With a ceremonial toss of a shovelful of dirt, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter joined developers with the Ryan Cos. along Ford Parkway this week to break ground on a long-stalled, $68 million phase of construction within Highland Bridge, which will include the first retail additions since Lunds and Byerlys relocated a nearby store there in September 2022.

“It took a lot of work for us to get here together,” said St. Paul City Council Member Saura Jost, who collaborated closely with the master developer, Ryan Cos., to restart work on market-rate multi-family housing at the development.

”Because of the way the development is financially structured, most of the affordable housing couldn’t move forward without most of the market-rate,” Jost said. “And all of the multi-family was on pause, basically.”

Highland Bridge, which is about 50% developed, was once the site of the Ford Motor Co.’s Twin Cities assembly plant, which closed in December 2011, leading to more than 13 years of planning, soil remediation and building construction. That construction has slowed, though not entirely stopped, in the era of high interest rates, softer urban housing demand and rent control, which the city of St. Paul permanently rolled back last month for new construction.

Work on the five new “Block II” additions — spanning four single-level retail buildings, a 97-unit mixed-use apartment building with ground-level retail, and a two-level parking structure — is expected to get underway in earnest this summer and continue into October or November 2026.

Given the current state of interest rates, financing and urban housing demand, “it is challenging right now to do market-rate, multi-family,” said Maureen Michalski, a senior vice president of development with the Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos., “but we’re committed to the site. Weidner Apartment Homes is committed to the site. We’re willing to advance the site based on this being a legacy project for us.”

One of the single-story structures to be erected closest to Lunds and Byerlys already has a tenant lined up — Tierra Encantada, a Spanish-immersion day care that plans to make Highland Bridge its 10th Minnesota location. The three other single-story structures, which will front Ford Parkway, will be built on more of an “if you build it, they will come” model, with hopes of attracting retail to one of the more affluent corners of the city.

Together with the ground level of the future mixed-use building, they’ll total 35,000 square feet of retail, Michalski said. The 133-acre Highland Bridge development also houses a two-story medical office building anchored by M Health Fairview, though most of the other construction to date has been residential, and until now, hundreds of units of planned market-rate housing have been on pause for years.

Pause is over

That pause is over, according to Ryan Cos.

“We have a variety of actions taken at the (city) council level that helped,” Michalski said, noting recent changes to tax increment financing agreements and other site controls. “We essentially looked at the existing redevelopment agreement and minimum assessment agreement, and made some reallocations and rebalancing there … basically changing some timing of things.”

The latest buildings, to be developed by Ryan Cos. and located between Cretin Avenue and Mount Curve Boulevard, will be bisected by a new pedestrian promenade that will emerge at an angle from a small plaza to be located near Lunds at Ford Parkway and Cretin Avenue. The future promenade will extend to an existing plaza located near Marvella 2190, the senior independent living apartment complex at 2190 Hillcrest Ave.

“It’s a very desirable location,” Michalski said. “Marvella 2190, which just opened in the spring, was fully leased when it opened in March.”

Roads, infrastructure

Roads and infrastructure along the far southern end of the site are being completed south of Montreal Avenue and east of Cretin Avenue. Throughout Highland Bridge, four parks have opened to the public. Michalski said Weidner Apartment Homes plans to begin work next year on a roughly 170-unit apartment building south of the site, toward Bohland and Cretin avenues, and Presbyterian Homes plans additional senior housing.

Elsewhere within the 133-acre development, six of 20 single-family lots have been sold, Michalski said, and about 150 upscale Pulte rowhomes have been completed to date. Overall, Highland Bridge currently spans about 1,000 units of residential housing, much of it located within multi-family developments and senior apartments built close to Ford Parkway.

Of that total, about 200 units would qualify as affordable housing, much of it assembled with the help of tax incentives known as tax increment financing, using market-rate development to subsidize the affordable units.

The Lumin, affordable senior apartments developed by CommonBond Communities, and Project for Pride in Living’s Restoring Waters, which caters to families that have experienced homelessness, were constructed with funding derived in part from the two market-rate Marvella senior housing projects. Restoring Waters is now the headquarters for Emma Norton Services.

“Highland Bridge is at the center of our goals to increase housing and economic vitality,” said Carter, during the groundbreaking. “Now is our moment to realize the full vision of a vibrant neighborhood where our community can truly thrive.”