The transit hub would be financed in part by a $6.2-milion federal grant.
The city council approved the deal by a 6-1 vote, with the dissenting vote from a council member who thought that a transit hub was not a high enough use for the site, which he calls the gateway to the city.
The city is even proposing using part of the site for a new ballpark for the Minnesota Twins, although the proposal requires state aide and major reform by Major League Baseball that have yet to be enacted.
The agreement calls for the Historic Irvine Park Association, a neighborhood group, to develop the abandoned 115-year-old relic into housing. The house would be moved five blocks to a parking lot just south of Ryan Street on Chestnut Street in nearby IrvinePark -- formerly the site of Plastics Inc., which the city recently relocated. The state owns the house, and agreed to sell it to the city for $1 as long as the city preserved it. The $2.4 million will go to moving the building as well as putting on a new roof, digginga foundation and attaching porches.
Other plans for the house had fallen through, including a proposal to sell it to St. Paul developer Henry Zaidan, who would have made it the centerpiece of a larger housing development. The neighborhood group objected to the plan, saying the added housingdensity would not fit the historic character of their area.
The neighborhood group sees the deal as a chance to preserve the building and to influence some of what goes up near the historic district. The group is looking for a developer who would subdivide the house -- actually built as a duplex -- into four or fiveunits.
The house, which has been vacant for years, is on the National Register of Historic Places as the last house in downtown St. Paul.
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