Neighborhood Businesses

Throw back Thursday Lunds 2014 – 2025

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

Lunds & Byerly’s recently announced the closing of the downtown Lunds store on March 23, 2025.

The downtown Lunds grocery store opened in 2014. It was indeed a big deal, I was there for the groundbreaking and for the grand opening.  The population of downtown St. Paul had grown and a grocery store was and is most welcome.

The store was in the news last year week when it announced new shorter store hours.  The new hours were 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM.  The area around the store can seem scary early in the morning. There is always a police officer in the store.

I am going to miss the Lunds store. I think I will miss the produce department the most.

Lunds Grand opening
Musicians – Grand opening May 2014
Lunds store construction
Lunds – late 2013

It is possible that a new grocery store will move in, that is what happened at Coopers on West 7th street. It is now, Viengchan Oriental Market. I like to make Pad Thai and some other Asian dishes so I am enjoying the store. They have a lot of variety in the store. I like to watch people go up and down the isles and look all confused when they see food items that we don’t find in standard American grocery stores.

Your downtown condo will sell

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

Things are a little slower in downtown St. Paul than they are in the rest of the city:

Median days on market in St. Paul = 35 Average days on market = 38

Downtown St. Paul condos:

Median days on market = 59 average days on market = 82

There is a 4.2-month supply of downtown condos vs. a 1.3-month supply of homes for sale in St. Paul.

There is a 2.6-month supply of condos on the market in all of St. Paul and they sell in about 44 days.

Downtown St. Paul is still experiencing a seller’s market. Overall the downtown market tends to be more stable and it changes more slowly.

There is more housing than ever downtown and more than 10,000 residents. There are fewer businesses. I don’t have any number but I can see the vacant storefronts as I walk through the skyway.

The popcorn wagon is vacant and for sale. I am tempted. I would move it down to the river or maybe it could go near one of the many microbreweries in my neighborhood and I could sell popcorn.

 

popcorn wagon
Popcorn wagon for sale

This just in from the National Association of Realtors for July: “Existing condominium and co-op sales were recorded at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 500,000 units in July, down 9.1% from June and down 29.6% from one year ago” “The median existing condo price was $345,000 in July, an annual increase of 9.9%.” Single Family homes were up 10.6% for the same period.

Saint Paul Neighborhoods

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

Each St. Paul neighborhood has it’s own personality. There are people in every neighborhood who will tell you their neighborhood is the best. I always find that amusing because my neighborhood really is the best. 😉

The people who live near Grand avenue in the Summit Hill neighborhood were able to persuade the city not to put parking meters along Grand avenue. They had all sorts of great reasons for not wanting meters. Some of those reasons had to do with how the meters might look and some business owners were concerned that having to pay for parking could hurt their businesses.

Recently a whole bunch of parking meters were installed in the West 7th neighborhood along West 7th street. I am not sure how it all came down. I can’t find any news articles about it and I don’t think there was a community protest. After all they are just meters not rail tracks.

I do know that those meters will generate revenue for the city and that the West 7th community and it’s businesses are strong and vibrant and the meters will not have a negative impact on them.  I am not sure how they will impact the character of the historic buildings as they will be competing with several other modern amenities that we never should have allowed on the street.

parking
Parking on West 7th

 

parking
Parking meter on west 7th

The building in the background is one of the oldest in St. Paul. It is kind of hard to see the meters in front of it because of where the cars are parked. I took the photos on a Sunday morning.

5 Comments

More historic preservation

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

People don’t always consider businesses when they think of historic preservation. This business restored the iconic sign that has been a kind of landmark in the area for decades. They did a wonderful job and it looks like a cleaner slightly more modern version of the original. I am sure they could have found a less expensive option but I am happy that they went with the mid-century modern type sign.

liquor barrel
Restored sign

The other side of the building as a lovely mural made by local artists. I’ll post the photograph when I find it.

2 Comments

Change happens

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

When we moved into the home we live in now we were so excited that we only had to walk a couple of blocks for an ice cream cone.  Now the DQ is gone. It is a good thing that we did not buy the house just because of the DQ. It doesn’t matter where you live neighbors and businesses are likely to come and go.

Neighborhoods can really change and sometimes it happens gradually over a period of decades. Our neighborhood has changed so much in the last 20 years that it is like we moved without moving. 🙂

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Brewery is now apartments for artists

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
schmidt brewery
Schmidt Brewery Artists Lofts

Even with my wide angle lens I could not get it all in. The renovation of the Schmidt Brewery is in it’s final stages and many of the apartments are occupied. There are income limits and rents starting at $844 a month for a one bedroom.  There are 247 live/work rental units in the complex. See the Schmidt artists lofts web site for details.

This is a unique project and an exciting one. We don’t always have a way to save historic buildings and this one is a treasure.

I have written a few articles about this over the years.