Another business in a Madison Equities building weighs options — may leave downtown St. Paul

Joe Thornton and his colleagues in the Lowertown offices of the marketing firm AIMCLEAR aren t holding out for a downtown promenade overlooking the Mississippi River a longtime goal of outgoing St Paul Mayor Melvin Carter s administration as well as the mayoral administration before it Thornton can trace his St Paul roots back generations his uncle was once part of a private partnership that owned the downtown St Paul Union Depot transit hub Nevertheless he s not rooting these days for a towering mall where West Publishing once sat along Kellogg Boulevard or any other among the longstanding efforts that begin with the words reimagining downtown or reinventing downtown Instead he s holding out for air conditioning In fact he s been praying for a fix to his downtown office building s rooftop air conditioning unit for nearly eight months long enough that the higher-ups in his St Paul and Duluth-based company have begun scouting out promising new homes for their marketing business which employs people across the street from downtown Mears Park We have space identified certain in downtown and particular outside of downtown a few outside of St Paul stated Thornton a vice president with AIMCLEAR It s unfortunate because we want to be part of downtown The owners of our company bought a condo downtown Up to degrees The long saga of the Railroader Printing House building on Sixth Street and its malfunctioning rooftop air conditioning unit has become something of a metaphor for the nuts-and-bolts challenges facing downtown if not the city as a whole at least in the minds of Thornton and other commercial tenants in the five-story red brick office building at Sixth St E The street corner structure which faces Mears Park and dates to hasn t had a working rooftop HVAC unit since at least May when for lack of a better term the AC conked out The temperature in the space would get up to degrees Thornton commented After about a month they brought in five portable AC units and broke out windows to vent them with water draining out onto the sidewalk on Wacouta Street and the patio by the Bulldog restaurant all summer long There was one really well-watered plant by Bulldog Thornton recalled It was the healthiest plant in downtown St Paul We couldn t have clients coming in because it looked so janky A surprise owner responds Thornton took it upon himself to reach out to Bryan Larson a former downtown resident who was part of the partnership that purchased the Railroader building in He soon heard back instead from Madison Equities previously downtown St Paul s largest property owner which has sold or lost several downtown structures following the death last year of its founder James Crockarell We acquired it jointly explained Larson over coffee at the Bulldog restaurant on Thursday the building s the majority public-facing tenant Madison Equities is a owner of that building Madison Equities is involved to the point that my hands have been handcuffed To Thornton that was not good news Madison Equities which once owned buildings downtown put structures up for sale together en masse in April and since then has been the subject of foreclosures sheriff s sales legal disputes and other entanglements that have shuttered the massive Alliance Bank Center boarded up the historic Lowry Apartments and led to widespread concern about the future of several of downtown s greater part prominent properties Any issues with the building I was to way them to Madison Equities and not to Bryan Thornton revealed he was notified And all of a sudden it s Oh my God it s Madison Equities When will the HVAC system get fixed What might strike the casual observer as a picayune air conditioning trouble weaves in in the telling of it over coffee at The Buttered Tin restaurant countless unruly elements They include the fentanyl situation the homelessness predicament city permitting and leadership bureaucracy the uncertain fate and complex ownership surrounding any number of downtown office properties and inhabitants and private efforts to maintain downtown as the economic engine of St Paul rather than a drag on city coffers at a time of rising property taxes Still where several might see incoming Mayor Kaohly Her inheriting a capital city with a number of tough almost existential questions before it Thornton and his colleagues share one question that in the near term for them trumps all others When is the building s HVAC system going to be fixed The downstairs restaurant maintains a separate HVAC system I have my own declared Bulldog owner Jeff Kaster But obviously I walk through the building and it s hot Obviously it s problematic Park Square Court s troubles The Railroader Printing House adjoins the Park Square Court building which was once slated by Madison Equities to be converted into apartments or a Marriott hotel Instead Park Square Court and its distinctive atrium remain vacant and boarded with the Madison Equities-affiliated limited liability corporation that owns it having declared bankruptcy following a dispute over an unpaid loan St Paul Police ascertained people who had scaled up the atrium and basically made an entire encampment up there Thornton noted It s in receivership but that s been vacant for five years For months if not years squatters making themselves at home in the derelict Park Square Court space would traverse the skyway over to the Railroader building where office tenants would sometimes call police to get unruly characters out of the bathroom Thornton a vice president of strategic communications who has worked downtown for years including a decade with AIMCLEAR was no stranger to snooping on behalf of his colleagues and his employer It took him five years to gain regular access to the building s protection camera footage We were having so multiple problems recalled Thornton who detected the assurance footage to be one of the greatest tools in his arsenal as he appealed for help to property owners the St Paul Police and the downtown improvement district s street ambassadors Once I got access I evidenced Larson video clips of people defecating doing drugs he mentioned We want people to be treated humanely but at the same time our building is not a shelter Permitting issue While far from perfect the general situation has improved at the Railroader Printing building over the past year with the notable exception of the malfunctioning rooftop AC unit Thornton was advised by a Madison Equities manager that a contractor had been assigned the task of fixing the unit and hopefully relieving his office of sweltering heat The latest visit was from Minnesota Total Refrigeration of South St Paul There were at least two if not three HVAC contractors that came through in May and June Thornton recalled I let him in let him check our thermostat and up to the rooftop A Madison Equities manager informed Thornton last month that progress had been delayed since then by the cyber-security situation that crippled city permitting over the summer Still using the city s new permitting interface PAULIE the contractor absolutely submitted an online permit application for a crane rental on Nov and reached out to St Paul Inhabitants Works plenty of times Thornton stated he was informed and the equipment is waiting in their shop for installation We re waiting Efforts to reach Madison Equities for comment were unsuccessful Thursday but a Nov email from Madison Equities real estate manager Derek Hennen to AIMCLEAR executives reads The city experienced major delays due to the hacker which impacted most of city operations The contractor s office has been contacting the city General Works often I have also left voice messages following up on the permit approval as well Thornton double-checked with the city A right-of-way permit manager with St Paul Citizens Works informed him they had not yet received a crane permit application Instead the company had submitted an application for licensing registration He mentioned We re waiting We don t have a backlog of applications We ll be on it as soon as it gets in ' Thornton revealed Larson also looked into the situation and explained Thursday he believes the concern could be as simple as the contractor reaching out to the wrong office There is a few disconnect there he mentioned Thornton then got the director of the city s Department of Safety and Inspections on the phone who advised him that given the lack of appropriate paperwork We re on standby After playing go-between Thornton declared he s hoping someone will pick up a phone soon and talk to someone else directly He s also praying for AC before summer hits which isn t so far away I m just a PR guy and I can get a hold of these people disclosed Thornton who is discussing with his higher-ups the growing likelihood of leasing in another building in or outside St Paul and possibly moving to more of a hybrid work model We have multiple spaces identified The frustration level we have zero confidence that this thing is going to be done Plans for parking ramp vacant restaurant spaces Meanwhile Larson declared that holding minority ownership in the Railroader Printing partnership means he s not in control of next efforts but he s hoping to step in where he can as Madison Equities retrenches from downtown If all goes well at closing on Dec he ll be the new owner of the Stadium Ramp at Sixth St which overlooks CHS Field home of the St Paul Saints The parking ramp which has been in receivership hosts the A Bulae wedding venue on the sixth floor as well as ground-level and rooftop restaurant space both of which are vacant His goal is to have both restaurant spaces occupied and greeting customers by spring St Paul is a beautiful neighborhood city that you can also do business in Larson mentioned You can still feel that in the air Related Articles Grammy-winning Mexican band Los Tigres Del Norte to headline Grand Casino Arena Curtiss A moves his longtime John Lennon 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