Big Dreams of a Community Hub, World Cultural Heritage Corridor

A sports and digital arts-focused charter school that would come complete with an adjoining community sports complex. A wellness center. A “3D theme park” geared toward entrepreneurs. A hotel and parking ramp. And an international designation as the cornerstone of a “World Cultural Heritage” corridor.

All of that could, in theory, take root on St. Paul’s Rice Street, alongside food courts, a mix of housing and other new additions to the shuttered Sears department store near the Minnesota State Capitol building.

The future preservation and redevelopment of the Sears building remains uncertain following back-to-back property sales this spring, but new owners are advertising grand and wide-ranging plans hand-in-hand with local partners from the Twin Cities Chinese and Southeast Asian community.

They are the latest concepts in a decade-long progression that has seen the 17-acre site reimagined every few years for a varying mix of office, retail and residential uses.

“Yes, it is ambitious, but we have secure funding,” said John B. Yang, a key player in the new ownership and development group, in an interview Monday. “We have partners that will help us run these programs already. I think that we can make it happen. The community needs it, especially in this neighborhood.”

Nonprofit ownership

The Sears location at 425 Rice St. closed in January 2019, about three months after the storied national retailer declared bankruptcy.

Two previous developers — Marshall Nguyen and Eddie Ni — bought the St. Paul Sears site from Seritage for $7 million on May 4, 2023, only to resell it at a profit on May 31 to Asian Media Access, a longstanding nonprofit based in Minneapolis. The nonprofit, which joins youth and community advocacy with multi-media arts and stage performances, has been run since 1992 by Ange Hwang, a Taiwanese immigrant known in public health circles for producing health tutorial videos.

On Sept. 30, Asian Media Access issued an online announcement in writing saying it would collaborate with another nonprofit, the newly-established Asian American Business Resilience Network, which will take the lead on redevelopment.

Yang, executive director of the Asian American Business Resilience Network, said he’s been meeting with the state Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board, which controls zoning in the 60-block area around the State Capitol, in hopes of getting his site plan approved. Otherwise, he said, financing for an interior renovation of the Sears department store building is largely in hand, and construction could begin as soon as next year. Selling exterior lots to a hotel and housing developers could take longer.

“So far we’ve had structural evaluation done by engineers, and the building is still in really good condition,” Yang said. “We’re hoping we get the site plan approved.”

The 12 members of the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board would review details with board staff once a master plan is officially submitted.

“We’re really in the pre-application stage,” said Erik Cedarleaf Dahl, the new executive secretary of the CAAPB board, noting St. Paul officials would also have ample opportunity to review any plans. “Approval of a mixed-use master plan is a necessary precursor to support any specific timelines or projects. We’re just making sure the owners are aware of what they would need to do.”

A Zen garden, charter school, mix of housing

Yang, of Blaine, is a former board chair of the Hmong Chamber of Commerce and a board member with the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. He’s also the chief executive officer of the Digital Marketing Agency Digital Synergy.

He said he’s been meeting with the CAAPB Board on a bi-weekly basis, and hosting open discussions on Zoom with members of the general public who have signed up through his website, SearsStPaul.info, where he’s released concept images of different uses for the site, such as a performing arts/sports-themed charter school and virtual reality-themed amusement park.

The PDI Design Group of Minneapolis created a preliminary site plan that aims for a more public-facing community destination than Sears ever was, spread across seven buildings, including the original structure.

The Sears auto shop likely would be replaced by a sports hub supporting the school and general community, including a basketball court and soccer field, he said.

The mix of housing has yet to be determined, but it could range from affordable housing to a market-rate high-rise of apartments or condos. A hotel would sit along Rice Street, toward University Avenue, in the site’s northeast corner. To the far south, high-density residential housing would be situated along Marion Street, stretching from St. Anthony Avenue almost to University Avenue.

“We’re thinking about an urban, downtown feel, where people can drive by and see patios and retail shops, like West Seventh Street — a mix of retail and restaurants,” Yang said.

The Sept. 30 written statement envisioned “the repurposing and redevelopment” of the former Sears site into a “community hub to serve a diverse set of purposes, including residential, commercial, cultural, educational and artistic — creating such a vibrant and unique atmosphere to attract locals and distant visitors alike, encouraging investment and the revitalization of a historically impoverished neighborhood.”

The announced plans included an “innovation hub” featuring a charter school organized around sports and digital arts, as well as a wellness center “for health modalities research, business developments, IT and food enterprise training.” Other potential offerings included an event center, food court, Zen garden, a childcare kids’ zone and a “3D theme park for entrepreneurs to experiment” with virtual reality.

Organizers said the Sears site could even become a key destination in an official World Cultural Heritage Corridor aimed at preserving historical and cultural sites, “to be guided with twin visions of community and innovation, as one cannot exist without the other.”

In their written release, Asian Media Access and the Business Resilience Network listed 17 partners, including First and First real estate development, the Frogtown/Rondo Black Church Alliance, Minnesota Prep Academy, the Pan Asian Arts Alliance, the Chinese American Chamber of Commerce, the Hmong Shaman and Herb Center and the PDI Design Group.

Several sales

In 2015, Sears sold the property for $5.14 million to Seritage, its real estate investment and holding spin-off that acquired shuttered Sears sites across the country. On May 4 of this year, Seritage sold the St. Paul Sears site to Pacifica St. Paul for $7 million.

The buyers included the Pacifica Group/Windfall Group, an Illinois-based real estate partnership with Twin Cities connections. Ni, chief executive officer of the Windfall Group, said at the time he was working with Nguyen, a partner and broker on the transaction and vice president with the Edina-based Caspian Group. Nguyen later said he had limited details to share, other than that he did not foresee an office development at the site.

Nguyen, who could not be reached for comment on Friday, is a general partner and developer with Pacifica Square USA, which, hand in hand with the Windfall Group, has developed the Asian-themed Asia Mall in Eden Prairie and is doing the same in Burnsville.

Within weeks of acquiring the Sears site, however, Nguyen’s partnership had resold the St. Paul location for $8.2 million to Asian Media Access. The sale was recorded as a cash transaction on May 31, according to records submitted by Ramsey County to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

“I’m no longer involved with that project,” said Ni on Friday. “It was an internal transfer.”

Ni said Nguyen also was no longer attached to the Sears redevelopment. Yang confirmed the same.

“He’s just the broker,” Yang said. “We have no affiliation with the Asia Mall.”