Downtown St. Paul residents who gathered Monday evening for a presentation on their neighborhood parks received a surprise visit from Mayor Melvin Carter, who weighed in on one of the touchier topics.

Carter said the former site of the old Pedro’s Luggage store will continue to be devoted to green space, as long envisioned by neighborhood plans dubbing it Pedro Park, Fitzgerald Park or the “Park at the Heart.”

But the city’s vacant public safety annex building next door? The mayor told dozens of attendees at the “Downtown Live!” presentation that Pedro Park will most likely not be expanded to replace the adjoining building, which had been slated for redevelopment into office space.

Carter said the city’s redevelopment agreements with the Ackerberg Group are still tentative, but he described them as promising, over some jeers from the audience.

“We have in front of us the first viable plan to build out this block over the next decade that includes $1 million … for maintenance of a park. … We owe it to ourselves… to have the conversation out,” Carter said.

Carter: Yes, there's a 20 percent office vacancy rate downtown but businesses are moving out because it's not the right kind of space to draw creative enterprises. — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) February 20, 2018

“This is a pitiful, shameful episode in my life,” said Marilyn Pitera, 81, the last surviving Pedro sibling, who spoke passionately against the Ackerberg proposal. She said the city acted in bad faith in accepting a 2009 land donation from her family without follow-through.

Marilyn Pitera, 81, has issued a notarized statement on the city's "promised full block park" at the former site of her family's luggage store. Bottom line: She's furious. #PedroPark pic.twitter.com/WOExnqzAh4 — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) February 20, 2018

Before leaving office, Mayor Chris Coleman’s administration negotiated a redevelopment agreement with the Minneapolis-based Ackerberg Group to convert the recently vacated annex building at 100 E. 10th St. into office space that could draw more than 200 jobs.

Under the agreement, the developers would make a commitment to maintain the neighboring Pedro Park plot as green space for 20 years or more. Acting as the Housing and Redevelopment Authority, a divided St. Paul City Council voted 4-3 in November to support the proposal.

Residents of the area have said the city’s agreement with Ackerberg flies in the face of the decade-old plans for Pedro Park, which call for a full-block, two-thirds block or half-block park at the site. The location, bounded by Ninth, 10th, Minnesota and Robert streets, is adjacent the Penfield apartment complex, which was the former site of the city’s police and fire department headquarters.

Speaking on behalf of park proponents, downtown resident Kati Berg said the city’s capital improvement budget committee devoted $18 million so the police department could move its training out of the public safety annex building and make room for a park. Instead, she said, “this action is disassembling parkland.”

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St. Stanislaus’ longtime priest the Rev. John Clay leaves legacy of love. He died Sunday at age 94 Council member Rebecca Noecker, who represents downtown and who voted against the Ackerberg plan, said the city’s tentative developer agreement with Ackerberg will likely be voted upon again around June.

Hosted by the History Theatre, the “Downtown Live!” event was organized by Bill Hanley’s Lowertown Media Initiatives, John Mannillo, Peg Guilfoyle and Stephen Usery, with TPT’s longtime “Almanac” co-host Eric Eskola as master of ceremonies.