Commerce East – March’s Featured Staff

Our featured staff for March is Becky. She has worked at Commerce East for over 4 years.

Here are some things about Becky: Green is her favorite color. She likes tacos and pizzas. Becky likes the movie Grease, but says that Dirty Dancing is her favorite movie. She enjoys crime shows, especially NCIS. A star of NCIS, Jack Harmon is Becky’s favorite actor. She considers “gossip magazines” a good substitute for books.

Becky

Growing up, Becky participated in softball, basketball, track and field, volleyball, and bowling. Softball and bowling are still activities on her favorite list, and she has acquired a particular liking for assembling Legos. She also enjoys fishing and would like to visit Alaska’s uncharted territories.

Becky’s strong athletic background taught her to do her best, try hard, and don’t give up. She incorporates those values in her position as a service designate here at Commerce East. She is a headstrong individual who values family, and is looking forward to her upcoming wedding in June 2012. She shared with us that she has Obsessive Compulsive tendencies and will not eat the last bite of her food, no matter the dish.

PAI West Side Blog - as we turn our clocks ahead

PAI West Side Blog

As we turn our clocks ahead and watch the snow melt its hard not to think about our soon to come spring and summer activities. So with this in mind, we are spending time talking about all of our plans, favorite activities, and places to go as the thermometer creeps up.

MJ has big plans this summer and is excited to be going on a Disney cruise! She is also looking forward to warm weather activities such as going to the zoo, outside picnics, outdoor concerts, art festivals, wind flowers, and being able to sit outside with a good book.

Victoria is excited to be going for walks, laying out in the sun, seeing summer blockbusters, eating on the patio at restaurants, and being able to have her bedroom window open.

Phantom is happy to shed off the heavy winter clothes and is looking forward to longer days with lots of sunshine so he can go golfing, spent time at the cabin, go to the sate fair, and see fire works!

Steel Toes is looking forward to lots of hiking-camping-kayaking, big thunder storms, fresh food from the farmers market, the renaissance festival, and not worrying about driving around in the snow.

However, we all agreed that there were a few things we were not looking forward to such as mosquitoes, wood ticks, sunburns, and high humidity.

Commerce West side researches the historic district of Lowertown St. Paul.

Lowertown grew up at the Lower Landing on the Mississippi River, beginning in the 1840s. As Saint Paul grew, Lowertown evolved into a major warehouse and distribution center serving the entire Upper Midwest. Lowertown’s railroad, manufacturing, and wholesaling companies expressed their pride and permanence in the structures they erected, beginning in the 1880s. A significant concentration of these buildings survive, unified by similar architectural styles and construction materials Many were designed by the city’s most prestigious architects, including Cass Gilbert and Clarence Johnston. Gilbert and Johnston had worked together in the offices of A. M. Radcliffe between 1876 and 1878 and then had gone on to study architecture at M.I.T.

The Lowertown Redevelopment Corporation was established in the late 1970s to encourage adaptive use and compatible new development in the area. The Lowertown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and designated as a Saint Paul Heritage Preservation District in 1984. Through a combination of restoration and adaptive use, Lowertown enjoys an exciting mix of residential and commercial activities in one of the city’s most historic areas. 

Today, Lowertown is a vibrant and culturally rich Urban Village and with one of the largest concentrations of artists in the country. Hundreds of working artists live in the area and host monthly first Friday open studios along with two yearly Art Crawls. Combined with several theaters, musical performance spaces, festivals, the farmers market, public parks, and so much more. Lowertown is the place to be when it comes to Arts, Culture, and Urban life.

The future of the Lowertown Historic District looks bright. With the much anticipated addition of the light rail, plans for the Rush Line Corridor, as well as the possibility of a high speed rail line between Saint Paul and Chicago, the area will again be the transport hub it once was. This coupled with the emergence of new bars and restaurants, as well as a strong sense of community that one feels when living or simply visiting the area will all contribute to what has become the re-emergence of Saint Paul's Lowertown historic district.