The mayor's proposal would house three city departments and nearly 200 workers. Two of the departments--the Office of Licenses, Inspections and Environmental Protection and fire administration--employ about 160 people in Downtown offices. The third department, Neighborhood Housing and Property Improvement has its offices at Hillcrest Shopping Center on White Bear Avenue on the East Side.

The plan calls for the St. Paul Port Authority to issue bonds to construct a 34,000-sf building on city-owned land in Energy Park. The Port Authority would repay the debt through annual rent from the city. Tentative plans call for the city to pay the Port Authority a 25-year lease--for example, its first year's rent would be $621,000. Ryan Cos., a Minneapolis-based commercial real estate firm, is working with the Port Authority to develop the site.

Downtown has more than two million sf of vacant space, more than a quarter of its competitive office space market, according to a recent survey from United Properties, the Bloomington, MN-based commercial real estate firm.