The St. Paul Port Authority will play a leading role in the future of the shuttered Hillcrest Golf Course site on St. Paul’s East Side.

The 112-acre property off Larpenteur Avenue and McKnight Road has been owned since 2011 by the Steamfitters/Pipefitters Local 455, which closed the financially-challenged 1920s-era golf course in 2017.

The labor union has only passively marketed the property for housing and commercial redevelopment, and potential buyers have been off-put by the site’s challenging topography and an unknown amount of environmental contamination, according to Port officials.

Monte Hilleman, a senior vice president of real estate development with the Port Authority, said an initial investigation by Braun Intertec uncovered at least $2.5 million in mercury contamination throughout the site.

Environmental consultants expected to find evidence of a mercury-based anti-fungal treatment that had been largely discontinued in the 1990s in the greens, but “unfortunately, we found it in the tee boxes (teeing areas) and fairways, which was a surprise,” Hilleman said.

On Tuesday, the seven-member board of the St. Paul Port Authority voted 6-0 to designate the site an “industrial development district,” a statutory requirement if the Port chooses to steer its clean-up, rezoning, marketing, sale and redevelopment. Board member Dai Thao, a St. Paul city council member, was absent.

Port Authority officials have expressed interest in buying the property outright, though they’ve acknowledged a financing plan is not complete.

Over the years, the Port Authority has designated in excess of 50 “industrial development districts,” including 22 business centers.

The districts — which have ranged from Allianz Field at the former site of the Metro Transit bus storage lot to the Energy Park Business Center — have benefited from the Port Authority’s history of attracting environmental clean-up grants from “a dozen to two dozen sources,” Hilleman said.

Those sources include the Metropolitan Council, Ramsey County, the state of Minnesota, federal brownfield grants, and the Port’s own revolving loan fund.

Hilleman said the Port Authority will work closely with the city of St. Paul on a public master planning process and rezoning, which could take 12-15 months.

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St. Paul City Council relaxes housing density restrictions near transit corridors A spokesman for the Steamfitters/Pipefitters Local 455 could not be immediately reached for comment, but officials say the prospect of steering an elaborate master plan did not appeal to the labor union.

“They’re not a real estate organization,” Hilleman said. “They’re looking for an exit.”