When the Jax Building traded hands in 2016, artists decked in black funereal attire staged a slow march through Lowertown, rolling a coffin between them. The wake for one of downtown St. Paul’s last non-residential art studio buildings was meant to mourn more than just a single 1909 structure before its conversion to luxury housing.
It was also a warning that artists were being priced out of a warehouse district they had helped revitalize. The five-story Jax had for decades been an anchor of the popular St. Paul Art Crawl, and ground-level tenants such as the Show Gallery, Classical Ballet Academy and Lowertown Bike Shop had for years drawn foot traffic to an area sorely in need of it.
In June, residential tenants began moving into one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments at the Jax St. Paul, 253 E. Fourth St., with units renting anywhere from $1,395 to $3,395 a month depending upon floor plan. Where an art gallery and ballet academy had once drawn patrons, two-story suites now lead into a limestone-walled lower level.
The 50 art studios are gone, as is the oversize “Books for Africa” sign, but even after a $20 million redevelopment, some of that legacy remains.
Developers had once planned to remove the large mural that covers much of the exterior western wall facing Wacouta Street. The “Stay Nice!” images were painted by Lowertown artist Ta-coumba Aiken in 2005 to mirror actual pieces painted by children at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul.
“It was just going to be a brick wall,” said Jon McClure, chief executive officer of the Iuvo Cos., which served as project manager for the Jax St. Paul redevelopment. “That would have been a ridiculous mistake to do that. The previous guy wanted to take off Ta-coumba’s mural, and we were like no, we’re going to keep that, that’s cool.”
The original window has been preserved on the site exterior. A new window lines the interior. Lowertown Wine and Spirits, Oaks Union Depot and Union Depot transit hub sits below. pic.twitter.com/0kcXeTWxTP
— Frederick Melo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) August 8, 2019
The building, which was purchased from the Sundberg family not long before the death of longtime owner and arts patron Rudy Sundberg, is now owned by the Vor Jax LLC trust, led by Minneapolis developer David Schall.
In 2017, Schall bought out one of the trust’s original owner-investors and moved the project design in a somewhat different direction, with more units, smaller floor plans, penthouses but no commercial presence on the ground level, and more art throughout.
MURAL PRESERVED, BUT NO ART STUDIOS
“There was commercial originally (planned on the ground level) and we were having trouble securing people for the space,” McClure said. “To make the project financially work, we converted to 100 percent residential rentals.”
The redrawn plans had to be resubmitted to the State Historic Preservation Office to secure state and federal historic tax credits, delaying the project for months.
As part of the redesign, Aiken’s artwork remains visible, though the renovation cut windows into what had been a solid wall. The ownership group also commissioned Aiken to complete five more pieces, which hang in the inner lobby and ground-floor hallway, not far from the works of Lowertown artist Caprice Glaser and Minneapolis artist Michael Schmidt, among others.
“The messages, the little vignettes that Ta-coumba created, are pretty cool, and pretty important for the times, given all the discord,” McClure said.
“Not all, but most, of the art is from St. Paul artists,” he added. “We’re trying to step up and support the community. We wanted to support the Art Crawl, so we’ve sponsored them at the ‘Medici’ level, and in addition we’re financially supporting 17 scholarships for artists’ entry fees into the Art Crawl.”
The goal is to smooth over relations with an arts community that is gradually being displaced from many longtime work and residential studios by rising rents and high-end redevelopment. McClure and others associated with the new Jax St. Paul acknowledge that for some, that will be no easy task.
“We don’t have anywhere to work,” said dance instructor Tara Weatherly, a Lowertown advocate for more than a decade. “We’re dying here because the gentrification cycle is in full swing here.”
Who wants a tour? Ground level: Don’t take this elevator. It’s just for show. Historic preservation. pic.twitter.com/Uc36qA9qxi
— Frederick Melo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) August 8, 2019
When the Jax was emptied of artists, Weatherly lost her long-standing lease on the fifth floor for Studio Sendero, a music and dance collaborative known for its flamenco classes. She found skinny new digs in the basement of the Northern Warehouse, next to a dozen other former Jax tenants who now call themselves the Lowertown Underground Artists co-op.
“I’m paying more rent for a third of the space,” said Weatherly, who had worn a black shroud as she led the symbolic funeral procession three years ago. “We need space to meet. The four spaces that are right at ground level of the Jax, if those were a cafe, or a gallery, we’d might have space to meet. But it’s just another space we’re not allowed to go to.”
Fellow co-op member Dan Beers, a photographer who leased space in the Jax for nearly 24 years, was sometimes hired by former Jax owner Rudy Sundberg to fix locks and prepare studios for prospective tenants.
“Artists flock to cheap space, and that was cheap space for a long time,” said Beers, who briefly managed for the Books for Africa warehouse when it was located in the building. “I can’t recall Rudy raising our rent more than once in 24 years. I sold a lot of photographs out of that building. It has good memories. All I can say is I hope the new people who move in have good memories, too.”
LIKE AN NYC LOFT FOR ANOTHER 110 YEARS
Seeking affordable rents, some former Jax tenants have left Lowertown entirely and fled to the ACVR Warehouse/F.O.K Building across the Mississippi River on Water Street. That building, too, is converting at least the first three floors to new uses, such as storage space, and artists there are in the process of transitioning to new quarters within the building or leaving it entirely.
Next door, on a vacant lot at 84 Water St., a developer plans seven stories of market-rate apartments.
Brad Baar, a leasing officer with the Gramercy Real Estate Group, said the Jax development team has walked artists through the Jax St. Paul for face-to-face conversations about the historic preservation of a 110-year-old structure.
The building, once identified by the “Books for Africa” sign, began life as the Michaud Bros. grocery. The Jax manufacturing company later produced automobile seat covers there. Baar would like the building to stick around another 110 years.
“In no way do we shy away from what has happened to the artists,” Baar said. “But Jon has a heart for the artists. I have a heart for the artists.”
Brittany Duncan and Ryan Arbuckle, both in their mid-20s, plan to move into the Jax St. Paul in October for their first foray into city living. Duncan, who grew up in Savage, is in school to become a nurse practitioner and will be working in Woodbury. Arbuckle, originally from Eagan, will take the nearby Green Line light rail into downtown Minneapolis to work in corporate finance.
“I love the exposed brick. Everything is new,” Duncan said. “What I really liked about it is it felt like a very expensive loft apartment like New York City but at a very reasonable price. This will be our first time living in the Cities, so that’s exciting.”
McClure said he has no illusions about some of the tension between art and luxury housing, especially surrounding the Jax.
“I started reading newspaper accounts and said, Oh my gosh,” said McClure, recalling the moment he joined the project in 2017. “It totally contradicted the relationship I think you want to have with the neighborhood.”
“Obviously, I’ve heard about the hard feelings,” he said. “You’ve got to do the right thing going forward. You’ve got to build the bond.”
