The Greater East Side-District 2 Community Council spent a recent evening watching video from a drone flying high over the 112-acre Hillcrest Golf Club.

Closed in 2017 and just purchased by the St. Paul Port Authority for $10 million, the site could someday host hundreds of housing units, as well as offices and commercial development on the city’s far East Side, off Larpenteur Avenue and McKnight Road.

Community council director Chuck Repke said residents are full of questions.

“How is this site going to interact with the adjacent community, and what is it going to do for the neighborhood?” he said. “If all it’s going to do is generate additional traffic, what does it do for them?”

City officials say it’ll do plenty.

Hillcrest is nearly as large as the closely watched Ford Motor Co. campus in Highland Park, but the East Side redevelopment site differs in an important way. Unlike the Ford site, where developers have asked for $107 million in tax-increment financing loans, Hillcrest should generate jobs, housing and tax base without the public subsidy.

“We’re going to figure out a way how we pay for this with our land sales,” said Port Authority President Lee Krueger. “We think it’s a great deal for the city.”

Here’s an overview of where things stand:

The city council wouldn’t commit to a $10 million land purchase without some idea of what they expect will be built out there. What’s the vision?

The Port Authority says initial research reveals demand for roughly 1,000 housing units on the site. That includes both owner-occupied and rental options of varied density, but actual results will depend upon the city’s upcoming master plan.

In addition, the Port Authority says there’s capacity for about 1,000 jobs on site, including “substantial light industrial/light manufacturing jobs.” Those jobs should provide above-average wages but make less of an impact on the environment or neighboring residences compared with heavy industry.

“It’s too soon to paint a picture of what the new Hillcrest will look like,” said City Council member Kassim Busuri, who represents the area, “because we still need to ensure citizens’ voices are heard throughout the master planning process.”

But the increase in tax base is sorely needed, he added, and will bring tax benefits citywide.

Why is the Port Authority so interested in a defunct golf course, anyway?

The buzzwords are “light industrial” jobs, like those the Port Authority has drawn to the former 3M campus off East Seventh Street, now dubbed Beacon Bluff.

Not many sites in St. Paul can accommodate 100,000 square feet or more of industry. In fact, Port Authority officials say they have just one three-acre lot available for development under their management.

But Port Authority officials note that the decisions aren’t entirely in their hands. They’ll be beholden to the upcoming master plan and related zoning, which will be driven by city planners in consultation with residents.

“We’re not dictating the master plan,” Krueger said. “At the end of the day, if the master plan says the community wants 100 percent housing, then we’ll be selling it all off to housing developers.”

What’s the timeline?

This fall, the St. Paul Department of Planning and Economic Development will begin talking to neighbors and community residents about the site’s future uses. The goal is to spend at least a year crafting a master plan and getting the site rezoned for housing and commerce. The Port Authority expects to begin mass grading, environmental cleanup and infrastructure improvements once the plan is complete. The site will be marketed for sale to developers in 2021, and construction could begin soon after.

How long will it be before the public can look at a firmer proposal?

City officials expect master planning to take 12 to 18 months.

Will there be any green space?

Port Authority officials expect the master plan will reserve 20 acres of green space, open space, parks, stormwater and wetland areas, or about 18 percent of the site. That includes roughly five acres or $2.5 million of parkland to be maintained by St. Paul Parks and Rec, and an additional 15 acres of “passive” open green space for stormwater and wetland amenities.

All those numbers are subject to change in the final master plan, but 20 acres also is specified in the Port Authority’s bond agreement with the city. Related Articles Google parent agrees to $310M misconduct lawsuit settlement

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Port Authority officials say they’re committed to paying for infrastructure through land sales rather than taxpayer subsidies, and they caution that route will be harder to follow as demand for amenities increases.

“People can go to an extreme and say we want 50 percent of the property to be active park lands and merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels,” Krueger said. “But we’d have a hard time selling enough land to pay for it.”

Who is running the show?

The Port Authority, mostly. It is handling environmental cleanup, utility installation, site grading and market research. Once the city’s master planning process is complete, the Port Authority will manage design and construction of anything that needs to be done to ready the site for the market.

There’s not much in the way of utilities and infrastructure beneath a golf course. What other costs are on the horizon?

The Port Authority predicts basic infrastructure will cost $22 million to $24 million. Initial environmental cleanup is estimated at $2.5 million.

How is this work being financed?

On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council approved $10 million in general obligation bonds to cover the purchase cost. The bonds will be paid back at the rate of approximately $750,000 per year over a 25-year term.

The Port Authority, which has its own property tax levy, would effectively charge St. Paul taxpayers about $5 more per year for a median-value home.

Meanwhile, land sales, grants and assessments will cover remaining project costs, including infrastructure, green space and environmental cleanup.

Will the city be asked to pay for the infrastructure through tax-increment financing?

No. The bond agreement that the city council approved Wednesday includes the following language: “no Tax Increment Financing (TIF) will be requested for infrastructure for the project at any time; no further financial assistance will be requested from the city to complete the project.”

It also states the Port Authority will be responsible for the cost of “any reasonable off-site improvements to public infrastructure required to serve or support the project, specifically including but not limited to the sanitary sewer,” and it lays out parkland dedication requirements, including the 20 acres of stormwater and open space.

What’s in this for taxpayers?

Port Authority officials are optimistic that once fully redeveloped, the Hillcrest site will be home to some $250 million in residential and commercial development. As a golf course, it generated some $500,000 per year in property taxes. That number would increase to $5 million per year — or eight times the annual debt service on the bonds. New living-wage jobs in an area of the city that has lost industry over the decades would be a boon, and so would new housing opportunities, given the city’s tight rental market.

“The redevelopment of the Hillcrest site is a win-win for all of St. Paul,” said Busuri, the council member. “First and foremost, it’s leading us to the largest financial investment in St. Paul’s East Side in modern history.” Related Articles Man, 38, dies of apparent natural causes at Ramsey County jail

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Why not let the private sector do all this work?

Port Authority officials say soil contamination, lack of infrastructure, sloping topography and general lack of zoning were too complex for the previous owner to tackle alone, but those are areas where they have plenty of experience.