Developer Buhl Investors has come a long way in a decade—from self-storage units to placemaking. “We’re trying to be artists in a space that’s mostly just engineers,” says Peter Deanovic. The journey from windowless blank space to building a new neighborhood of sorts in St. Paul (Farwell on Water) included co-developing Nolan Mains at 50th and France, where Buhl found its voice curating pedestrian-scale built environments. Farwell is a standard deviation more ambitious, starting with a vacant building across the river from downtown, 289 housing units, artist studios, retail, office, and green space. It all opens in 2024, “after four years of working to understand how reweaving connection and activation might help to bring community together.”

Return to TCB 100 for 2024