2023)
Also in attendance: Thomas Radio, property owner's attorney
Marcia Moermond, Legislative Hearing Officer: On screen, we have two images at
different angles. This is again the Burger King building on South Robert Street,
located just north of Robert and Caesar Chavez, so it's a kind of a trapezoidal
property. It has been a significant nuisance property that the West Side has
experienced. The ownership has taken significant steps to ameliorate the problems
by way of fencing the property, and that has brought the police calls and the code
enforcement calls way down. We have a performance deposit and a code
compliance inspection report. Those are good signs. All of this is positive. This is the
same kind of thing that you looked for in the case of the West 7th Burger King. Now
the question is: Is this going to be a nuisance that's abated by way of demolition or by
way of rehabilitation. The property is for sale. Some purchasers might want a
rehabilitated building, and some might want a clean slate. The belief of the real estate
folks would be that the building being present on the parcel will garner a better price
and a higher use for the parcel. The issue then is: how much time would the Council
want to give for that question to be answered? Is it fixed by way of rehab of the
current building and a future use? Most likely a restaurant use. Demolition gives
different options. Right now, I would ask that it be sent back to Legislative Hearing for
any plans to be reviewed prior to the Council arriving at a conclusion, because at this
point I haven't seen plans one way or the other to give you background or
information. I understand Councilmember Noecker last week actually outlined what
she was looking for today, but I don't want to speak on her behalf.
Thomas Radio: I'm an attorney here on behalf of the owner. Since I became involved
in this in July, we have undertaken significant and positive developments to secure
the site by fencing, to provide lock box access to the City. We have also made
required deposits. We've had the code compliance inspection. We fixed those
matters that might present a threat to public health, safety or welfare. With that being
in place, we retained a local broker, Jeffrey Houg, who's actually officed in this
particular area in Saint Paul. He's very familiar with it. He's undertaken a very
aggressive and positive marketing plan to sell this property, he posted his marketing
materials on several websites within several days. It was downloaded by at least 250
interested participants. He's received numerous calls for this property. Within the past
two weeks, all of them but for one were interested in the property with the building as
a restaurant. Some potential tenants have called and said once it gets purchased and
developed, they'd like to be notified or were interested in leasing it. We are in a
positive position, relative to where we were. We have been meeting with the
Legislative Hearing Officer almost every other week. We've made every hearing.
We've made every effort to timely comply with every request and substantial
investment, because we all have a common interest: Return this property to an active
business operation. That's the interest of the City, the neighbors, and my client. It's
really up to the market to determine when and at what price this property will be
purchased, remediated, developed, and brought back into operation. We would urge
to at this point not set a definitive date, but to keep us meeting with the Legislative
Hearing Officer, so that she can keep you informed of our progress. We are hopeful
that this recent marketing activity will produce a sale in the near term.
Councilmember Noecker: I appreciate the work that your client has done to come into
compliance. We all want this property returned to an active use and want that to
happen as soon as possible. This is currently a blighted vacant building on the most
busy commercial corridor on the West Side, at the corner of Robert and Cesar
Chavez. This is an extremely active area. This building's presence right now is a
serious detriment to the vibrancy of that area. I hope that you and your client
appreciate that, and therefore my sense of urgency. Have you reached out to the
West Side Community Organization or to the Neighborhood Development Alliance,
both of whom have a lot of interest in seeing this area developed?
