A downtown Saint Paul office tower that's billed itself as an innovation hub will be the new home for the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation.

The Saint Paul-based nonprofit announced this week that it plans to occupy 10,700 square feet of space on the entire third floor of Osborn370, located at 370 N. Wabasha St. The nonprofit plans to move into the new space in early 2025. It has signed a 10-year lease for the space.

It's the second major Twin Cities nonprofit to commit in recent months to Osborn370, once the headquarters for Ecolab Inc. This past fall, regional economic development organization Greater MSP signed a lease for about 10,000 square feet of space on the 19th floor of the building, located kitty-corner to Saint Paul's Central Station light rail stop.

Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation is currently located inside U.S. Bank Center at 101 E. Fifth St. in St. Paul.

When the team bus pulls up outside the Frozen Four’s host arena – whether it is Tampa or Boston or Buffalo or wherever — and the players traipse down a red carpet, thronged by screaming fans, Kelly McGrath always feels a little sense of parenthood.

“That came out of this building in 2011. It was our idea, and now they do it everywhere, it’s just a normal part of the Frozen Four,” said McGrath, Xcel Energy Center’s general manager and executive director. “We like to remind them that it was a Saint Paul idea, and the guys just feel like rock stars coming in.”

In 2019, Jen Moberg and a business partner bought Choo Choo Bob's, the beloved model train store then on Marshall Avenue in Saint Paul. They spent $10,000 to turn the store into a pay-to-play and birthday party space, only to see COVID shut it down.

No parties meant no income. Eviction followed. In 2022, they reopened in an old toy store in Saint Louis Park. The folks at Union Depot kept in touch, eventually convincing Moberg to return to Saint Paul.

On May 3, Choo Choo Bob's will open in a refurbished space in Union Depot's Head House, bringing more than 1,000 toy trains to a place where hundreds of big trains used to come and go daily. Eye on Saint Paul visited Moberg at the Depot to talk about the journey.

Discover the enigmatic Johnson Art storefront in Saint Paul, a living and working space of Dale Johnson, a retired art professor and painter, and his wife Karen.

There is a little mystery at 534 St. Peter Street in Saint Paul. I pass it on my commute to work.

The mystery is named “Johnson Art.” This is spelled out in hand-placed block letters above a storefront.

The windows are shrouded in white curtains and blinds and always pulled shut. Nudged in front of the curtains is a large painting of the Mississippi. On the sidewalk are two bleach-white Roman statues on plinths. They look like something out of Caesar’s Palace.