How to reinvigorate the area along Rice Street at Larpenteur Avenue long has perplexed officials from the bordering cities of St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood along with Ramsey County.

Now, they’re nearing a $142,000 contract with a new consulting outfit to make their vision happen.

The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce has launched a new service aimed at helping smaller chambers, neighborhood councils, economic development groups and even cities and counties plan and execute projects.

Kim O’Brien, a former legislative aide to St. Paul City Council President Amy Brendmoen, is the new public face of WorkStream. Workstream will provide strategic planning, marketing, meeting, office staffing and event coordination to professional clients, including the Rice-Larpenteur Alliance.

“Our members and our prospective members are different — younger, more diverse. And what they’re asking of us is different,” said Chamber President and CEO B. Kyle.

Kyle noted that roughly half a dozen of the 32 metro chambers employ a sizable enough professional staff that can actually handle projects. “The rest of them are two staff, one staff or no staff.”

WorkStream’s consulting services are intended to provide a new revenue source for the chamber, Kyle said.

She said Workstream also will fill a demand for professional services within the economic development community, which sometimes brings businesses and other partners together to discuss problems but has limited staffing to implement solutions.

CASH IN HAND FOR RICE-LARPENTEUR

One of Workstream’s first contracts will be with Ramsey County and the cities of St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood to help drive new energy to the strip mall corridor surrounding Rice Street and Larpenteur Avenue.

Previous consultants have highlighted the area’s large Karen, Bhutanese and Nepalese population as an asset, albeit a vulnerable one that could be displaced if development proceeds in a manner that isn’t sensitive to their needs.

To that end, it’s important to preserve existing naturally-occurring affordable housing and, for instance, introduce “a new grocery, not a Williams-Sonoma,” said Chamber Public Affairs Director Shannon Watson, referring to the retailer known for high-end kitchenware. “We need to make sure that the improvements that we pursue are for the people who live and work in the area now, not for new audiences.”

There’s money on the table that could turn some of that planning into reality, but it needs coordination across city and county lines.

Roseville has access to $800,000 in excess funds set aside from an expired tax-increment financing district, and the city of St. Paul plans to invest an additional $300,000 of its Commercial Vitality Zone funds, which are geared toward business district and intersection improvements citywide.

Meanwhile, Ramsey County has additional projects in mind, not the least of which is the redesign of Rice Street, which would get underway in phases as soon as this year. Larpenteur Avenue also is a county road.

An even bigger wild card?

Much of the Rice Street corridor in both St. Paul and Roseville sits within federally-designated “Opportunity Zones,” areas where tax incentives are intended to help draw private sector capital for real estate development or major remodeling.

“Everybody is ready to invest in the area, but there are so many different players and opportunities,” O’Brien said.

Ramsey County Commissioner Trista MatasCastillo said in addition to coordination and focus, O’Brien and Kyle, a former employee of the St. Paul Port Authority, bring “great historical knowledge and relationships with the community” to the table. “It’s like a double win,” MatasCastillo said.

MARKETING THE VISION PLAN

In March 2018, following some two years of coordination, Ramsey County teamed with the three cities to publish the “Rice-Larpenteur Vision Plan,” a 112-page blueprint outlining existing conditions — such as limited or difficult pedestrian access — and the potential for improvements.

Without ongoing staffing, however, the vision risks languishing on a shelf.

“The jaded, cynical view that people have of these projects is you spend 18 months developing a vision and then nothing really happens with it,” said Roseville Mayor Dan Roe. “Maybe St. Paul has the (staffing) capacity, but then are they the ones driving the bus? (Better to have) the chamber be a third party that can staff it and treat all partners equitably.”

Through Ramsey County’s partnership with St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood, WorkStream has access to at least $143,000 in public funding to staff and execute projects over the next year.

That’s likely to include new branding, a website, an event calendar, a communications strategy and a fundraising strategy aimed at more permanent solutions for litter pick-up and other improvements. The Urban Land Institute also contributed $7,500.

“People will say ‘something is changing here, and it’s changing for the better,'” said Maplewood Mayor Marylee Abrams, who predicted some visible improvements over the next year. “We did our due diligence here and put together a plan that is a partnership of the three cities.”

Roe said six consultants responded to a general request for information last summer, and four responded to a formal request for proposals. Two finalists were interviewed — WorkStream and Minneapolis-based Smith Partners.

What stood out about WorkStream?

O’Brien and the chamber were “very responsive to what the vision was, and wanted to take that and move it forward,” Roe said. “I think some of the other consultants wanted to redevelop the vision.”

O’Brien plans to present WorkStream to the Roseville City Council on March 18 and the Maplewood City Council on March 25. Ramsey County and the St. Paul City Council are still being scheduled.