When management consultant Sherry Johnson co-chaired a neighborhood task force looking at all the vacant properties on St. Paul’s popular Grand Avenue business corridor, she was taken aback to discover how many spaces were owned by the same out-of-state pension fund — the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.
Unlike some other commercial owners willing to host seasonal vendors, pop-up shops and art collectives, the retirement system has kept some of the three-mile corridor’s largest retail areas empty rather than lower rents and negotiate with small, local businesses.
The Columbus, Ohio-based retirement system, known as STRS Ohio, owns the retail malls lining three corners of Grand Avenue and Victoria Street, home to such celebrated storefronts as the Bread and Chocolate restaurant and bakery, J.W. Hulme leather goods, Evereve clothing and Cafe Latte. But its mall at the intersection’s southwest corner runs for nearly half the block approaching Milton Street, and other than a sizable Pottery Barn furniture store anchoring the corner, it’s, by all appearances, vacant.
h/t Simian_Stacker
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