In the Pioneer Press

St. Paul: Second glory for downtown's Pioneer-Endicott buildings?

By Frederick Melo

Richard Pakonen, left, and his development partner Clint Blaiser are restoring St. Paul’s Pioneer Building as well as the Endicott Building on Fourth Street and on Robert Street. "You know it’s a gamble, but I think it was a smart gamble," Pakonen says. "We’re in the right place at the right time." (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

"While investors cooled their heels during the recession, Richard Pakonen and Clint Blaiser were flying to Chicago to buy the better part of a St. Paul block they feared was wasting away.

For months, the pair begged a property owner mired in litigation to sell them St. Paul's first skyscraper, a condemned parking ramp and two adjoining downtown properties. All of them were vacant and on the verge of having their utilities cut off.

Built in the late 1880s and early 1890s, the Pioneer-Endicott buildings once housed law firms, restaurants, horse stalls, the offices of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and 16 stories of St. Paul history. Two winters without heat would destroy them, Pakonen and Blaiser said.

Their pleas worked." Continued...