Chambers of commerce explore joining forces

St. Paul and Minneapolis chambers of commerce explore joining forces
By Jake Spitzack | Staff Writer | March 2026

When the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce holds its annual meeting on Feb. 26 at the St. Paul RiverCentre, members will get a first look at its 2025 impact report and learn how St. Paul and the Twin Cities region stacked up against similar sized cities across the country in 2025.

A recent report highlighting key indicators of business health across the region reveals areas of growth and concern. It compared the 15-county Twin Cities region to Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle and was created by Greater MSP, a business coalition. View it at greatermsp.org/regional-indicators-dashboard.

Notable findings show the region ranked:

• Best in foreign-born people ages 16-64 working (80.2%)
• Best in females ages 16-64 working (78.9%)
• Second best in jobs paying a family sustaining wage (69.7%)
• Second worst in annual job growth (2.9%)
• Second lowest percentage of households paying 30% or more of their income on monthly housing costs (32.2%)

To combat areas of concern, the chamber is exploring joining forces with the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce to better support the business community. Over the past year a committee with members from both chambers has been analyzing the pros and cons of banding together.

“We’re trying to be forward-thinking about how a chamber represents the business community,” said Brenda “B” Kyle, president and CEO of the St. Paul Area Chamber, which represents more than 1,600 businesses. “Showing up as a region as opposed to a series of smaller communities elevates our competitive advantage and better coordinates our voice…. The rest of the world sees us as the Twin Cities so it’s important for us to reflect that back.”

John Perlich, vice president of government affairs for the St. Paul Chamber, highlighted a few impactful wins for the chamber last year such as St. Paul’s rent control measures being changed to encourage new housing development downtown, and an ordinance amendment allowing taller buildings along the downtown riverfront.

Looking ahead, each of the cities will seek significant funding to renovate their entertainment arenas.

“There are big lifts ahead,” said Kyle. “We’ve got the Grand Casino Arena and the RiverCentre complex that need a huge infusion of funds. We’ve got downtown buildings that require conversion from commercial to residential…. We’re in front of them [legislators] on a regular basis and the mood is challenging. These are hard decisions about big issues that matter to both cities and the state.”

Kyle said the Chamber wouldn’t be exploring a deeper partnership were it not for the creation of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance in 2021, an entity focused solely on downtown’s economic vitality. The Alliance’s Minneapolis counterpart is the Minneapolis Downtown Council. She also praised the Alliance for forming the Downtown Improvement District to help keep the streets safer and cleaner, and the St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation for helping revive large, underused properties. Prior to its formation, she said St. Paul was the only city of its size in the country that didn’t have a downtown improvement district.

“With the Madison equities portfolio being thrust upon the market all at one time [following the death of principal owner James Crockarell, downtown’s largest commercial property owner] it creates some market activity that St. Paul is doing a tremendous job of managing,” said Kyle. “There are other stakeholders like the Port Authority and the [Ramsey] county, and some standalone private investors who are getting site control of the key properties in downtown for repurposing. We should be optimistic about that because it allows us to manage what could be seen as a crisis into something really opportunistic. We’ve also got the Central Station project, which is long overdue.” The Central Station project is a planned 20-story apartment tower and six-story building connected by a skyway over the METRO Green Line transit station in downtown St. Paul.

The Chamber supports businesses through training and networking opportunities, and advocacy at the Capitol. For more information, visit stpaulchamber.com.