Downtown St. Paul Is Rebuilding Its Weekday Errands This Fall

On the morning of Thursday, Sept. 24, people waiting for the new Aldi at 10th and Robert streets set up folding chairs on the sidewalk. The Pioneer Press reported that the line ran down 10th Street before the doors opened. Employees of the nearby Minnesota Department of Human Services noticed it on their way into work.

People line up like that when something has been missing. Downtown's last grocery closed in March 2025, which left a downtown of about 10,000 renters and condo owners without a grocery store for 18 months. The same day Aldi opened, a renovated city plaza on Wabasha Street got its first public use. In November, the city expects to reopen the bridge that links downtown to the East Side.

All three are everyday infrastructure for people who live downtown, and each one has a specific limit worth knowing before you build a routine around it.

The Grocery Covers the Basics, Within Set Hours

The new store is in the former Lunds & Byerlys building. Converting it took at least seven months. Aldi regional vice president Matt Lilla told the Pioneer Press that the crew "tore everything out to the concrete floor and the studs." He called the result "the most modern design we have in the country" and the company's first Minnesota store with digital message boards.

The store's format determines what you can buy there. Aldi carries about 2,100 products. The Pioneer Press noted that a traditional large grocer can stock 50,000 or more, counting every brand, flavor and package size. One opening-day shopper told the paper the old store "had a deli, it had sushi, it had a Caribou Coffee shop," and added that Aldi would be "a lot cheaper to get snacks." Lilla said one-third of the store's products cost less than they did a year ago.

Hours matter most for a weekday routine. The store is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, with no early-morning hours. That makes it a lunch-hour or after-work stop, and you'll need another option for a 7 a.m. coffee-and-milk run.

That gap explains the next part of the map.

The Smaller Food Stops Fill In Around It

A Pioneer Press roundup from Aug. 9 counted 21 new or expanded downtown storefronts. Several of them cover what a limited-selection grocery leaves out:

• Galvan Foods and Tortilleria, 308 Prince St., runs an indoor farmers market along with a small grocery, a deli and a tortilla counter.
• River Valley Coffee Co., 350 St. Peter St., is a newly opened coffee and lunch counter.
• Steven D's, at Town Square, 445 Minnesota St., is an American-style lunch counter in the former Cassie's Deli space.
• Jenni's Cafe, inside Landmark Center, serves breakfast and lunch.
• HepCat Coffee in the Osborn370 building held a grand reopening after a January remodel and expansion.
• SoYen PM, 275 E. Fourth St., is an occasional Tuesday-night dinner pop-up from the SoYen Desserts team.
• Meritage Underground, also called The Pearl Speakeasy, is a Friday-night basement lounge from Meritage in the former Artists' Quarter jazz club space.

A few retail stops opened between Lowertown and the Wacouta corridor too. Lucy Daisy Floral, 413 Wacouta St., opened in March 2026 as an appointment-oriented studio that also teaches classes. Joey Mansion, 444 Wacouta St., sells vintage furniture, art and artifacts. Owl's Eye Art Collective now offers coworking, printmaking and art classes in the Market House storefront at 289 Fifth St. E., according to St. Paul Publishing.

Some of the list is still ahead. MN With Love, a planned civic salon at 428 Minnesota St. with a lounge, a cafe bar and an auditorium, is projected for 2027. In September, the City Council approved funding to renovate that building and the Endicott Arcade so both can take new tenants.

Wabasha Park Gives That Stretch a Place to Sit

The lunch counters above need somewhere to eat outside, and since Oct. 13 Wabasha Street has one. The city-owned plaza in the 300 block of Wabasha has gone by Capital Centre Plaza, Ecolab Plaza and Osborn Plaza. The city has owned it since 1979. Parks and Recreation spent more than a year and $4.1 million rebuilding it with money from the city's "Common Cent" 1% sales tax. The city's announcement lists a shelter, lighting, seating, better paths through the site and a restored Skygate sculpture.

"A lot of people didn't know this is parkland," Parks and Recreation Director Andy Rodriguez told the Pioneer Press. "People thought it was just the front door to the Osborn building." He also said the old site, with its broken pavers, had reached the point where the whole thing needed replacing.

Night lighting was the last piece on the schedule. In late September, Rodriguez said the wave-shaped overhead pergola would get programmable, multicolored lights "within weeks," and the Pioneer Press reported the project was due to wrap up in mid-October. "We haven't even turned the lights on yet," he said. "It's going to be cool when that happens."

The plaza matters most for what surrounds it. HepCat Coffee and the Osborn370 offices are on one side. The new 178-unit Stella apartments, which welcomed their first residents in July, are on the other. The Amsterdam Bar and Hall music venue and the family-run Ruam Mit Thai face it across the street. Afro Deli, Pino's Pizzeria, Candyland, the Palace Theatre, the Minnesota Children's Museum and the TRIA Rink on top of Treasure Island Center are all on or just off Wabasha. The Pioneer Press argued that with considerable public backing, the street has become "downtown's premier thoroughfare."

The Bridge Reconnects the Downtown Edge

The grocery and the plaza serve people who already live inside downtown. The Kellogg-3rd Street Bridge serves the east edge, where downtown meets the East Side.

The bridge closed on July 29, 2024, so it could be torn down and rebuilt. The trouble started earlier. In 2014, a structural analysis found that traffic needed to come off the outer edges of the old deck, and the city permanently narrowed the lanes and sidewalks. When it reopens, the bridge will be the most comfortable crossing to and from the East Side that downtown has had in more than a decade.

The city's Oct. 14 release lays out what changes for someone on foot or bike:

1. A 12-foot shared trail runs along each side, separated from traffic by a concrete barrier.
2. The bridge is 2,107 feet long, with four traffic lanes, two in each direction.
3. The intersections near Union Depot and at Mounds Boulevard were rebuilt for pedestrians, cars and rapid transit buses.
4. Artist Seitu Jones designed the railings around St. Paul themes. Dyani White Hawk's designs on the piers reference Wakan Tipi, which sits below the deck.

It is St. Paul's longest city-owned bridge, and it cost $92.7 million over three years. The money came from state bonds, a federal grant and local funds. Mayor Kaohly Her called it "a vital connection between downtown Saint Paul and the East Side."

The ribbon cutting was set for Saturday, Oct. 24, near Mounds Boulevard. Opening to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists is anticipated by Nov. 15, 2026. The city has said railing installation, landscape restoration and cleanup will continue into 2027, so plan on finishing work along the edges for a while after the bridge opens.

The Holiday Calendar Tests All Three

The coming holiday season puts these pieces to use. Several big downtown holiday events fall near the plaza, the bridge or the walk between them.

The Rice Park ceremony is listed on the city's downtown parks events page. The European Christmas Market's site gives five weekends at Union Depot but doesn't print a year next to them, so check the dates before you go. The Winter Carnival has confirmed Jan. 28 through Feb. 7, 2027.

The market's location stands out. Union Depot is at the west end of the Kellogg-3rd Street Bridge, near where its trails meet the reconstructed intersection. If the bridge opens on schedule, East Side residents can walk or bike to the first market weekend in a protected lane for the first time since July 2024.

If you own downtown or near the bridge and want to know how a grocery, a finished plaza or a reopened crossing affects what buyers will pay on your block, Kary Marpe can walk you through recent sales near Wabasha Street and the East Side approaches. Let's connect. Call or email today.