Bridges: Still a Hard Sell

Bridges developer Jerry Trooien’s third information session on Monday night focused on selling a proposed Westin Hotel and the rest of the retail space in the Bridges project in St. Paul’s downtown to the gathered community members. Currently AMC theater has agreed to take a large portion of the retail space for use as a theater, and Trooien said he is hopeful that a Cheesecake Factory will agree to join the project soon.

Rick Hill, who works with the project’s retail space, said he expects six or seven restaurants and a total of 75 retail shops to eventually fill the space about half will be national chains.  The project will include 400,000 square feet of retail space. Hill and Trooien both talked about the project filling a gap and bringing in money, denying that it would cause trouble for downtown businesses, office spaces or hotels. Trooien said, “This is the first time in the 150 years in the city that you’ll have a real retail project.”

Paul Wisherman with Westin Hotels spoke extensively about the proposed hotel and denied that it would take business away from the Crowne Plaza and Radisson Hotels in downtown. He also said that JLT Inc, Trooien’s company, would subsidize the hotel and it would not be asking the city of St. Paul for subsidies on the hotel. JLT Inc. does still intend to request TIF funds, despite a letter from the St. Paul Department of Planning and Economic Development saying the project would not qualify.

Trooien also talked about the Mississippi River: “Get in a helicopter and fly around the Twin Cities. This is the only place in the Twin Cities to get people to the river.”  He focused on the project’s plan for extensive parking as a key to getting people to the river. “Very few people from the neighborhood will ride their bike to the water,” said Trooien. “Most people have to get to the site by driving a car.” The current plan calls for 2,000 parking stalls to serve retail businesses on the site.

The final information session will be Wednesday from 6 pm until 9 pm at the Wellstone Center.