The 110-year-old yellow building, originally built as a furniture store, has long caught my eye on the corner of Payne and Jenks avenues on St. Paul’s East Side. First, it was because of the distinctive clock and thermometer sign, a remnant of the days when the street hummed with regional shoppers. Then, it was because of the fascinating string of small businesses that were continually popping up in the building.
Payne Avenue is one of my favorite St. Paul streets because it retained the most continuous stretch of 19th century buildings, mixed-use gems spared by the fact that Payne was never bequeathed to county highway engineers for “improvement.” Instead, the old street remained just off the beaten track enough to keep its historic integrity, buildings that are still providing dividends today.
Then and now, Payne Avenue’s landscape frames its immigrant community, though the languages and cultures have changed. In the streetcar days, there were hundreds of industrial jobs in the neighborhood attracting first and second generation immigrants to St. Paul.
Today those jobs are all over the metro area, but Payne is still the beating heart of change in St. Paul. Immigrant entrepreneurs mix with longtime establishments, like the century-old shoe store or the uniform shop. The latest development, a big state investment in a Latino business incubator site, seems sure to amplify the best qualities of Payne Avenue.
From restaurants to quinceañeras
One thing’s for sure: Politicians love a ribbon cutting. Last week, the local nonprofit, Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), hosted a groundbreaking for an ambitious project to remake the old building. The whole effort is going to cost around $10 million, about a third of which was a state grant, included in the bonding package passed during last year’s legislative session.
The Plaza Del Sol has been an entrepreneurial haven for years, a place to find quirky businesses and mom-and-pop enterprise. There was a longtime tamale restaurant run out of the front window that did solid business off the street, and for years the state’s first trans-women-owned brewery was running out of a space in the back.
But around the time that COVID hit, the businesses were struggling and the building fell into disrepair. LEDC bought the space for about $500,000 back in 2020, but has been raising money since.
As executive director Henry Jiménez described, the remodeling plan will use the 25,000 square feet of space as a mix of restaurants, offices and an event center for weddings, celebrations, quinceañeras, and the like. Renderings showed how sidewalk cafés could pop up along Payne and Jenks, bringing life to the East Side streets. In the vision for the future, that back space where the former brewery was located will now be a 24/7 commercial kitchen.
Jiménez was particularly excited about the kitchen, giving local tamale chefs or food truck operators a place to set up shop. He hoped to connect the vendors to the event space, bringing a ready catering market to their community partners.
‘Voice of community is amplified’
The project marks a bit of a change in the philosophy around bonding, the state’s capital improvements budget process where state government borrowing power is deployed in the name of capital projects in every corner of Minnesota.
Typically, cities, counties, and other institutions put forward proposals for big-ticket items that need money. Bonding project lists were often dominated by bricks-and-mortar infrastructure like bridges, more bridges, stadium improvements, convention centers, universities or library buildings, and the like.
This project seems a bit different. Calling herself a “recovering legislator,” one of the speakers at last week’s event, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, laid out why the bonding money reflected a change in approach.
“There were many conversations that would happen that felt like, even as a state legislator, I wasn’t included,” Flanagan told the assembled crowd. “There were resources that were available to some, but not to all [and] conversations about capital investment happened behind closed doors. Then a gigantic bonding bill would come out, and we’d [say] ‘what the heck is in that?’ and we were told, ‘just vote for it.’ Well, times have changed.”
In the last few elections, a younger, more diverse group of people have been elected to the Legislature from places like the East Side and around the core cities. Especially in the state Senate, the new group has shifted the state’s investment approach toward more bottom-up projects.
“When the decision makers more accurately reflect the communities they represent, the voice of community is amplified within the Capitol,” said Flanagan. “The governor and I said we need equity in bonding dollars specific for communities of color for immigrant communities, for native communities; this is exactly what we’re talking about.”
The bill was carried in the Legislature by Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, and Rep. Athena Hollins, DFL-St. Paul. Hollins attended alongside Mayor Melvin Carter and Gov. Tim Walz, who spoke in praise of the project. Before taking sledgehammers to one of the interior walls, they agreed that Payne Avenue is especially ripe with opportunity. “Part of what drew me to the East Side when I moved here was the diversity,” said Hollins, introducing the lineup of elected officials. “What I love about Payne Avenue [is that] we can get empanadas on one corner and laab on the other. That is truly beautiful to me.”
Thanks to the dutiful work of a small girl posted at the entrance doorway, everyone who attended the groundbreaking got a small jar of seeds — corn kernels — to take home with them.
The jar of kernels read: “Contains: Semillas de Prosperidad, Seeds of Prosperity.”
The metaphor was palpable: Plant them now and, given time and care, something great might grow.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the identity of the lawmaker who spoke at the event. It was Rep. Athena Hollins, DFL-St. Paul.
Bill Lindeke is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Geography, Environment and Society. He is the author of multiple books on Twin Cities culture and history, most recently St. Paul: an Urban Biography. Follow Bill on Twitter: @BillLindeke.
