The Custom House brings together architectural and civic history, with exciting newly designed spaces for upscale market-rate apartments and a Hyatt Place hotel. The 1930s vintage art deco building, which originally served as Minnesota’s only federal building and Saint Paul’s main post office, has been completely transformed. The renovation highlights many of the building’s historic features which were restored during construction, including the beautiful lobby space that is a grand entrance for residents and hotel guests. Custom House offers spectacular views of the Mississippi River and Saint Paul’s downtown as well as market-leading residential and hotel amenities.
The first project in downtown Saint Paul for the Exeter Group, District Energy was happy to contribute to this exciting project, providing Custom House with heating, cooling, domestic hot water, and snow melt services. Herb Tousley, chief development manager for the Exeter Group said, “We have really enjoyed working with District Energy. There are many benefits that come with using their services including 24/7/365 heating and cooling, which helps to eliminate heating and cooling issues in the shoulder seasons. By connecting to District Energy, we avoided the need for the large unsightly HVAC plants, required by a more traditional cooling system, cluttering up our rooftop.”
The Custom House developers not only spectacularly repurposed this historic building, but created another connection between people living and visiting downtown Saint Paul and the Mississippi River. These connections contribute so much to the vitality of Saint Paul. District Energy looks forward to continued collaboration with the Exeter Group and service to this amazing building.