PIONEER PRESS
Jan. 12, 2007

Stuart Simek has been appointed to the Ford Motor Co. plant redevelopment task force

St. Paul names panel to guide Ford plant redevelopment
BY TIM NELSON
Pioneer Press

The city of St. Paul this morning named 23 members of a new task force to guide redevelopment of the site of the Ford Motor Co. truck plant in Highland Park, slated to close next year.

The members range from plant neighbors to legal experts. They are slated to meet Feb. 5, according to Merritt Clapp-Smith, who is handling the Ford site project for the city's Planning and Economic Development division.

"The Ford site represents one of the best economic development opportunities in the country. We will enter this process with our eyes open and take every step to ensure this gets done the right way," said Mayor Chris Coleman, in a statement issued with the list of task force members.

They will be charged for the first part of this year with coming up with alternative uses the area, with an eye towards economic feasibility.

"We don't want to spend our time coming up with ideas that won't work," Clapp-Smith told a meeting of the St. Paul Planning Commission this morning.

A second phase will include an "alternative urban areawide review," akin to an environmental impact study, as well as closer fiscal analysis of the results of phase one.

A recommendation from the task force is scheduled for May 2008, with adoption by the city and Ford — which is expected to sell the property after the plant closes — in June of that year.

Here are the members of the task force named this morning:

Peter Armstrong; Highland District Council president; James Bricher, Friends of the Parks and Trails of Ramsey County; Richard Broderick, Macalester-Groveland Community Council vice president; Ronnie Brooks, Wilder Foundation; Anthony Desnick, architect and designer.

David Drach, real estate marketing director for Canadian Pacific Railway; Carole Faricy, St. Paul planning commissioner from Ward 4; Terri Dooher Fleming, Park Midway Bank vice president; Charles Hathaway, water resources engineer; Deborah Karasov, Great River Greening; William Klein, attorney, Highland District Council secretary.

Angela Kline, Highland District Council; Scott Malcolm, Carpenters union secretary; Gary Marx, Highland District Council; Lance Neckar, U of M landscape professor; Dennis Rosemark, St. Paul planning commissioner from Ward 3; Matthew Schuerger, energy consultant; Stuart Simek, Meridian Management.

Morgan Tamsky, retired 3M research and development executive; Bruce Valen, UAW attorney; Stephanie Warne, real estate consultant; Ellen Watters, consultant and former Chamber of Commerce vice president; Pam Wheelock, Wild hockey executive and former state finance commissioner.

A 24th member, from the Ford Motor Co., is to be named later.