The Saint Paul Port Authority affects the environment in a very personal way. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the soils beneath our feet are improved by the Port’s work.

To be sure, the Port is a redeveloper of polluted and underutilized land into homes for growing businesses. And we prepare workers for good jobs in these sites with an ultimate goal of improving the economic environment in Saint Paul and the East Metro.

We begin that job cycle by acquiring sites considered too risky to develop because they are polluted and then clean them to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency standards with federal, state, and local loans and grants.

Cleanup is coupled with flexible ways of attracting new businesses," said Bill Morin, the Port's Director of Real Estate. In addition to a well-established program of selling cleaned-up land to businesses in exchange for agreements on local job creation and wage levels, the Port recently began a program of "joint equity partnerships" with private developers.

The Port brings its expertise in pollution cleanup and the private developers bring their financing and development expertise. Joint ventures include a former flood-plain tank farm once operated by Citgo near downtown that the Port cleaned up and raised up to protect from flooding.

The site now is known as River Bend and it has attracted the national offices of Internet Broadcasting Systems, a web-page and broadcasting systems support service, and the headquarters of the Service Employees International Union Local 113. 
For more information, contact Monte Hilleman or Bill Morin at 651-224-5686. Or e-mail them at info@sppa.com