Manager named to newly expanded Downtown Improvement District

By Jake Spitzack | Staff Writer | February 2025

Steering the next wave of efforts to help revitalize downtown St. Paul is Kris Zagyva, who was recently named general manager of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance’s St. Paul Downtown Improvement District (SPDID). A native of Budapest, Hungary and longtime Californian, he brings more than 20 years of experience managing downtown quality-of-life initiatives, including in Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and in Houston, Tex., where he managed 120 employees for the Downtown Houston Management District. He started in St. Paul on Dec. 1, focusing on establishing the Alliance’s Clean & Safe programs in areas of downtown that were added to the SPDID boundaries on Jan. 1 by way of a City Council vote last summer. Through the Clean & Safe program, teams of street ambassadors remove litter and graffiti, help pedestrians with wayfinding, report illegal activities they witness, and more.

The SPDID formerly covered about half of downtown but now encompasses all of it, from the Xcel Energy Center to CHS Field and from the Mississippi River to Interstate 94. It includes both commercial and residential properties and is funded through property taxes from property owners within its boundaries, as well as voluntary contributions from the City of St. Paul and Ramsey County. Since its inception in 2021 to this past December, calls to police for quality-of-life crimes and concerns fell by 40% within the SPDID boundaries. A handful of other large cities in the country have similar downtown improvement district programs, which aim to supplement city services.

In the long term, Zagyva plans to deepen the Alliance’s partnerships with the St. Paul Police Department and several other organizations to navigate the complex issue of revitalizing downtown in the wake of the pandemic. He noted that crime numbers are trending down, and the biggest problems currently are related to drug use and homelessness.

“In my experience, you’ve got short-term resolution and then you have long-term resolutions,” he said. “I like to reach out to other cities and see what they have going on when it comes to drugs, because normally if it’s being distributed in one city it’s happening in another…. I think now with us being able to provide more boots on the ground, lay more eyes on more block spaces, we’re going to be able to deter more smaller crimes.”
His decision to come to St. Paul wasn’t just for the job.

“Over the course of the past year, I was visiting St. Paul-Minneapolis and the adjacent areas and just really fell in love with the state,” he said. “I heard some information about St. Paul and the [SPDID] expansion and I just really wanted to be part of that history, that milestone of being able to expand change, and take all the years of experience I have and bring it here.

“I think everybody really learned [during the pandemic] that they can work from home and preferred it, and I think that changed how downtowns are operating,” he added. “A lot of downtowns are now trying to shift from commercial space to living space and having storefronts on the first floors. They’re mirroring a lot of the business ideas that New York and San Francisco have. But we’re all starting to finally bounce back.”

In addition to the Safe and Clean program, the St. Paul Downtown Alliance operates Grow Downtown, which connects new businesses with short-term free leases in vacant storefronts. Last spring, it also unveiled its Downtown Investment Strategy, outlining population growth goals for downtown which include adding 20,000 residents, 20,000 workers for a total of 75,000, and increasing the number of annual visitors by 20% to 10 million. The strategy identified three ways the public and private sectors can work together to reach the goals: convert office space into housing, invest in pedestrian-oriented streetscape improvements and advance downtown St. Paul’s most strategic redevelopment opportunities.

According to Zagyva, keeping the streets safe and clean improves perceptions about downtown, attracts new businesses and helps retain existing ones, increases property values, and stimulates the overall vitality of the community.

“I’m very grateful and honored to be able to be part of this,” said Zagyva. “I know St. Paul Alliance has been working tirelessly to get this expansion to take place and it took some grit to make it happen. They’re very excited about it and I’m very committed to making sure that this is successful, and St. Paul becomes better and better every day.”

Zagyva is an avid horse rider, with a few steeds of his own. He’s also in the process of getting a commercial helicopter license, which he may use to give tours of the Twin Cities.
For more information on the SPDID, visit spdid.org.

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