Playwright’s Center
Playwright’s Center
Property Address: 710 Raymond Ave, St Paul, MN 55114
Partners Names: Playwright's Center
Project Overview
The Playwrights' Center is one of the nation's premier artist-advocacy organizations, dedicated to supporting playwrights and advancing new theatrical works. After more than 40 years in a former church, the organization had outgrown its longtime home and needed a permanent facility that could better support its mission and future growth.
Redeveloping the site required more than a new building. It demanded a coordinated effort to assemble the property, align public and private partners, and create the conditions for a complex mixed-use project to move forward. Today, the development features a purpose-built home for the Playwrights' Center, designed by HGA and constructed by Flannery Construction, while bringing new housing, investment, and long-term vitality to the neighborhood.
Land Bank Twin Cities Role
Land Bank Twin Cities was engaged to help identify, acquire, and hold the property that would become Playwrights’ Center’s new headquarters. In fall 2020, LBTC purchased 710 Raymond Ave on the organization’s behalf. Located in St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone, the building was originally constructed in 1913 as a warehouse and had served for over a century as storage and light industrial space. The site was primed for transformation.
Three years after LBTC’s acquisition, Playwrights’ Center purchased the property and broke ground on construction. Two years later, in fall 2025, the organization officially opened its new $18.5 million, 19,000-square-foot facility, which includes a 130-seat theater, collaborative workspaces, a public lobby, and member areas.
Partner Role
The project brought together public, nonprofit, and private partners to transform a vacant institutional property into a vibrant mixed-use destination. Sherman Associates led development of the site, while the Playwrights' Center partnered throughout the transition to ensure its long-term home remained in the project. Public partners helped align financing and redevelopment objectives, creating a collaborative model that expanded affordable housing, preserved an important arts institution, and strengthened the surrounding neighborhood.
Outcome
What began as a vacant institutional property is now a vibrant mixed-use development that preserves an important cultural institution while expanding housing opportunities and neighborhood investment. By creating the time and certainty needed for partners to assemble financing and execute a complex redevelopment, Land Bank Twin Cities helped unlock an approximately $18 million project that demonstrates how strategic land banking can catalyze lasting community impact.
