A data center is an odd fit for the increasingly valuable North Loop in Minneapolis

When the Minnesota Star Tribune built a large newspaper printing factory in the mid-1980s, Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood looked a lot different. The area was a post-industrial expanse: an old rail yard with the tracks removed, “brownfield” vacant lots and decaying warehouses. There was no housing, no gated condos along the Mississippi, no towering apartments and no James Beard Award-winning restaurants. 

In the 1980s, a 500,000-square-foot industrial plant in the “Warehouse District” (as it was called) seemed only natural. Built by Kraus-Anderson, the newspaper’s “Heritage Center” (as it was dubbed) was a technological marvel, featuring the first U.S. robotic “guideway” technology, among other printing innovations. The building boasted eye-catching architecture for an industrial property, including a tower that mimicked the historic train stati...