ST PAUL, Minn. — An old, refrigerated warehouse in St. Paul may be the most talked about, least used real estate purchase in recent memory by the state of Minnesota.
The state bought the former Bix Produce Co. warehouse as a potential temporary morgue site in case of a worst-case scenario early in the pandemic. And everything from the estimates of storing more than 5,000 bodies, to the $5.5 million price tag, were big numbers that became targets for political criticism.
Now, nearly a year-and-a-half later, the state is on the verge of selling the former produce warehouse at a small profit, thanks to the St. Paul Port Authority.
"Buying a building from the state, that is not something we normally do," said Andrea Novak, senior vice president of communications for the St. Paul Port Authority, which is a local government agency that will vote on purchasing the building on Tuesday.
Erdahl: "Why is the St. Paul Port Authority in the market for old produce buildings?"
Novak: "So, we're an economic development agency and even though we do manage ports on the river, we also do inland redevelopment."
Andrea says they've already helped redevelop two blighted and environmentally hazardous buildings next door to the warehouse.
But in this case, Novak says the former Bix Produce building requires less work, so the goal is more ambitious.
Novak: "We are looking to really find a buyer that's going to bring good paying jobs back to the city of St. Paul — in that neighborhood, where really, people need the jobs the most."
Erdahl: "So the state is trying to recoup the cost of buying this building that didn't have a lot of use, but you're able to kind of sit on it until the right kind of buyer comes along?"
Novak: "Absolutely, and so our development team is working to make sure that they can put together the criteria for who will the right buyer be, and that's really going to come down to, what are they providing in terms of jobs? In this instance, at a minimum, we want to see 70 to 100 jobs."
Not everyone believes that is going to be possible — at least not any time soon.
"'Good luck,' is what I would say to the Port Authority," said State Rep. Jim Nash, who is among several Republicans who criticized the initial purchase of the warehouse. Nash is also among just a handful of elected leaders who toured the warehouse while it was briefly being used to store some shipments of PPE.
Rep. Nash: "The whole thing has been just a debacle. The roof was leaking, so I can tell you, firsthand, that it does need to be re-roofed. A lot of the PPE was destroyed. If they can find a private buyer, who will buy it and then pay for the roof, I will be surprised."
Erdahl: "Are you in the mode of, 'I'll believe it when I see it?'"
Nash: "Well, optimism is great and optimism is something that I strive for every day, but then there is realism. There wasn't a buyer for this building before the state bought it, so what's their expectation that there will be after?"
Nash says his greater concern with the sale of the building to the Port Authority is that it's a local governmental agency, and if they can't sell the building, they'll simply sink more public money into maintaining it.
Novak says they'll work to aggressively market the property and are confident they can find a buyer willing to come in and create jobs.