Sponsor: Community & Economic Development
Title
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Fund Transfer from Boys Totem Town and Maplewood Properties to Redevelopment Implementation Project
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Recommendation
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1. Authorize the County Manager to establish a project budget for the Redevelopment Implementation Project in the Community and Economic Development budget.
2. Authorize the County Manager to transfer up to $75,000 from Boys Totem Town and $125,000 from Maplewood Properties to the Redevelopment Implementation Project budget to advance the Building Stronger Together initiative.
3. Authorize the County Manager to enter into agreements for due diligence and redevelopment project implementation services and execute amendments to such agreements, in accordance with the county’s procurement policies and procedures, provided the amounts are within the limits of available funding.
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Background and Rationale
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On April 14, 2026, the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the Building Stronger Together (BST) initiative, a more than $320 million economic development strategy focused on revitalizing downtown Saint Paul and redeveloping county-owned land across Ramsey County. BST is designed to expand the county's tax base and generate new property tax revenue, with the goal of stabilizing and reducing the property tax burden on county residents and businesses over time, without increasing the county's property tax levy.
Since 2021, Community and Economic Development’s (CED) portfolio of redevelopment projects has expanded to include additional sites such as Payne and Maryland, Frost and English, and 555 Cedar, with more projects anticipated. The current budget structure, tied specifically to the projects named in the 2021 action, does not allow CED to support due diligence, engineering, environmental review, financial and market analysis, legal, and community engagement activities across this broader and growing project list. This expanded redevelopment portfolio directly supports BST's emphasis on coordinated, equitable, and community-driven redevelopment across Ramsey County.
This action establishes the Redevelopment Implementation Project to support Boys Totem Town and Maplewood Properties Site, consistent with the original intent of the 2021 funding, while also allowing CED to respond to time-sensitive needs on other current and future redevelopment projects without requiring a separate board action for each new site. This budget structure update ensures CED can effectively advance BST priorities as redevelopment opportunities emerge.
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County Goals (Check those advanced by Action)
Well-being Prosperity X Opportunity X Accountability
Racial Equity Impact
Ramsey County has large and persistent racial disparities in housing, employment, and access to economic opportunity between residents of color and white residents. Redevelopment decisions and the due diligence activities that inform them play an important role in whether these disparities continue or begin to close, particularly for projects located in and around communities that have experienced historical disinvestment. This action creates the Redevelopment Implementation Project, which allows CED to consistently apply racial equity principles across its redevelopment portfolio, rather than negotiating them separately on a project-by-project basis. As with the racial equity approach used under the 2021 authorization, this includes refining targeted hiring and contracting goals and other equity benchmarks to be incorporated into development and construction agreements, and ensuring community engagement and communications activities reach populations that have historically been underrepresented in redevelopment planning. Future uses of each site should address the needs of county residents as inclusively as possible and further the county’s vision, mission, and goals. Funds from this project may be used for activities that directly support inclusivity, such as community engagement and visioning, and inclusive hiring and contracting practices.
Community Participation Level and Impact
CED staff are conducting a series of working-level engagement meetings with local and regional planning agencies, developers, anchor employers, and other stakeholders as part of the BST initiative, tracking outcomes in an engagement tracker and culminating in a BST stakeholder alignment report. This project allows that engagement, along with project-specific community integration and communications, to continue and expand as CED’s redevelopment portfolio grows to include additional sites.
Community engagement for the individual redevelopment projects supported through the Redevelopment Implementation Project, including Payne and Maryland, Frost and English, and 555 Cedar, will continue to be defined at the project level and will be reported through future project-specific board actions as those redevelopment efforts advance.
X Inform X Consult Involve Collaborate Empower
Fiscal Impact
Funds are included in the CED budget. This action transfers up to $200,000 in previously approved funding from the existing Boys Totem Town and Maplewood Properties project accounts to the Redevelopment Implementation Project within the CED budget. No new county funding is requested; this is a reallocation of previously appropriated funds to allow broader use across CED's redevelopment portfolio.
Last Previous Action
On April 14, 2026, the Ramsey County Board approved and endorsed the BST development strategy and authorized its implementation (Resolution B2026-047).
On January 26, 2021, the Ramsey County Board approved a $750,000 transfer from the county's Capital Projects Fund Balance to CED for due diligence and implementation activities related to the RiversEdge, Boys Totem Town, and Maplewood Properties Site redevelopment projects, and disposition support of 3454 Rice Street in Vadnais Heights (Resolution B2021-024).
Attachments
None.