Fridley, Minnesota

FR IDLEY , MINNESOTA Economic Development, and the Twin Cities’ Metropolitan Council partnered in contributing funds to local developer, Paul Hyde, who had the know-how to get the soils cleaned up and to replace the antiquated, two-million-square-foot building with 1.7 million square feet of modern industrial structures. “The crowning touch of that development just opened on the 16th of November,” says Hickok.” That building was Forgotten Star—Fridley’s first-ever, licensed brewery, located in the former boiler room of the property’s large industrial building. “They left the two large brick stacks coming up from the boiler room, and those brick stacks now, actually, have bottle caps on top of them, so it looks like the necks of beer bottles coming out of the top of what was the boiler room for this large industrial complex.” The twin monoliths, which are reminders of the town’s mid-century prominence, were once the exhaust valves of the largest building in Minnesota, the Northern Pump Company, recognized by the United States military for its contribution to production during World War II. “First it was a military complex; then it was Northern Pump, then FMC, then British Aerospace and Electronics,” Hickok continues. “And BAE did retain one quarter of the two million square feet; the developer reinvented that one quarter, built the southern wall, and then tore down three quarters of that building to leave BAE and its engineers and researchers in a modern building that looks right in place with all the rest of the 1.7 million square feet that exists now on this campus that’s called Northern Stacks. Because the original industrial building had been awarded what was called the ‘Battle E’ award, on the stacks that remained standing, they have this E banner and then six stars for the number of times that facility was awarded the Battle E award. So, that’s one of the recent developments that’s been very exciting for us.” Situated just about 15 minutes north of the Twin