Every future apartment needs its own sink, toilet and window, which can be prohibitively costly to retrofit into an old office or warehouse building. Still, at City Hall and elsewhere downtown, officials have said a silver lining for downtown office buildings could be their relatively small floor plates, or the configuration of usable space on each floor, generally centered around what could be a future bedroom window allowing in natural light. Buildings with small floor plates lend themselves more readily to an adaptive reuse — like a conversion to residences — than a large warehouse building with little natural light. The city is asking the state Legislature to create a state “conversion credit,” or a tax credit to help offset the costs of converting an office building into residences. Part of St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s 2025 city budget proposal also calls for $1 million in municipal fee waivers to make it cheaper to pursue office-to-residential conversions, and the fast-tracking of conversion applications through the city permitting process. “It’s a suite of things that are in his budget around downtown revitalization,” said Nicolle Goodman, director of the St. Paul Department of Planning and Economic Development. New project manager Her budget request calls for a new project manager within PED to oversee office-to-residential conversions. “The principal project manager I’m looking to hire is to support development projects as they move through the city process,” Goodman said. “It’s just adding capacity. It’s good to have someone who can shepherd these projects through.” Still, not every conversion is residential, and not every project is an automatic slam dunk. Questions over how and whether to embrace building conversions to new uses have peppered a debate around the future of the Allen Building at 287 Sixth St. E. On Nov. 13, the St. Paul City Council will hear an appeal filed by GB Realty Acquisitions, LLC of Carlsbad, Calif., which hopes to convert 85% of the office building into a commercial storage facility, while keeping the ground floor and basement as is. The St. Paul Board of Zoning Appeals denied their request for a zoning variance in late September. Projects underway St. Paul City Council member Rebecca Noecker, who represents downtown and chairs the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, noted that other key conversions of office space are already afoot. Working with the Metropolitan Council, the city issued a request for proposals to develop vacant land — a former bank location — around the downtown Central Station light-rail stop off Fifth and Cedar streets. Interviews with a prospective developer are underway. Bigos Management is converting the vacant Galtier Plaza, formerly Cray Plaza, in Lowertown into seven levels of housing, and Sherman Associates is converting the 26-story Landmark Towers office building overlooking Rice Park into residential living, as well. More residential units are coming online in a former Ecolab tower on Wabasha Street — now dubbed “Stella.” “Between Galtier and Landmark Towers alone, there’s going to be 359 new residences,” Noecker said. “So that office-to-residential is already happening.” Elsewhere downtown, the city is putting some $11 million toward parks improvements, most of it at Pedro Park, which had previously spent a decade in planning limbo off 10th and Robert streets. And, St. Paul Public Works will have put some $240 million into road reconstruction work between 2023 and 2025, including improvements to Minnesota Street, Robert Street, Wabasha Street and the Kellogg Bridge connecting downtown to the city’s East Side. Related Articles Local News | Entertainment, sports remain draws for downtown St. Paul Local News | Downtown St. Paul building sales raise questions about over-valuation, unpaid property taxes Local News | Concert review: Trampled by Turtles sounded huge at Xcel Energy Center Local News | St. Paul: Little Sisters of the Poor announce departure from Exchange Street elderly care home Local News | Kelsea Ballerini, Parker McCollum and Tyler, the Creator book 2025 shows at metro arenas