A 121-year-old Saint Paul baker and a stalwart medical transportation company have agreed to serve as bookends to the Saint Paul Port Authority’s largest redevelopment project in 20 years, involving most of the 3M Co.’s Saint Paul Campus and two adjacent parcels. The Port’s Board of Commissioners approved land sales for Baldinger Bakery and HealthEast Medical Transportation. The purchase agreements come a little less than a year after the Port purchased most of the 3M Co.’s Saint Paul Campus. Closing is expected by year’s end.
This is a critical modernization project to keep Baldinger competitive in the marketplace, and allows breathing room for HealthEast Medical Transportation to expand its operations, Port President Louis Jambois said.
Baldinger will bring 72 workers to its new site and HealthEast, 122 workers, Jambois said, adding: The projects increase the citys industrial tax base and provide a well-needed boost to East Side revitalization efforts. HealthEast moved into its 46,000-square-foot building in August 2010.
The Port has agreed to sell the 9-acre former Griffin Wheelworks site to Baldinger for $450,000. The baker then is expected to invest about $30 million to build and equip a 130,000-square-foot building on the south side of Phalen Boulevard and just west of Johnson Parkway on Saint Pauls East Side. The Port purchased the former Griffin site in 2006 and considers it part of an overall redevelopment of land between the Phalen Corridor and East Seventh Street.
The company will use part of the Port Authoritys New Market Tax Credit Allocation to fund construction. In addition to bringing 72 workers to the site, Baldinger has agreed to add 40 more employees during its 10-year workforce agreement with the Port Authority.
The company has a longstanding business and financial relationship with Chicago, IL-based East Balt Inc., which bakes hamburger buns for the McDonalds restaurant chain; East Balt and Baldinger are diversified in their customer and product bases.
This is a wonderful opportunity for us to stay in Saint Paul as we have for more than 120 years, Baldinger President Steve Baldinger said during a recent Port Authority Board Meeting. Thank you for all of the work you did to make this happen.
HealthEast Medical Transportation service and its 122 employees operate out of a new building on the northwest corner of Reaney Avenue and Arcade Street. The site is part of 35 acres of the former 3M Saint Paul Campus, which the Port purchased last year. The Port is negotiating with 3M for the purchase of an additional 11 acres on the East Side.
HealthEast Medical Transportation, a subsidiary of HealthEast Care System, purchased the 4.5-acre site from the Port Authority for $425,000. The company used a portion of the Ports New Market Tax Credit allocation to help finance $4.5 million in new construction on site.
The building will be used to service and provide a temporary storage area for ambulances, as well as house the company’s administrative and classroom operations. Currently, the ambulance service is housed near Como Avenue and Front Street in Saint Paul.
As part of its 10-year workforce agreement with the Port, HealthEast Ambulance will pay most of its employees at least $11 an hour plus benefits and make every effort to ensure that at least 70 percent of its new hires will be Saint Paul residents.
Were excited to be the first new neighbor, Brad Anderson, senior director of HealthEast Medical Transportation, said. The new facility is a dream come true. It will serve our employees and allow us to expand our scope of services in the metropolitan area
Not since the development of the Ports 71-acre Westgate Business Center in the late 1980s has so much abandoned or underused property been redeveloped in an environmentally friendly way at one time. When combined with 15 acres of Port-owned property nearby, about 61 acres of land will be returned to productive use.
