BNSF hits brakes on 100-acre parking lot in east metro

Feb 17, 2017, 7:06am CST
Mark Reilly Managing EditorMinneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal article

BNSF Railway has shelved, for now, a plan for a huge car-storage lot on a riverside parcel in St. Paul Park where city officials had once hoped to build housing.

The Pioneer Press reports on the decision by the railroad, which cited market conditions as the reason for holding off on the project. BNSF still owns the land, but nothing will happen for at least this year. The proposed transfer station would replace an existing facility in St. Paul where new automobiles are stored before being shipped to dealers.

The decision gives a reprieve for city leaders and neighbors who were up in arms over the prospect of increased pollution and traffic on a 300-acre site that some had thought was a better candidate for residential homes.

The city had hoped to develop that land into a project called Rivers Edge, but faced a legal fight with Grey Cloud Island Township (from which St. Paul Park annexed the property) and pushback from neighbors before the landowner sold to BNSF instead for $9.8 million.