The past and the future came into alignment this week at a ceremony unveiling Beacon Bluff, the Port Authority’s project to create a vibrant new business district out of the historic 3M Main Plant Campus on Saint Paul’s East Side.
After a brief struggle amid much laughter, Mayor Chris Coleman and Port President Louis Jambois yanked away the black cloth covering a large sign displaying the century-old district’s new name and logo. Beacon Bluff is officially launched.
The site selected for the ceremony was fitting: The lobby of Building 21, an imposing limestone structure designed by architect Albert Kahn in 1939 to house 3M’s corporate headquarters. Though temperatures in the currently unheated building were frigid, participants stood on a pattern-inlaid marble floor and marveled at the gracefully curved Art Deco wood paneling that reached from floor to ceiling.
One older attendee recalled where the offices of William L. McKnight were located, noting that McKnight had been president of 3M for a decade when the building was constructed in 1939 and had offices there until the early 1970s.
“We see much history here,” Mayor Coleman said, adding that Beacon Bluff “balances what has been a great past and great opportunity.”
After a year of study and nearly 30 meetings with a Community Advisory Committee, the Port has launched a marketing campaign to develop 61 acres, including 46 acres that were once the 3M campus, plus adjacent property once used by Globe Building Materials and Griffin Wheelworks. The plan envisions selling five existing 3M buildings for reuse — including Building 21 — and the remaining property for building sites.
In all, Beacon Bluff would include a mix of light industrial, office and retail businesses that together would bring about 1,400 jobs and $2 million in annual property taxes.
“We think this is what we’re all about in the redevelopment game,” Jambois said. “We are about jobs, tax-based growth and building sustainable communities.”
Reviving a heritage is also a major goal. Saint Paul City Council Member Dan Bostrom, who is also a Port Authority commissioner, noted that his father spent his career working for 3M in Building 20, located directly across the street from the former corporate headquarters. As an East Sider, Bostrom said his dad vowed never to have a job that he couldn’t reach by walking from home.
“We want to see those opportunities come back,” Bostrom said.
The project, considered the largest redevelopment effort tackled by the Port in 20 years, has already notched some successes. HealthEast Medical Transportation service recently broke ground for a 44,000-square-foot medical transportation and training facility on Arcade Street, which is the far-western edge of Beacon Bluff. And Baldinger Bakery, a local institution since the 1880s, is expected to break ground this spring on a 144,000-square-foot building at Phalen Boulevard and Atlantic Street. Taken together, the two developments represent nearly 14 acres of the 61-acre project.
The five existing 3M buildings represent the historic core of the company’s original campus and retrofitting them for reuse is considered efficient, environmentally desirable and historically responsible. When completed, Beacon Bluff will fill the center of the Phalen Corridor, crowning a 15-year effort to transform a once-polluted rail corridor into a thriving East Side neighborhood.
One person who watched the unveiling ceremony with obvious approval was Barbara Raye, whose company, the Center for Policy, Planning and Performance, has been working for the past year to bring together the various stakeholders, planners and community members to formulate a development plan. As she surveyed the audience dominated by project participants, Raye seemed pleased.
“The energy here is very positive,” she said. “Everyone seems to be going in the right direction.”
The Port has retained the firm of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker to conduct an international search for companies interested in the rehabilitation and reuse of the historic 3M buildings. The Port will actively seek buyers for the remaining shovel-ready sites in Beacon Bluff.
“We’ve still got a lot to do,” said Monte Hilleman, the Port’s vice president of development. “But we’re moving forward.”
