New Riverfront Project Could Cost $1B Plus

ST. PAUL-JLT Group Inc. announced development plans Thursday for “The Bridges of St. Paul,” a mixed-use retail, residential, entertainment complex that some estimate could cost more than $1 billion. The project would be built on about 75 acres on the banks of the Mississippi River across from Downtown.

“The Bridges of St. Paul will provide a gathering place for the entire region by transforming the St. Paul waterfront into an enormous array of opportunities and experiences,” says Jerry Trooien, founder and president of the JLT Group Inc., a locally based development and investment company.

The Bridges of St. Paul will have about 550,000 sf of shops, restaurants, a spa, a hotel and movie theatres. It will also include about 3,000 residential units.

The project will feature digital dome theaters, a World Cultures Bazaar, a Children’s Wonder Castle and a Human Journey Project. The developers also plan to offer daily activity on the “Main Street,” such as street festivals, parades, concerts, dances, pageants, exhibitions and cultural events.

St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly says the “ambitious and visionary development” will help make the city into a “destination-city for the entire region.”Working with JLT Group on the project have been such firms as Hart Howerton Architects of San Francisco; Marshall Strategy of San Francisco; Thomas Consultants, a retail analyst firm based in Vancouver, BC; Urban Properties of Chicago; Architects International of Mill Valley, CA; Arthur Erickson of Vancouver, BC; PolArt, a regional theatre design studio based Ogden, UT.

The JLT Group Inc. is a diversified real estate development and investment company that owns commercial real estate and has major investments in corporate and commercial aircraft and wireless and technology companies.