After selling GovDelivery.com for millions of dollars, Scott Burns became a significant investor in a downtown St. Paul office building that’s about to get a heavy facelift — Osborn370, formerly known as the Ecolab Tower.

Burns, who recently launched the software start-up company Structural, is the quintessential man on the move. He’s asking St. Paul’s commercial landlords to think equally big and equally innovative, especially downtown.

“We’re going to have two floors of ‘flex’ suites that start-ups can rent for six months, or a year,” said Burns, who calls the city surprisingly under-resourced when it comes to collaborative co-working spaces.

“It’s nothing against them, but I think our commercial landlords have an opportunity to invest in and create the kind of spaces that will attract the next generation of entrepreneurs,” Burns said. “Look at the way people are taking care of their buildings. It’s disappointing.”

Since last fall, Burns has shared his sentiments with fellow members of the city’s Innovation Cabinet, a public-private partnership launched by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and City Council Member Chris Tolbert alongside representatives of the private sector, the education sector and business advocacy groups.

On Monday, the St. Paul Innovation Cabinet launched its action plan — Full Stack St. Paul — with four key goals in mind, and to Burns’ delight, real estate innovation is toward the top of the list.

Full Stack St. Paul plans to:

Add 2,000 tech-related jobs by the year 2020;

Increase “innovation-related” commercial space in the city by 200,000 square feet;

Ensure that 50 innovation-focused events are held annually in the city;

Highlight the city’s innovators every year through 2020.

The overarching aim is to attract technology and innovation jobs to St. Paul, a capital city with an up-and-down history of drawing and retaining office talent, particularly tech talent.

“This is the first step, really, in moving forward with our partnership with the St. Paul Area Chamber to implement this action plan,” said Tolbert, noting a diverse economy is a resilient economy. “Good-paying jobs create financially stable families and people. And financially stable families and people create vibrant cities.”

Coleman, who is not running for re-election in November after three terms in office, won’t be around to implement the new job-creation strategy, but city officials said they’ll create teams or committees to see the plan through.

STORIES, PEOPLE, REAL ESTATE

“By pursuing this forward-looking strategy, we may see as many as three more spin-off jobs in other sectors for every innovation job created, bringing value to our whole community,” the mayor said.

The 19 cabinet members included representatives of St. Paul College, the University of St. Thomas, BWBR architects, Structural, Creed Interactive web developers, the St. Paul Port Authority, the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, Greater MSP, and others.

Full Stack St. Paul’s three main strategies boil down to this, according to a statement from the mayor’s office:

Marketing and storytelling: Raise awareness of “the city’s vibrant innovation culture.” People development: Build and support places and events where innovators connect with each other. Placed-based strategy: Create “high-quality real estate solutions” that provide work environments and amenities that help St. Paul companies recruit and retain talent.

It’s this last goal that has Burns the most intrigued.

“You can’t do better for an urban office setting,” said the two-time CEO, waving a hand in the direction of city’s CHS Field ballpark, the light rail station and a growing number of restaurants around Mears Park. “You’ve got a skating rink in Rice Park.”

But he firmly believes St. Paul is falling behind cities such as Boston and Baltimore when it comes to building the work spaces of the future — attractive office buildings with high ceilings, natural lighting, lots of open space and co-working space, and on-site amenities where tech geeks can toss around ideas or just relax and socialize, such as coffeehouses. “It’s not rocket science,” Burns said.

NOT JUST HOTELS, HOUSING?

But all that’s a hurdle when it comes to persuading banks to give it a go. In the Twin Cities, lenders are offering developers easy financing to convert old downtown law office buildings into high-end apartments and condos, and hotel financing is picking up, as well.

That’s not just short-sighted in Burns’ eyes. It’s lazy. Worried that innovators will look to the Minneapolis North Loop instead of the downtown St. Paul community that has been good to him for 17 years, Burns said he became a partner in the Osborn370 “because I wanted to make sure it didn’t become a new hotel or housing.”

His former company, GovDelivery.com, now known as Granicus, has stayed the course, shifting locations multiple times within downtown St. Paul before landing in its current home, the Hamm Building at 408 St. Peter St.

But not every innovator has stuck around. The Cray supercomputer company moved from Mendota Heights to downtown St. Paul’s Galtier Plaza in 2009 before leaving St. Paul and relocating 350 employees last year to a new Mall of America office tower in Bloomington.

Structural, Burns’ latest venture, was founded at the Coco Collaborative co-working site in Lowertown, and then leased space from Creed Interactive for several months.

Jonathan Anderstrom, president of Creed Interactive, bought 5,000 square feet in the building that until recently housed the Heartland Restaurant in Lowertown and converted it into a web head’s idea of an airy dream office. The 3 Deep Marketing company operates upstairs.

“A lot of people said ‘you don’t really want to build in St. Paul — permitting is a nightmare.’ Then we came here and it was all same-day responses” from city personnel, Anderstrom said. “We’re in a historic building and it’s been great.”

“We had to go develop the space,” he added, “but others are working on development projects downtown that allow innovation companies to grow.”