Data center company acquires former Minnesota Star Tribune printing site in downtown Minneapolis
A data center company has reached a deal to acquire the former Minnesota Star Tribune printing facility in the North Loop after the site closed last year.
Arlington, Virginia-based Legacy Investing, which also converted the Sleep Number building into a data center, agreed to purchase the 13-acre printing site on 800 North First Street, the Star Tribune reported.
Minneapolis Downtown Council said Legacy's proposal for the site along the Mississippi River is a mixed-use property that could incorporate housing and retail.
"I think it's an exciting opportunity just to rethink how a data center development can help spur a different use," said Adam Duininck, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council and Downtown Improvement District.
According to the Star Tribune report, Legacy expects the printing site capacity to be 20 megawatts, while the Sleep Number building is 30 megawatts.
"The city right now is facing a $33 million shortfall. They're having to raise property taxes on homeowners," Duininck said.
The tax burden has shifted to Minneapolis homeowners as downtown buildings have gone vacant post-COVID, he said.
The data center "could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional valuation and tens of millions of dollars of property tax," Duininck said.
Last month, the Minneapolis City Council approved a five month pause on data center development, as the centers have drawn backlash from communities across the state over concerns of noise pollution, air quality impacts and water usage.
Elk River, Inver Grove Heights and Faribault are among the communities that have implemented moratoriums or policies to slow data center development in recent months.
The Minneapolis pause applies to data centers in downtown that are less than 350,000 square feet. Thirteen acres amounts to roughly 566,000 square feet.
With smaller downtown centers exempt from the pause, Duininck says he expects several more to come, arguing that energy and water usage is minimal and there's a sustainable benefit to reusing the buildings.
Kaitlyn Cooper, who lives in an apartment next door to the site is worried.
"I think environmental concerns of course is like number one, also just like hearing other news reports of like, noise and things like that," Cooper said.
The Minnesota Star Tribune vacated the Heritage printing facility in December, moving their print production to a site in Iowa. The move would save "several million dollars," the newspaper said. Around 125 employees were impacted by the decision.
Note: The above video first aired on June 25, 2026.
