Northern Metal site in north Minneapolis will remain industrial storage

An industrial storage company has bought a north Minneapolis site that neighbors and community leaders had hoped to turn into housing or parkland.

Just south of the Lowry Avenue Bridge, heaping towers of scrap metal have long marked the west bank of the Mississippi River. But as Northern Metal Recycling wound down its north Minneapolis operations following an air-pollution settlement with the state, property owner Atlas Land Co. moved to sell.

Prospective developers lined up to re-envision the potential of that strategic riverside land.

A coalition of north Minneapolis developers proposed affordable multifamily housing and retail. The Park Board, which has century-old ambitions to acquire upper riverfront property for public parkland above Plymouth Avenue Bridge, threw its hat in the ring.

The winning bid of $9 million ultimately came from Zenith, an industrial outdoor storage company based in New York. It is now listing 2800 and 3018 N. Pacific St. for lease, offering about 9 acres of paved yard or trailer parking, two warehouses and some office space.

Earlier this year, Zenith and J.P. Morgan announced a $700 million joint venture to acquire industrial sites for outdoor storage in growing cities across America.

"The pandemic basically had everyone at home for an extended period of time, and online purchases went through the roof, and so that increased everyone's need for warehousing goods," said Chris Hickok, a Minneapolis managing director at commercial real estate agency JLL, on the increasing demand for industrial space. "If you look at Minneapolis, there are very, very few raw land sites left. … The amount that groups are paying now for sites that have a decent amount of outdoor storage has really increased over the last couple of years."