In downtown St. Paul, the troubled but storied Lowry Apartments on Wabasha Street have been sold to a Burnsville-based home remodeler.

State sales records show the buyer — officially 345 Wabasha Avenue North, LLC — purchased the 11-story, century-old apartment building and former hotel for $5 million from a subsidiary of Colliers International on June 30. A call to Dan Carlson, principal of Burnsville-based New Life Properties, was not immediately returned Friday.

The Lowry Apartments building, which was placed last year under court-ordered receivership, was condemned by the city and cleared of tenants following a pipe burst last December and remained boarded up ever since. According to Ramsey County property records, the 134-unit structure carried an estimated market value of $8.6 million this year, down from a recent high of $9.5 million in 2023 and 2024.It was last sold at a sheriff’s sale last September to a subsidiary of Colliers International for $7 million in credit.

New Life Properties

New Life Properties, which is associated with the 52-unit Lily Pad Apartments at 3601 Nicollet Ave. in Minneapolis, is perhaps better known for restoring single-family homes.

“We develop dream homes for home buyers by taking houses that need TLC and creating new, updated, turn-key houses,” reads the New Life Properties website. “This breathes ‘New Life’ into the community one house at a time. … We purchase neglected single and multi-family properties and renovate them to restore the community and improve the standard of living while creating an affordable place to live for renters.”

Some are hopeful that a new buyer will indeed bring in new life.

“There is work underway,” said Rich Neumeister, who lived in the building for more than 40 years and has been visiting the structure periodically, as he watched construction contractors go in and out.

A storied and troubled history

The Lowry opened in 1928, drawing posh and famous clientele to its hotel rooms.

The Oz, a disco club that opened in its basement on Valentine’s Day in 1979 — the waning days of disco — was once considered one of the most popular hangouts in downtown St. Paul, with clientele including famed writers and politicians. Producer Steven Greenberg and sound engineer David Rivkin used the venue to test their mix of the 1980 hit song “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc. The dance club closed in the 1980s.

“It was a hopping place,” Neumeister said.

The late Madison Equities principal Jim Crockarell, who died in January 2024, purchased the struggling Lowry in 2012 for $4.8 million after the previous owner, John Rupp, declared bankruptcy on several properties. Crockarell embarked on a $13 million renovation that included the installation of the popular Gray Duck Tavern, which opened in 2017 in a ground-level street-corner space that had been vacant since 1982. In addition to the restaurant and bar, he once envisioned opening a rooftop restaurant.

Crockarell dedicated dozens of apartments as student housing for the McNally Smith College of Music until the school closed in 2017. The property advertised lounge areas, fitness facilities, new appliances and keyless locks. Many of those amenities were damaged during the pandemic and the years that followed as the building slid into disrepair and units were taken over by squatters and open drug sales.

Up for sale

The Gray Duck Tavern, which faced City Hall, was abruptly shuttered by Madison Equities last July.

By then, the Ramsey County attorney’s offices had already moved out of the building’s other retail spaces and relocated to a former Ecolab utility building on the same street.

Weeks after Crockarell’s death, his widow placed 10 properties on the market for sale, including six downtown office buildings, two parking ramps, the Handsome Hog restaurant on Selby Avenue and the empty lot next to it. The office buildings included some of downtown St. Paul’s oldest and most iconic commercial real estate — the First National Bank Building, the U.S. Bank Building, Alliance Bank Center, the Empire Building, 375 Jackson Square and Park Square Court.

The Lowry Apartments were placed on the market separately days later, without a specific asking price.

Several of those properties have reverted to their lenders or fallen under court-ordered receivership.

The Alliance Bank Center remains shuttered and devoid of tenants after Madison Equities stopped paying utilities for the property last March. The Park Square Court building is also vacant and boarded. Madison Equities previously owned the Degree of Honor apartment building, which was sold last month by Minnwest Bank to Altitude Capital Partners, the Chicago firm’s fourth apartment building acquisition in downtown St. Paul.