The Dacotah Building on St. Paul\u2019s Selby Avenue \u2014 home to the popular W.A. Frost & Company restaurant and bar and several floors of office tenants \u2014 was sold at a sheriff\u2019s sale last week to Merchants Bank, which holds the building\u2019s mortgage.<\/p>\n
A court judgment updated last week holds property owner John Rupp liable for $68,000 in attorney\u2019s fees, bringing his total debt to the bank to $1.7 million. The building has been in court-ordered limited receivership under the JBL Cos. since March, and a Ramsey County District Court judge granted the bank a default judgment in April against Rupp for his \u201cfailure to answer or otherwise respond to the complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview Tuesday, Rupp said he purchased the 1880s, Italian Renaissance-style structure 50 years ago and has filled it with small businesses, including his two-level W.A. Frost restaurant and \u201ca couple dozen\u201d office tenants, and he has no intention of letting the property go.<\/p>\n
Rupp received a $2.2 million loan in 2017 from the First National Bank of Northfield, which later merged with Merchants Bank, but he fell behind on payments, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s sale, which follows a long-simmering dispute with Merchants Bank over the overdue mortgage payments, allows Rupp six months to bring payments up to date and reacquire the property, which is registered as a series of business condominiums owned by Rupp and DACBLD.<\/p>\n
Rupp said he was in the process of obtaining a loan to do just that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to close the loan several weeks ago, and the loan closing is delayed,\u201d Rupp said. \u201cThere was a sheriff\u2019s sale. I have six months to pay it off, which I will. Which is what I was going to do three weeks ago, but there was a technical problem with the bank three weeks ago. There\u2019s no problem here. It\u2019s just a headache.\u201d<\/p>\n
432 Summit Avenue, other historic properties<\/p>\n
Rupp has invested in a number of historic St. Paul properties over the decades, several of which have become mired in financial turmoil as maintenance needs have mounted and his tenant mix has changed. Some, like the University Club on Summit Avenue, remain celebrated for their history or grandeur.<\/p>\n
On July 27, a Ramsey County District Court judge updated Merchants Bank\u2019s default judgment against Rupp for overdue loan payments related to 432 Summit Ave., a three-unit rental property he maintains in the Burbank Livingston Griggs Mansion on Cathedral Hill. The new total due on the property, which is also under receivership with the JBL Cos., is $925,000.<\/p>\n
Rupp also owns Capital City Ventures, the parent company to the St. Paul Athletic Club, which opened in 1918 on downtown Cedar Street but closed in 2021. Capital City Ventures filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last July. The property failed to sell at auction in September 2024.<\/p>\n
When Madison Equities, a major downtown property owner led by the late James Crockarell, fell behind on maintenance and mortgage payments, the real estate empire crumbled, leaving tenants and properties in disarray after Crockarell\u2019s death in January 2024. The ripple effect has been felt throughout a downtown dotted by under-resourced, vacant or semi-vacant and foreclosed properties.<\/p>\n
A June 25 letter to the court and court exhibit signed by receiver Jeffrey B. Larson of the Eagan-based JBL Cos. notes that W.A. Frost does not have an active lease in the Dacotah building, and there\u2019s no evidence the restaurant has paid rent since late 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tenant has not paid rent for quite some time,\u201d reads the letter, which notes the restaurant could face an eviction process.<\/p>\n
Rupp: W.A. Frost had banner year<\/p>\n
Rupp said Merchants Bank has no financial stake in the W.A. Frost restaurant itself, which he said has enjoyed a banner year. Live entertainment held on the outdoor patio all summer will soon move indoors to an intimate basement dining area as the weather cools.<\/p>\n
Upstairs offices remain occupied by lawyers, psychologists and other entrepreneurs, he said, even as downtown St. Paul office buildings have struggled to fill space.<\/p>\n
\u201cBusiness has been great \u2014 a record year for the building and Frost,\u201d Rupp said. \u201cAfter 50 years in operation, it\u2019s the highest profit by a significant margin. It\u2019s been great. Very few places can say that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Dacotah Building on St. Paul\u2019s Selby Avenue \u2014 home to the popular W.A. Frost & Company restaurant and bar and several floors of office tenants \u2014 was sold at a sheriff\u2019s sale last week to Merchants Bank, which holds the building\u2019s mortgage. A court judgment updated last week holds property owner John Rupp liable<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[93,242,554,4075,4073,4071,4074,4072,529,68,4659,150,1647],"class_list":["post-60067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota","tag-business","tag-food-and-drink","tag-local-news","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-dining","tag-minnesota-food","tag-minnesota-grocery-stores","tag-minnesota-restaurant","tag-restaurant-news","tag-restaurants","tag-st-paul","tag-things-to-do","tag-uncategorized"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117487699463381429","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}