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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

St. Paul Port Authority scores big chunk of 3M property

Please click onto the COMMENTS for the story.

posted by Bob at Tuesday, September 23, 2008

7 Comments:

Blogger Bob said...

Deal increases possibility of securing larger tenants
By Jason Hoppin
jhoppin@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 09/19/2008 12:39:28 AM CDT


Closing a long chapter in East Side history, a group of local dignitaries crowded behind a microphone Thursday and announced the sale of St. Paul land occupied by 3M for almost a century.

Having already said it will relocate operations, the Maplewood-based company has agreed to sell its entire 45-acre campus. Beginning next year, the St. Paul Port Authority will raze buildings as part of the first phase of a total redevelopment plan.

"It's sad to see them go, because it represents a tremendous history for us," said Council Member Dan Bostrom, who serves the neighborhood and whose father worked at the plant. "But I recognize that stuff happens."

The Port Authority could close as soon as December on 35 acres under a $3.5 million sale requiring Port Authority and 3M approval. The Port Authority has a purchase option on the remaining 10 acres, which 3M is expected to occupy until as late as 2011.

Work to determine the extent of any environmental contamination is ongoing.

That the Port Authority was able to secure the entire campus is something of a coup. The land is one-third the size of Ford's Twin Cities Assembly Plant — also slated for eventual redevelopment —and having the entire plot under its control allows the Port Authority to pursue larger tenants.

"This agreement gives us the land to meet the needs of growing enterprises while leaving 3M a good legacy for a corporation that has grown up in St. Paul," St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, which moved to St. Paul from Lake Superior's North Shore in 1910, now employs 7,000 people and has operations in 60 countries.

The St. Paul campus was once part of a cluster of businesses — including Hamm's Brewery, Whirlpool Corp. and Seeger Refrigeration — that constituted the economic backbone of the East Side. All of those companies are gone.

The Port Authority has a history of success redeveloping former industrial sites into productive business parks, playing a key role as St. Paul continues to transition from its industrial past. The Energy Park, Williams Hill, Great Northern and new River Bend business centers are all the Port Authority's work.

Bill Morin, director of real estate for the Port Authority, said the agency plans to co-market the 3M site with two parcels it owns northeast of the property — the former Globe Manufacturing and Griffin Wheelworks sites.

"We have a significant position here with the acquisition of these three sites," Morin said. "We believe there will be a lot of interest."

Morin predicted more than 1,000 new jobs on the site but said housing or commercial developments won't be part of it.

Bostrom said he hopes some commercial business will move to the area to serve employees of the new development.

At least one neighborhood activist praised the deal, saying that having the land under government control means the city can help direct future uses away from industries like warehousing, which provide few — and often low-paying — jobs.

"It puts us in a much better position to make sure we're getting living-wage jobs," said Chuck Repke, executive director of the District 2 Community Council.

Jason Hoppin can be reached at 651-292-1892.

8:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bob
Start investigating the files of The Port Authority, you might find out more then you could imagine.
That's a place with hidden file in their back room.

8:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe the city could use this space to house the big egos around city hall.

By the way, Energy Park is an environmental disaster, unless they have found a way to put the fossil groundwater back into the ground after they use it. It's been a shocking waste of resources. This was Latimer's brilliant political idea.

9:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What this article did not mention is that 3M (Minnesota, Mining and Manufacturing) is leaving Minnesota, but not the USA. They are still hiring in Texas and I believe they now have more employees there than MN.

I wonder what made 3M move? Is it... Um.. Maybe... An intrusive government?

7:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They are leaving some very, very old buildings that they have long ago depreciated every penny of. They are staying in Maplewood.

The site needs a major make over to attract any kind of new business. The Port is good at doing that work.

JMONTOMEPPOF

Chuck Repke

10:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Chuck
The Port Authority is good at doing things, in the early 1940's they planed the Lafayette bridge.
Did they plan on moving the people that lived on the flats out with a flood, or did the good people at the
Port Authority use the dams to flood the people out so they could redevelop the area?

7:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bill, the Port Authority didn't make the river flood. The river floods very well on its own.

The Port did develop the Riverview Industrial Park over the old State Street dump and the nearby neighborhood that was condemned after the 1965 flood.

It is interesting to listen to both sides of building residential property near rivers and oceans. People love the view, but all of us who have to pay our insurance companies to rebuild someone else's house when it floods or gets hit by hurricanes get a tad annoyed.

So, yes the City of Saint Paul after 1965 made a conscience decision to move all of the single family homes out of the flood plain and turn them industrial.

JMONTOMEPPOF

Chuck Repke

9:42 AM  

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