who owns the Peking Garden restaurant with her husband, Louis. "They have promised us that we can stay. But the drawings worry us. I don't want to move."

On Monday, the same day that a Metropolitan Council committee signed off on a long-term lease with the city for a 10-acre plot where the stadium is slated to be built, a group of tenants at the nearby Midway Shopping Center shared concerns and questions about plans for the strip mall seen as a key piece of the overall project.

Together, the 10-acre vacant parcel owned by the Met Council and another nearly 25 acres adjoining the stadium site — including the shopping center owned by RK Midway LLC — make up a much larger "super block" that is planned for redevelopment. While many Midway Center tenants say they are excited about the promise of a new mixed-use development unveiled last Thursday, the plans presented by the Minnesota United team leave questions unanswered.

Marcy McHenry, whose Dancers Studio and Midpointe Event Center take up 15,000 square feet of the mall, said businesses have been promised by RK Midway's representative, Richard Birdoff, that no one will be evicted.

Birdoff, who met with tenants a couple of weeks ago, said he warned them not to "panic" when they saw the renderings. "This will not all happen at once. It's a long-term build-out," he said.

And he stressed Monday that "I intend to honor every one of the leases."

While several strip-mall tenants said they trust Birdoff and RK Midway to keep their promises, they still worry that their customers will be scared away by the uncertainty around when construction would start and whether they can stay open.

Seeking clarity

Businesses in the mall have lived through disruptions before.

Many say they lost months of business during construction of the light-rail Green Line outside their front doors. But that doesn't make it any easier to deal with the uncertainty of the stadium-area redevelopment.

"I have people planning weddings a year from now who want to know if it is safe for them to book our space," McHenry said.

The business owners have other questions: Will they be able to stay open during construction? Will rents rise? Will mall tenants get the first crack at spaces in the new development?

Said Louis Lau: "The worst scenario is us giving customers the wrong information."

Mimi Letta, owner of Mimi's Beauty Salon, has leased space at the mall for almost two years. She has heard the promises that all existing leases will be honored, she said, including her 10-year deal. But how will she know?

Little of the overall plans for the site has been shared, she said.

"I just want to be more involved," Letta said. "I want to be here."

Project advances

While much remains unknown, the project moved forward Monday when the Met Council's Transportation Committee agreed on the terms of a lease with the city for the land, which calls for annual rent of $556,620 over the next 52 years. Minnesota United — not the city — will pay that cost, said Todd Hurley, St. Paul's financial services director.

The soccer team's ownership group, which includes William McGuire, plans to privately build a 20,000-seat, $120 million stadium to house United in 2018. The team is expected to become a Major League Soccer expansion club, possibly as soon as 2017.

But the proposed redevelopment of the Midway Shopping Center is considered critical to the success of the overall project. City and team officials envision an urban village with parks and nightclubs and even a hotel that will not only draw soccer fans on game days, but re-energize the area year-round.

Birdoff stressed that no one will have to move before their leases expire. There will be more than enough space in the new development to accommodate existing and new tenants, he said. But he said he expects that once the tenants see what is available, they may want to move into new space.

"I think they're going to be extremely excited about what they can be a part of," he said.

Scott Koecheler, who has owned Midway Pro Bowl at the mall since 1982, is not worried that the renderings of a soccer stadium and the surrounding development don't seem to include his business.

"RK Midway is redeveloping Midway Center, not the soccer team," Koecheler said. "They have absolutely assured us that there will be a place."

Staff writer Jessie Van Berkel contributed to this report.

James Walsh • 651-925-5041