Louis Jambois arguably has one of the best views in downtown.

Flanked by windows, his eighth-floor office overlooks Rice Park, the Landmark Center and dozens of other historic St. Paul buildings.

The executive director of the St. Paul Port Authority took full advantage of his “perch” during a recent meeting on his upcoming retirement.

He pointed to the old Macy’s a couple of blocks away that the Port bought a couple of years ago as he described changes on the horizon for the building. Then he moved to another window and pointed out the former West Publishing building owned by Ramsey County along the river bluff, calling it the “best development site in either of the core cities right now.”

Jambois has overseen a flurry of cleanup and redevelopment projects across St. Paul during his seven years leading the Port Authority.

With his last day just shy of two months away, he sat down with the Pioneer Press to answer a few questions about his tenure and his take on the state of development in St. Paul. What follows is an edited version of that interview.

How does it feel to be retiring?

It hasn’t really sunk in yet because we have so much yet to do. We are working with the city on Major League Soccer and on their public safety training facility and of course we want to close up our sale and use of the Macy’s building. We are working on a variety of river leases that we need to close up; we have construction projects at Midway with United Properties; construction projects along our dock wall, properties and prospects for several of our parcels at Beacon Bluff, the old 3M property. So there is a lot of stuff that we’re doing from our perch on the eighth floor of the Lawson building so I haven’t had a whole lot of time to think about what I am going to be doing come March 1.

So no plans at all yet for retirement?

No. I definitely am going to sleep in. I think within the first week I’m going to take at least 50 percent of my smoothie clothes (suits) over to Goodwill.

Is there a specific project or aspect of the work that you feel particularly proud to have been a part of?

I think it was coming in and adding a slightly different perspective to development in St. Paul. Taking an organization that was highly regarded in many respects and did remarkable work and continuing that work during a very, very challenging economic time. I am really proud of the staff here too … It’s the only way I can do this work. I have to have a great and supportive board of directors … and I have to have a really high-quality staff.

What did you uniquely bring to this job?

I didn’t bring anything. A trained monkey could do this, no. You know, I probably brought a broader development perspective than existed at the Port Authority, but not that much broader. I brought some new energy; every new CEO brings new energy. I guess I brought the desire to reach out to the community. We were at the right time, the Port Authority was at the right time to get out and talk to the community about what we do and how we do it and why it’s important and valuable.

OK, let’s take out your crystal ball now. Macy’s, what’s it going to look like in two to five years?

I think two to five years it’s going to look totally different than it does today. The facade that you see on the west wall is going to be gone. We’re going to have the Wild rink in there. The whole building is going to look different. It’s going to have updated elevators and escalators and parking ramp repairs; it is going to have a 2,600-square-foot Walgreens in it. We expect a craft brewer in there, a bank installation, a health care facility, some restaurant usage, especially along Wabasha, which will help leverage the Palace Theatre and the Seventh Place activity already going.

I know the pro soccer stadium and talk of a surrounding development are still not a done deal, but let’s say they happen. What do you think that Midway area will look like in 10 years? Do you see restaurants, hotels, housing? What are you dreaming about?

The term “dream” is a good term to use because at this point it’s certainly still a dream … I think people use the term “vision” instead of “dream” because “vision” has a more positive connotation, but I think they are kind of the same thing. I can say that the development (community) is really looking at it. We have a company that is kind of interested in some of the space around the stadium as a corporate headquarters, which would be neat. There is some interest in housing, but also interest in office/retail mixed-use buildings with (maybe) retail on the ground level and offices or some housing on the upper levels. There has been talk about a hotel, but I think that is a little premature.

Hotel stuff usually follows as opposed to leads the way for development. If we get it done, it will transform that entire block, though, and that will then have a really nice impact on the areas that are around that block. If we don’t get it done, frankly, I am afraid that bus barn site will stay vacant for quite a long time.

Let’s talk more broadly about development in St. Paul. What kind of mix should the city be shooting for?

One of things we keep saying to any audience that will have us is that real sustainable communities have a balance of land uses that provide tax revenue and that also provide job opportunities for people who live in the community. So what that means for us at the Port is that we have been really advocating for preserving as much of the industrial space as possible. So from our standpoint, converting industrial property to housing may work well for the owner of that particular site but it’s not the highest and best use from a broader, long-term, municipal sustainability perspective. And so for St. Paul and for any core city, the issue is how do you steer development in such a way that addresses the city’s fiscal needs, that addresses the city’s aesthetic needs and addresses the city’s housing needs but also addresses the city’s employment needs.

How is St. Paul doing at achieving that mix?

St. Paul is doing OK. We have a long way to go, and the Port Authority has a long way to go. Thirty-three percent of the city’s land is tax exempt, so it doesn’t pay any property taxes at all, which means the services to those properties must be provided by the taxes paid by the other 67 percent. Of that 67 percent, approximately 20 percent of that property is zoned industrial. So it’s a small amount relatively speaking, and we don’t want it to shrink anymore.

Does the trend of converting old buildings into housing that is happening in St. Paul concern you at all?

Housing in downtown St. Paul is not a bad thing. We still have great commercial spaces and capacity to create additional commercial spaces. What we want in downtown St. Paul, I think, and this is just me again, is market-rate housing in downtown St. Paul filled with people from the millennial generation all the way up to geezers like me who again have a little jingle in their pocket. That will help assure that downtown St. Paul is vital during the workday, during the weekday evenings and on weekends. It will be those housing occupants along with the daily workforce that will stimulate additional retail interest in downtown St. Paul.

There has been a lot of development activity in St. Paul, particularly downtown, in recent years. What’s driving that?

I think St. Paul’s time has come. A lot of people have figured out that St. Paul is a really cool community and a desirable place to be and when people come to that conclusion and they want to live here and they have a little jingle in their pocket, then that is what attracts the business community, as well. I credit — and I know it sounds like shameless pandering — but I credit the vision of the political forces, the mayor, the city council, the county commissioners; they all kind of share a vision of St. Paul that works really well. And what I really like is that people are getting comfortable with St. Paul being St. Paul and not Minneapolis. A company as sophisticated as United Properties is saying: “Hmmm, there is something going on over in St. Paul, we want to get in on it. We want to be in Midway.’

What do you hope people say about you and your time at the Port in the future?

I hope they don’t talk about me at all … I hope they spend their time talking about what the Port Authority is doing and what great work the Port Authority is going to be doing in the future.

Sarah Horner can be reached at 651-228-5539. Follow her at twitter.com/hornsarah.