St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation buys debt behind Alliance Bank Center

The St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation — a subsidiary of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance — announced Tuesday it purchased the bank note of the Alliance Bank Center for an undisclosed amount.

The nonprofit corporation announced in a press release that it would initiate legal proceedings to place the vacant building into a receivership.

Joe Spencer, president of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance, told MPR News that the move by the development corporation is a first step in a long process to help maintain and secure the building.

“If a receiver is appointed, then the Downtown Development Corporation will be able to add some security controls within the building, and have access to the building,” Spencer said. “Then we can do some investigation into the condition of the building.”

In mid-March, the property owner, Madison Equities, told tenants they had two days to leave the building before the lights went off. Since then, the city has provided emergency building services, and the St. Paul Downtown Alliance has worked with tenants to help them move into new downtown locations.

The corporation president, Dave Higgins, said they will evaluate legal options to obtain the site, but will also assess opportunities to restore the property through rehabilitation or redevelopment. The building faces significant structural and mechanical issues.

“There’s no greater example of the challenges and opportunities in downtown St. Paul than the Alliance Bank Center site,” Higgins said in a 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. We’re grateful to the City of St. Paul for its proactive leadership in providing essential building security since March and for its partnership as we look ahead to the site’s future.”

The current closures of the skyway will continue for the foreseeable future.