One of the property owners – in this case a property management company for the Grace Building owner (see attached letter) – collects the maintenance fees from the other two properties, then sends that amount to our Assessments office to process as an assessment, which we do. 

 

A longer explanation is this:  It is our understanding that the owners, via separate agreement executed in 1983, collectively manage the maintenance of 7^th Place Mall and share the maintenance expenses.  One of the property owners has generally been responsible for facilitating these tasks.  It now appears to be the owner of the Grace Building.  The reason the City is involved is that under a separate 1983 agreement between the City, HRA, Port and property owners, the City is supposed to assess for annual maintenance costs the property owners are obligated to pay (or costs the City may pay if we have to step in and do maintenance).  We ratify the assessment but do not try to collect on it as long as the owners have paid the maintenance costs and the City hasn’t incurred any costs.  To our knowledge over the years the owners have taken care of maintenance and the City has not incurred maintenance costs, but we continue to ratify the assessment.  The only thing we actually collect is our administrative processing fee, which we send to the owners’ representative via registered bill (and they pay it).

– Bruce Engelbrekt, St. Paul Real Estate Division, 10/14/20 Email