Cargill family member’s company buys more homes on Duluth’s Park Point

DULUTH — Kathy Cargill’s limited liability company has now acquired a dozen properties on Park Point in the last 14 months.

The real estate website Zillow shows two Park Point properties sold at the end of February. Property records list Cargill’s North Shore LS LLC as the taxpayer of each. Cargill, a member of the billionaire Cargill family, has ruffled feathers on the point and beyond for buying and demolishing single-family homes and remaining mum about her plans.

Nine of the houses have been razed. No permits have yet been pulled for the other three. The latest properties are on Minnesota Avenue’s 1500 and 1400 blocks.

Many of the properties — some multi-parcel — were sold at twice their estimated value or more. The LLC bought about half of the single-family houses sold on Park Point last year, with the median price of all sold homes about $477,000, according to Lake Superior Area Realtors.

Cargill paid less than the listed price for the latest properties. One sold for $465,000, 6% less than the asking price. St. Louis County estimated its value at $378,000. Cargill paid $405,000 for the other, 5% less than listed. It has an estimated value of $367,000.

The LLC also owns a home on the point bought in 2021, and a Lake Superior shorefront condo in eastern Duluth.

The flurry of purchases have ignited worry over their effect on property taxes and the loss of sorely needed single-family housing, along with responsible development of the fragile and historically significant land, long struggling with erosion.

Cargill’s husband, James Cargill II, is one of a dozen heirs to Cargill Inc., the Minnetonka-based global food and agribusiness giant and the largest privately held company in the nation.