Lured by a growing number of pet-friendly apartment buildings and smitten by a partnership with the St. Paul Saints, Chuck and Don’s Pet Food and Supplies plans to build out their 42nd store in a corner of St. Paul that other retailers have fled.

At a time when longstanding bricks-and-mortar sellers such as Macy’s and Ace Hardware have washed their hands of downtown, the Mahtomedi-based pet-supply company will open its shop by next summer in the same space that Seestedt’s Carpet and Linoleum is vacating after 80 years.

The WellHaven pet health clinic and doggie daycare also are moving into the three-story building at 282 Sixth St. E., whose upper floors will be converted into 26 apartments by the Northland Real Estate Group and Ackerberg Group.

The employee-owned pet supply company, which sells brand-name and specialty dog and cat food and other pet products, operates 30 locations in Minnesota, 10 in Colorado and one in Wisconsin. They recently launched their own answer to Amazon.com and other Internet retailers: an online shop with free delivery or pick-up service in most locations.

Now, after years of courting suburban locations, they’re embracing the time-worn business model of a traditional urban downtown storefront.

“It was easy when we weren’t in Woodbury to go to Woodbury,” said Thomas Murphy, the company’s chief financial officer. “But now that we’re there, where do we kind of fill in?”

Their arrival is testament to both the downtown demographic and healthy forecasts of population growth.

CHANGE IN DEMOGRAPHICS

“When we first looked at (downtown St. Paul), I was like, ‘there’s not a lot of population there’ because the river gets in the way when you look at population radius,” Murphy said. “But opportunities like Lowertown challenge our way of thinking. (It’s) a little bit off our proven path, going into an emerging neighborhood where we can watch the business grow in five to 10 years.”

The Lowertown store will measure about 2,800 square feet, notably smaller than their typical 3,000 to 4,000 square foot suburban footprint. The company operates an equally-compact store near West 50th Street and France Avenue in Edina primarily targeted to neighborhood residents.

The company’s entry into the downtown St. Paul market reflects, in part, the growing number of apartment buildings that are pet-friendly, such as the new 70-unit Oaks Union Depot building on 4th Street. Related Articles Google parent agrees to $310M misconduct lawsuit settlement

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St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections officials say they’ve conducted a downtown dog census in the past, but not an official pet census, and many pet owners don’t license their animals as required. That, and new construction, make reliable numbers on downtown pet ownership difficult to pin down. Many of the store’s customers are likely to be downtown workers who live out of the area, Murphy said.

Until now, the closest Chuck and Don’s stores to downtown St. Paul are in Highland Park, West St. Paul, downtown Minneapolis and off County Road C in Roseville.

A SAINTLY RELATIONSHIP

That said, Chuck and Don’s is no stranger to downtown St. Paul, thanks to a growing relationship over the past three years with the baseball team that coined the motto “Fun is Good!”

A block away from the pet supply’s company’s Lowertown location, at city-owned CHS Field, regulars at St. Paul Saints games are probably familiar, at least by ear, with Chuck and Don’s ongoing sponsorship agreements.

Since 2015, those have included Dog Days Presented by Chuck and Don’s, Chuck and Don’s Pet of the Game, Chuck and Don’s Dog Park Concession Stand, and “Dog on Chuck” game giveaways and activities.

“Certainly, I think there’s been an opportunity for them to get to know downtown and know Lowertown through their involvement with the Saints, and they’ve been an absolute blast to work with,” said Saints General Manager Derek Sharrer. “They’ve been the kind of partner that we love, and the kind of partner that is willing to not take themselves too seriously.”

The city-owned dog park neighboring CHS Field was renamed Chuck and Don’s Dog Park in May 2016 as part of a sponsorship agreement. Proceeds from the naming rights go to the team, which is in charge of maintaining the dog park. CHS Field, which opened in May 2015, eliminated a stretch of greenery north of the old Diamond Products building that had been popular with downtown dog owners.

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Staffers at MPR’s music stations The Current and Classical MPR vote to unionize “It was one of the things that was very important about getting the ballpark built,” Sharrer said. “When we sat down with the tenants around the ballpark to talk about their concerns, one was parking, and the other was where am I going to take my dog now?”

Chuck and Don’s, which launched its first store in Eagan in 1990, also maintains shops in Lakeville, Mahtomedi, North Oaks and Woodbury, among its 30 Minnesota locations. In January, Chuck and Don’s acquired three All Paws Pet Center pet supply stores in Kansas.