City of Saint Paul: North End Community Center

Background

Saint Paul’s North End neighborhood represents one of the city’s fastest-growing, most underserved, and most culturally diverse communities. With such growth comes a pressing need for more community services and recreational amenities for residents from the surrounding area. To this end, the City of St. Paul embarked on the North End Community Center project, which includes the construction of a new 25,000-square-foot facility and a variety of enhancements to an existing 6-acre park. The building design incorporates a high-efficiency geothermal heating and cooling system, a roof-mounted solar photovoltaic system, the use of sustainable materials, and other energy and water-saving measures, which is expected to result in energy savings of nearly 80%, and cost savings of more than $100,000 annually.

Solutions

The North End Community Center’s designs include an on-site geothermal well field for ground source heating and cooling, as well as a roof-mounted solar array for on-site energy production. The facility has two separate mechanical systems serving different zones; one for the three-story community space side of the building, and the other to serve the gymnasium and related fitness spaces. A closed loop vertical geothermal system provides the heat source/heat sink serving indoor water to water heat pumps consisting of a six-pipe system for simultaneous heating and cooling needs.

Saint Paul’s development of the North End Community Center property adhered to the State of Minnesota's B3 Guidelines for sustainable buildings and sites, which includes the SB2030 Energy Standard that was created to reduce energy and carbon across Minnesota’s building portfolio. Compliance with the SB2030 Energy Standard is achieved through a combination of on-site renewable energy generation and energy efficiency. Properties developed between 2020 and 2024 must meet both energy and carbon standards and implement renewables, which result in at least an 80% energy-efficiency improvement from the average building baseline.

The building plans also incorporate additional energy- and water-saving features, including LED lighting throughout, daylighting with photocell controls, occupancy sensors for office lighting, roof and wall insulation more efficient than state energy code, ENERGY STAR® certified equipment and appliances, and point-of-use water heaters in the community kitchen. As designed, the North End Community Center will use 684,247 kBtu/year and have a net energy use intensity of 27.06 kBtu/sq. ft./year – which exceeds the SB2030 Energy Standard’s threshold of 39 kBtu/sq. ft./year (or an 70% EUI improvement over baseline), making the North End Community Center 79% more energy efficient than the average 2003 building of the same function and operation as defined by Minnesota’s SB2030 Guidelines. As designed, the net carbon emissions for the North End Community Center will be 8.09 lb. CO2e/sq. ft./year.

Diagram displaying some of the exterior sustainable features of the North End Community Center.

In addition, the SB2030 Energy Standard requires that a minimum of 2% of total building energy demand be generated with on-site renewables. To meet this requirement, the Community Center’s 39.3-kWdc rooftop solar array will generate 49,000 kWh annually, exceeding the minimum requirement for on-site renewable energy.

The North End Community Center project serves as a prototype for neighborhood-driven regenerative design. It was critical to the City of Saint Paul that the site’s revisioning process incorporated first-hand feedback from constituents, thus ensuring the diversity of community interests was met. The project provides much-needed access to amenities that encourage social and physical activity by offering multipurpose community rooms, a teaching kitchen, youth and teen rec rooms with a recording studio, a study room, fitness/dance rooms, and a gymnasium.

Diagram displaying some of the interior sustainable features of the North End Community Center.

An outdoor courtyard connects the community and recreation spaces. Enhancements to the park site include a new multi-use artificial turf field, playgrounds, picnic areas, sepak takraw/badminton courts, lighting and accessibility improvements, a paved plaza, and additional green space. Site development included substantial stormwater mitigation strategies through underground stormwater retention chambers and pumps to slow the rate and improve the quality of runoff entering the city's stormwater infrastructure.

To learn more about the North End Community Center project and how it aligns with the City of Saint Paul’s climate goals, visit the Saint Paul Climate Dashboard.

Other Benefits

Saint Paul’s Parks and Recreation Department aims to be a leader in sustainability through the design and construction of the North End Community Center. The North End Community Center site development also supports the Parks and Recreation Department’s citywide effort to end play-space inequity.

The City of Saint Paul was recognized by the Trust for Public Land in 2023, receiving the #2 ParkScore® ranking of city park systems in the U.S. Despite this high ranking for Saint Paul’s park system, equity gaps still exist in multiple areas of the city—including the North End neighborhood—with neighborhoods of color have 30% less park space and disproportionately fewer play spaces than predominantly white neighborhoods. Thus, the North End Community Center is an investment in equitable access to play spaces and park amenities for the kids and communities that are too often denied opportunities for active lifestyles.

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ANNUAL PLANT ELECTRICITY USE

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IN BUILDING ENERGY USE

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ACROSS NETWORK USE

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Exterior of the North End Community Center

Interior LED lighting fixtures in the lobby of the Community Center

Solar tubing brings additional daylight inside the Community Center

City of Saint Paul: North End Community Center

Related Content

Exterior of the North End Community Center

Interior LED lighting fixtures in the lobby of the Community Center

Solar tubing brings additional daylight inside the Community Center