State of Downtown · Updated June 2026
Downtown Saint Paul, told straight.
No spin in either direction. Here’s what the data actually says — including the parts that are hard, and the parts where even the experts disagree. We show our sources and date everything.
How we source this →Where it actually stands
Violent crime, falling · 2022–2024
Homicides fell from a record 40 (2022) to ~32–33 (2024, local count) — the state BCA lists 26 on different (UCR) rules. A widely-reported '15 in 2025, lowest in 12 years' figure is single-source and unconfirmed.
Source: cbsnews.com
Downtown office vacancy — the real crisis · 2024–2025
No single 'true' number — it ranges by firm and inventory definition (Colliers ~12% to ~40%; BOMA ~31%). Always a range.
Source: minnpost.com
New homes in once-empty office towers · 2025–2026
Landmark Tower: 187 apartments, opened May 2025. The Stella: 178, due spring 2026. A Gensler study flagged ~3,951 more potential units across 10 towers.
Source: sherman-associates.com
People without housing (county point-in-time) · 2024
1,234 sheltered / 410 unsheltered, with a ~600-bed shelter gap. A housing-and-health crisis the city and dozens of organizations are actively working — not danger aimed at visitors.
Source: ramseycountymn.gov
Downtown property values · 2026 assessment
The top seven office towers lost ~16.5% on average this year; as commercial value falls, more of the tax load shifts onto homeowners — the 'doom-loop' risk the conversions are meant to break.
Source: kstp.com
Why it’s yours even if you don’t live here
A prosperous downtown lowers the bill for everyone.
When office towers sit empty, their assessed value falls — and more of the tax load shifts onto homeowners across Saint Paul. More homes and a healthy business base broaden the tax base and could lower property taxes citywide. That’s not a talking point; it’s how the math works.
How we actually add the homes. The office-to-housing conversions underway are genuinely exciting — and because they’re slow and costly, they can’t carry it alone. The biggest near-term opening is the missing middle: gently upzoning the surface parking lots, starting with the asphalt around and behind CHS Field in Lowertown — land that pays almost nothing in taxes today. Both paths matter, and we’re cheering on everyone building homes downtown.
Residents downtown today, and an honest near-term target. The Downtown Alliance’s 30,000 goal is the north star we’re all aiming at — ~20,000 is a realistic next step on the way there.
Source: downtownstpaul.com
The surface lots ringing CHS Field in Lowertown represent the city’s single best near-term opportunity for dense, transit-adjacent infill. This is our advocacy.
What’s already moving
What residents are already moving.
Since 1992, the all-volunteer Friends of Mears Park — about 50 neighbor-gardeners — have looked after the flower gardens at the heart of Lowertown, and funded the tools, plantings and lights behind them.
On the downtown riverfront, a resident-run friends group raises the money and hangs 72 flower baskets every year — a blooming corridor from the High Bridge to the Wabasha Bridge.
Downtown's long-awaited Pedro Park opened in September 2025 — and an all-volunteer Friends group plants the annuals and looks after its gardens.
On downtown's western edge, the Historic Irvine Park Association brought back the park's centerpiece fountain, repaired the gazebo, replanted its lost trees, and throws a free summer concert series — and it's raising $75,000 with the City to fix the pavement and the lights.
Neighbors in Lowertown funded and planted 14 trees, replanted the gardens after the old fountain came out, and built a free 'Share Shed' little library — one volunteer logged 585 hours in a single year.
East Side and Lowertown residents started this work in 1997 — and the Native-led nonprofit it became brought a blighted rail yard back as a 27-acre Dakota sacred-site sanctuary, now co-managed with the City, with a new cultural center that opened May 29, 2026.
There’s real momentum to get behind: a $30M resident-and-civic fund (SPDDC) is investing in downtown buildings. Star Tribune. And ambitious, hopeful bets are still in play — the arena renovation and the riverfront RiversEdge district are both working to line up the funding and partners to cross the line, and they’ll get there sooner with residents behind them. Everything above is labeled open / underway / proposed, so you always know exactly where a project stands.
The people behind the numbers
~10,000 residents live downtown today, and every conversion above adds neighbors. These are real people who chose downtown deliberately — read their words on Why we live here →. Source: Alliance investment strategy
Downtown gets better when people show up.
How we source this
Every figure is dated and linked to a primary source.
When two official numbers disagree — as they do on vacancy rates, where figures run from roughly 12% to 40% depending on the firm and inventory definition — we explain the disagreement rather than pick the more convenient number. The “15 homicides in 2025, lowest in 12 years” figure is shown flagged as unconfirmed: it’s single-source and hasn’t been corroborated by a second outlet as of this writing.
We’re an independent, resident-run site, and we have real respect for the Downtown Alliance and the City and the work they do. We just aren’t either one, and we have no financial stake in making the numbers look better or worse than they are — so we can show them to you straight. About this site →