Work to begin on newly designed Pedro Park

Jake Spitzack
Staff Writer

This time next year, the summer sun will shine on a reinvigorated Pedro Park that will barely be recognizable to some. In mid-April, the St. Paul City Council awarded a $4.9 million contract to Global Specialty Contractors to construct the park’s new design, which was finalized a year ago after community feedback on three design options. Work is expected to begin by June 1 and wrap up next summer.

The park will nearly double in size from .45 to .87 acres. It will have an open lawn area, fenced-in dog run, pavilion and concrete sidewalks including one arcing diagonally through the site from Robert to 10th. Play structures, gardens, seating, a drinking fountain, bike racks, landscaping, irrigation, fencing and security cameras will also be added. Additionally, three public art projects are also expected to enhance the site: a sculpture, a mural on the western retaining wall – which was formerly a wall of the Public Safety Annex building – and artwork on top of the pavilion that can be seen by residents living in the upper floors of the many nearby apartment buildings.

The neighboring annex building was razed last summer to make way for the park’s expansion, courtesy of a $500,000 federal community block grant. Originally, the plan was to make the expanded park a simple grassy area and add amenities in stages as funding materialized but last August the City authorized $6 million from its general fund and city bond funds for the project. This influx, as well as the removal of a costly water feature from the final design, is allowing it all to happen in one phase.

“We appreciate the continued dedication and patience of the community for the development of this essential downtown park space and are pleased funding was able to be aligned so soon after the demolition of the Public Safety Annex building,” said St. Paul Parks and Recreation Pedro Park Project Manager Bryan Murphy. “It’s rewarding to be able to implement the full park improvements rather than only interim park improvements.”

Before funding was secured, the St. Paul Parks Conservancy and nonprofit Friends of Pedro Park initiated a $1.5 million fundraising effort to support amenities at the park. As of press time, the two organizations had raised $50,000 and expected to hear soon if they will receive $500,000 in grants. Those and any other funds raised will still be used for the park. As a result, the city will be able to dedicate more of the $6 million it had originally earmarked for Pedro to devote to other park projects. The City of St. Paul is facing approximately $100 million in deferred maintenance across the entire parks and recreation system, according to St. Paul Parks Conservancy executive director Michael-jon Pease.

“The design for Pedro Park includes extensive gardens that will require about 20-30 community volunteers to maintain,” said Pease. “Private funds will help provide annual plant materials, tools and training. Ideally, we will also close the project with a small maintenance endowment as we did with the Rice Park revitalization. The Rice Park maintenance fund, which started with a principal of $250,000 and is invested with the St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, has since paid out $40,000 for park maintenance, as well as growing the principal. Such a model is ideal for high traffic downtown parks and allows for a more dynamic garden design than the city could maintain on its own without community support.”

Pedro Park was originally the site of the Pedro luggage building, built 110 years ago. It was demolished in 2011 and the Pedro family donated the land to the city for use as a park with the understanding that the land of the adjacent annex building would be used to expand the park one day. In 2017, the .45-acre site of the former luggage building was made into an urban flower field and the city vacated the annex. Controversy flared in 2019 when the city struck a deal to sell the building to a developer rather than demolish it for the expansion of the park. During that time, a member of the Pedro family and the citizen’s group Help Save Pedro Park sued the city to stop the sale. They were unsuccessful, although, amidst the controversy, the developer pulled out in 2021 without having done any work to the site. The creation of a full-block park in this neighborhood was originally called for in the Fitzgerald Park Precinct Plan adopted by the City of St. Paul in 2006. For more information and project updates, visit stpaul.gov/pedropark.

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