St. Paul leaders have an idyllic vision of a bikeable, transit-oriented community on 122 acres by the Mississippi River, complete with a variety of jobs, housing types and mixed-use buildings.
And Thursday evening, Ford Motor Co. and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency officials said contamination from decades of assembly plant operations at the site should not get in the way of that plan.
"We're going to be on the site for the next few years cleaning up," said Rob Cory, Ford's director of Global Real Estate Services. "By the time we're done, we expect, based on what we know today, that the majority of the site will be available for the types of things the city has been talking about for a number of years."
The company expects to finish cleaning up the site and sell it to a developer in 2019, Cory said.
When Gov. Mark Dayton and St. Paul officials visited with Ford executives in March, Cory said, "We made the commitment to get it done as quickly as we could — but get it done right, and this stuff, it just does take time."
Ford began removing hazardous materials at the site and demolishing buildings in 2012. It is currently excavating soil and backfilling areas with clean dirt, said Mike Hogan, Ford's site manager.
The company probably would begin marketing the land in 2017 or 2018, Cory said, and wants one master developer to buy and redevelop the full site.
They are looking for a developer who understands the city's vision for a mixed-use community and would not just build a big-box store and movie theater there, Cory said.
