Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Lowertown is a 180-acre area located immediately east of the central business district between Jackson Street and the Lafayette Bridge, Interstate Highway 94 and the Mississippi River. The area is the oldest part of the city and includes the Lower Landing, the St. Paul Union Depot passenger station, Mears Park, and the St. Paul Farmer's Market. In the late 1970s Lowertown consisted largely of parking lots, old empty warehouses, and a huge, defunct Union Depot used as storage space by the adjacent St. Paul post office.

In 1978 then-St. Paul mayor George Latimer decided that Lowertown needed revitalization. Concerned that economic risk would stall development, he approached the McKnight Foundation and persuaded it to grant $10 million to finance the Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation (LRC). The LRC would be an independent organization with a mission of preserving Lowertown's unique historic character while creating new jobs, housing, parks, retail businesses, and entertainment venues. The corporation would act as a catalyst for well-designed development, and as a development bank that would provide crucial gap financing for feasibility studies, loans, and loan guarantees. It would have no legal power but would rely instead on persuasion and vision to create a new urban village.

John T. Howley was the LRC's first executive director. Howley hired Shanghai-born Weiming Lu as the corporation's designer. Howley left for Washington, D.C. in 1981, and Lu succeeded him as executive director.

Among the projects that helped Lowertown rebound were the Lowertown Commons, which featured lofts for artists studios and housing; a redesign of Mears Park; construction of the Galtier Plaza complex; and the relocation and modernization of the St. Paul Farmer's Market. Several buildings were renovated to new housing, including the Rayette Building (renamed Cosmopolitan Building), the Parkside Building, and the Tilsner Building. The Lower Phalen Creek area was cleaned up and a nature sanctuary and trailway connecting the Swede Hollow area with the Mississippi River was established and named after long-time congressman Bruce Vento. Renovation of the Union Depot (including the creation of a light-rail hub) and the United States Post Office was in the planning stages in 2006.

In 2006, after 28 years, the investment of nearly $750 million, and the creation of 2,600 new housing units in Lowertown, the Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation disbanded and Lu retired. While not all of their plans had come to fruition, Lowertown and Lu had become international models in urban design and had won a number of awards, including the President's Award for Design Excellence (1985) and the President's Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation (2006). Before disbanding, the corporation selected the St. Paul Foundation as its partner in creating the Lowertown Fund, and contributed $1 million to help fund further growth and development in Lowertown.

From the guide to the Corporate records., 1961-2007 (bulk 1978-2006)., (Minnesota Historical Society)