Bigos Management reopens former downtown St. Paul YMCA to 1,500 tenants as ‘Lowertown Skyrec’

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
Updated ·3 min read
Bigos Management reopens former downtown St. Paul YMCA to 1,500 tenants as ‘Lowertown Skyrec’

A multi-story YMCA opened just off downtown St. Paul’s Galtier Plaza in the mid-1980s, drawing scores of patrons to its half-Olympic-size swimming pool and skyway-level entrances. After serving two generations of visitors, the fitness and foot traffic came to a halt in 2020, when the pandemic temporarily shuttered gyms.

The downtown Y never reopened, a victim to COVID-19, decreased patronage in the era of remote work and the nonprofit’s reshuffled priorities. Bigos Management, which acquired Galtier/Cray Plaza for roughly $5 million in 2019, has drawn up and revisited plans for repositioning the former office building that once housed the Cray supercomputer company at least twice throughout the pandemic. For now, the seven floors of commercial space sit quiet, the last office tenant having vacated the property last fall.

The exception is the former YMCA gym, which still draws members from the five residential Bigos properties downtown, four of which ring Mears Park.

Access to the recently refurbished “Lowertown Skyrec” — Lowertownskyrec.com — is a free perk to tenants of the neighboring Galtier Towers Apartments, Mears Park Place, the Historic Lowertown Lofts, the newly acquired Cosmopolitan Apartments and the Kellogg Square building a few blocks away.

“I’ve had numerous residents go, ‘I didn’t even know this was here,'” said Nicholas Geng, a facilities manager with Bigos Management. “They absolutely love it.”

‘Events return to Mears Park’

The dumbbells and weight machines have been cleared out, but the former YMCA’s swimming pool, walking track, two full basketball courts, five pickleball courts and men’s and women’s locker room saunas reopened on three levels last November as a private facility available exclusively to the 1,500 tenants of the downtown Bigos properties.

The YMCA’s former skyway footprint is gone, likely destined to become housing, but a hot tub, volleyball court, family activity rooms, foosball tables and a roomy crafts room/maker’s space now line the floors above.

“When he’s shooting his hoops, I can do my workout,” said Rey Row, a single mother to 13-year-old Isaac, pointing to the elevated walking track overlooking the basketball courts on Tuesday afternoon. “We shoot hoops or go swimming or play foosball.”

The Lowertown Skyrec spans 50,000 square feet of activity space across its three floors. The space “sat vacant until we started renovations this summer, but we bought it in October 2021,” said Stephanie Simmons, a property manager with Bigos Management who used to live in the Galtier Towers. “I had a lot of hurt watching what we’ve gone through with COVID and the unrest, and it’s been great seeing things come back as events return to Mears Park.”

Bill Hanley, a longtime Lowertown resident, called the uptick in skyway-level foot traffic each morning long overdue and much appreciated.

“It’s spectacular,” he said. “Those of us who are not Bigos residents who are in adjoining buildings are lobbying for some inclusion.”

‘Ready for it not to be empty’

Simmons said after multiple revisions, Bigos Management is likely to move forward next year with converting the vacant Galtier Plaza into seven levels of housing adjoining the residential Sibley and Jackson Street high-rise towers of the Galtier Towers Apartments. Cray, the supercomputer company, served as the office building’s anchor tenant from 2009 until 2017, when it relocated to Bloomington.

Cray Plaza’s few remaining commercial tenants soon scattered, with the last of them — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General — moving out last September.

“We’re ready for it to not be empty,” Simmons said.

In late January, Bigos Management acquired the 258-unit Cosmopolitan Apartments in Lowertown from a Boston-based ownership group for $34 million, a relative bargain. According to Ramsey County property tax records, the eight-story building carries an estimated market value this year of $45 million.

The building, which is located at 250 Sixth St. and dates to 1915, last sold in 2008 for $24 million.

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