Schmidt Brewery: Historic Reuse and Revitalization

The 18-acre Schmidt Brewery campus sat idle and faced piecemeal demolition after several failed reuse attempts. Its vacant buildings loomed prominently over the surrounding neighborhood. Multiple funding sources and creative, determined proponents combined forces to bring it back to life.

A large site with old vacant buildings can be challenging to repurpose for a new use. When the only interested business is an odor-inducing ethanol plant, it can test a community’s will. At the Schmidt Brewery site in Saint Paul, passionate neighbors, historic preservationists, a determined development team, city planners, and elected leaders joined forces to create and implement an exciting mixed-use vision that is thriving today, bringing life back to this neighborhood landmark along with jobs and affordable housing. The site now has 260 affordable housing units (including artist lofts), the food/drink/retail/entertainment Keg & Case market building, and a food/service/office building with a rathskeller in its lower level. It remains a neighborhood icon.

Inclusive community planning was key to this historic reuse as neighbors rose up and demanded a different kind of project that would be a neighborhood asset. But it wasn’t easy. Historic tax credits and various affordable housing sources needed to be pieced together to make it happen.