Development Corp. seeks to acquire Alliance Bank Center

ST. PAUL >> DOWNTOWN

Vacant, dilapidated office building seen as key to revitalizing area

Mostly empty storefronts line the skyway passage through the Alliance Bank Center in March. the skyway section is now closed and the building is vacant. JOHN AUTEY — PIONEER PRESS

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By Frederick Melo

fmelo@pioneerpress.com

The St. Paul Downtown Development Corp., a new nonprofit created by the Downtown Alliance, has purchased the bank note for the troubled Alliance Bank Center on Fifth Street from the Royal Credit Union of Eau Claire, Wis., the first step toward placing the recently vacated, 16-story office building under the control of a legal receiver.

Buying up the debt doesn’t ensure control and redevelopment of the property, but it is a major step toward that goal. Officials with the Downtown Alliance — a partnership between City Hall and major downtown employers such as Securian and Ecolab — have not ruled out demolition.

Acquisition “will take a process to unfold, and the corporation could end up being the owner,” said Joe Spencer, president of the Downtown Alliance, in an interview Tuesday. “Next we have to file for foreclosure, and for the court to appoint a receiver. That’s just quite a process. We bought the debt from the bank.”

Critical site

The storied Alliance Bank Center — which also contains a key, and closed, Downtown skyway link — emptied of tenants in March following a slow decline that included broken escalators, elevator outages and security problems.

The city of St. Paul has been providing emergency building services since owner Madison Equities stopped paying for maintenance and utilities, effectively shuttering the building in March. The company, long considered St. Paul’s largest downtown property owner, put 10 buildings — the majority of its downtown portfolio — on the market together en masse following the death of company principal Jim Crockarell in January 2024. Several of those buildings are vacant or have fallen into receivership and foreclosure.

“There’s no greater example of the challenges and opportunities in downtown St. Paul than the Alliance Bank Center site,” said corporation President Dave Higgins, in a written statement. “We can’t create a strong and vibrant downtown St. Paul without creating a stable and robust core, and the Alliance Bank Center site is critical to making that happen.”

Officials with Downtown Development Corp. said details behind the bank note purchase are private. The nonprofit plans to initiate legal proceedings to place the 300,000-square-foot building into receivership and ensure it is maintained and secured, according to the statement from the corporation.

But the current skyway closure will continue.

What’s next

The Downtown Development Corp. plans to “assess opportunities to restore the property,” according to the written statement, which it says “faces significant structural and mechanical issues following years of disinvestment and neglect.”

Some retail and office tenants impacted by the Alliance Bank Center closure have found new homes in other parts of downtown.

“In the near term, if a receiver is appointed, the goal there is to add to the security of the building,” Spencer said.

“In the long-term, we’ll have to assess whether it can be redeveloped, converted into housing or simply torn down. We’re just kind of getting started here, and we see this as a really important location in downtown.”