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St. Paul recommends developer for old Hamm's Brewery site

JB Vang Partners, Inc. wants to turn the vacant complex into housing, a two-story marketplace and an outdoor plaza.

ST PAUL, Minn. — A developer has visions of turning the historic Hamm's Brewery complex on St. Paul's East Side into a mix of housing, a marketplace and an outdoor plaza.

A committee of St. Paul city staff is recommending JB Vang Partners, Inc. for the redevelopment plan.

The plan was outlined with three bullet points in the city's news release:

  • 259 affordable housing units, with one- and two-bedroom rentals and ownership live/work studios in the renovated brewery complex and family-sized ownership rowhomes and rental apartments in a new construction building;

  • 56,000 square feet of commercial space, including a two-story marketplace in the former brewhouse; and

  • An outdoor public plaza, indoor community space and greenspace adjacent to Swede Hollow Park and Bruce Vento Trail.

"This development combines affordable housing with mixed-use opportunities, providing residents and entrepreneurs the ability for future ownership," said Mayor Melvin Carter. "We are revitalizing a historically significant part of our City while engaging our residents throughout the decision-making process."

The Housing and Redevelopment Authority will vote on officially awarding JB Vang the redevelopment project in January. It's the first step of many that will be required before construction can begin in the early part of 2025.

"The developer we’re recommending is extremely thoughtful about the community, the community's needs, and the engagement they’ve already undertaken and plan to going forward is one of the big reasons," Nicolle Goodman, the director of the city's planning and economic development department, told KARE.

"Besides it being an excellent development proposal, it’s a great development team so we’re really excited."

The 4.8-acre site is located at 680 and 694 Minnehaha Ave. in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood.

The brewery was established in 1865 by German immigrant Theodore Hamm. By the 1950's it had grown into the fifth largest brewery in the nation.

"This is what we call equity in place," City Council Member Jane Goodman, who represents that East Side neighborhood, told KARE.

"It’s a good project for the people who East Side to be able to start businesses, find affordable apartments, affordable home ownership and really succeed in the neighborhood they live in."

According to St. Paul's website, "in the latter half of the century, the brewery was sold multiple times before operating as Stroh's from 1983 until the brewery's closure in 1997." 

The site that is being proposed to be redeveloped by JB Vang is just one of three parcels of the old Hamm's Brewery Complex.

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