St. Paul Riverfront Corporation
  
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The Amhoist site was purchased by the City and is now the site of the new U.S. Bank facility.

Shepard/Warner Road has been realigned and moved back from the River's edge.

The work of the Riverfront Corporation began with Ben Thompson's vision for a "Great River Park."

1984–1994: Setting the Stage
In 1984, Mayor George Latimer established and appointed a commission, the Riverfront Commission, to prepare a land use plan for the downtown riverfront. The Commission created a non-profit, the Riverfront Development Corporation, to act as its fiscal agent.

The Commission’s 1986 Riverfront Land Use plan became the organizing tool enabling the city to purchase and clear dozens of acres of underused, vacant, or blighted riverfront properties and set the stage for future riverfront development.

Some milestone accomplishments and activities during this period were:

  • The Kaplan’s scrap yard and Harvest States grain elevators were razed from the Upper Landing and pollution remediation began. The Amhoist industrial site on the West Side Flats was purchased by the City of Saint Paul and a private developer.
  •  Important public infrastructure improvement projects such as the river clean up through the Sewer Separation project and realignment of Warner Road were addressed.
  • The work of the Riverfront Development Corporation culminated with architect and urban planner Ben Thompson’s vision of Saint Paul as a “Great River Park.” It illuminated the idea that all of Saint Paul is of the Mississippi and that a balance between commercial, recreational, residential, and environmental uses of the river valley is both possible and desirable.