In Duluth, Making Old Land New

Duluth is a long, narrow city with some of the most daunting hills east of San Francisco, so there’s not a lot of space for large new industrial development. Still, there are some possible sites that are or could soon be available.

• The City of Duluth owns the 60-acre site adjacent to the U.S. Steel property that once was home to the Atlas Cement Company. The city has been redeveloping this as an industrial site. In 2009, Ikonics (Nasdaq: IKNX), a manufacturer of imaging equipment that reported record sales in its most recent quarter, opened a new headquarters and plant on the Atlas site.
• U.S. Steel closed its Duluth Works in 1981, but still owns 640 acres where the since-demolished plant once stood. The Duluth Seaway Port Authority has been working with U.S. Steel in hopes of purchasing nearly 130 acres of the property. This plot would be close to a rail spur, which would make it an ideal location for warehousing and industrial businesses. Negotiations between the Port Authority and U.S. Steel for the site, which would require environmental remediation, are ongoing.
• The bayfront Georgia Pacific hardboard manufacturing plant closed in August 2012, and the company is looking for buyers. The 18-acre facility has a deep-water channel access, though that channel and the site itself will require environmental remediation. Port Authority executive director Adolph Ojard describes this as a “very valuable piece of real estate.”