Developers are already eyeing the 13-acre North Loop property that will be available once the newspaper starts printing in Iowa next year.
By Jim Buchta and
Katie Galioto
The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 18, 2025 at 4:01PM
The Star Tribune Heritage Center site, shown Wednesday, is one of the last available sites for industrial development in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis. Heritage has been the Minnesota Star Tribune’s printing facility since 1987, but that will end in December. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The same is true for several manufacturing and industrial sites, including at least two not far from what’s known as the Heritage printing facility.
The Heritage printing facility in Minneapolis. Heritage has been the Minnesota Star Tribune’s printing facility since 1987.
Growth potential
The Star Tribune built what was then a state-of-the-art printing plant in 1986, a time when the North Loop was mostly parking lots and vacant warehouses. Many of those have since become upscale housing and offices with retail and restaurants on the ground level.
The Star Tribune said the plant was operating at a fraction of its capacity as readers increasingly choose digital subscriptions instead of print. Chris Iles, vice president of communications and brand marketing for the media organization, said the company is still deciding how to market the property. But it is already fielding “tons of calls” from brokers and developers.
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When evaluating the offer, the company will take into consideration the site’s future use and impact on the neighborhood, he said.
“We’re not just going to sell this thing to anyone,” Iles said. “We’re going to take a look at what the range of offers are and sell it to the party that makes the most sense on a variety of factors.”
The Star Tribune, now headquartered in leased space at Capella Tower, once owned several full city blocks in and around downtown Minneapolis.
Its former headquarters at the corner of Fourth and Portland avenues on the east side of downtown met a similar fate a couple decades ago. Ryan Cos. redeveloped it into U.S. Bank Stadium and later built its own headquarters just a couple blocks from there.
The printing plant, on the west end of downtown, is now the last piece of Star Tribune-owned real estate in the state, Iles said.
“This is almost a bookend opportunity to create another unique neighborhood within a neighborhood,” said Nick Murnane, vice president and general manager of Twin Cities-based Opus.
Opus bought a three-acre parcel adjacent to the printing plant and built luxury rentals that now overlook the Mississippi. Murnane said the Heritage site is a perfect opportunity to build on the success of the North Loop, where there’s high demand for office and retail space but dwindling development opportunities.
John McCarthy, a long-time commercial real estate broker in the Twin Cities, said the Heritage site is unique from all others on the market because key infrastructure like streets and rail lines surround it. Also, its proximity to the Mississippi River within an established neighborhood makes it a plum offering.
“It’s virtually unheard of,” said McCarthy, who recently brokered Ryan Cos. $41 million purchase of the 180-acre former Thomson Reuters campus in Eagan. “It’s [going to be] a hot commodity.”
It’s costly to tear down buildings and start fresh, developers noted, possibly making the site better suited to a buyer who could reuse some of the existing infrastructure — such as a tech company, Michalski said.
Basketball fans have speculated online whether the site might be a contender for the new NBA arena that Minnesota Timberwolves/Lynx owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez have said they plan to build. The teams’ new CEO, Matt Caldwell, said in a Monday interview a new arena remains “a huge priority,” though he expects the process of finding a site and building a facility to take at least five years.
The Heritage real estate is much larger than Target Center’s current footprint, which — at less than four acres — is one of the smallest in the NBA. But the printing facility lacks the access to public transit, highways and parking that Target Center has. That’s one of the arguments downtown boosters, like Mayor Jacob Frey, have made in favor of keeping an arena in Minneapolis’ central business district.
Don Kohlenberger, president of Hightower Initiatives, said the site could have partial use as a data center, since it likely already has a large electrical capacity. That also wouldn’t entail massive changes to neighborhood density, demands for city services or tax collections.
“It’s the highest tax basis investment that you can have for a given piece of real estate,” he said.
On top of that, Kohlenberger said the site might accommodate other uses, such as a parking ramp connected to a North Loop transit shuttle as well as a wellness and fitness facility. While more housing isn’t out of the question, he said today’s rental market, financing environment and the availability of other sites could make that difficult.
about the writers
Jim Buchta
Reporter
Jim Buchta has covered real estate for the Star Tribune for several years. He also has covered energy, small business, consumer affairs and travel.
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Katie Galioto
Reporter
Katie Galioto is a business reporter for the Minnesota Star Tribune covering the Twin Cities’ downtowns.
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