Legacy Investing Acquires Former Minneapolis Printing Plant for 20MW Data Center Development

Real estate investment firm Legacy Investing has entered into a purchase agreement with the Minnesota Star Tribune to acquire the Heritage Printing Facility in Minneapolis, setting the stage for a data center development on the 13-acre site. The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, marks another adaptive reuse project in the company's expanding data center portfolio, though it proceeds amid an active moratorium on new data center development in the city.

The property, located at 800 First St. N., is slated to host a 20MW data center as part of a broader master redevelopment plan that will also incorporate mixed-use components. The company emphasized the hybrid nature of the project in a statement on LinkedIn, noting that the site's history as a printing facility that "helped tell Minnesota's story" will carry forward into a new chapter anchored by digital infrastructure. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, though the plant was previously valued at an estimated $20 million.

The decision to repurpose the printing plant comes at a time when Minneapolis has imposed a temporary halt on data center construction. The city council passed a moratorium on the development or expansion of data centers earlier this year, a block that is set to expire in November. Facilities smaller than 350,000 square feet are exempt from the restriction, but the Heritage Printing Facility totals more than 500,000 sq ft (46,452 sqm) of combined office, warehouse, and production space, placing it well above the threshold.

Built in 1986, the printing plant had been on the market since last year after the Star Tribune closed the facility and outsourced its printing operations to a plant in Iowa. The publication cited declining print circulation and the unsustainable cost of maintaining in-house printing amid under-utilization of the plant. The sale is expected to close before the end of the year, though no timeline for data center construction has been announced.

The acquisition adds to Legacy Investing's growing footprint in the data center sector. The firm, which manages approximately 20 million sq ft (1.85 million sqm) of industrial, logistics, life sciences, and data center real estate across the United States, already owns at least two Flexential facilities in Texas and Oregon, along with Equinix data centers in Virginia and California and several single-tenant enterprise data centers. The company has also previously owned multiple T5 data centers, selling at least one in Ohio to H5 and another in Virginia to Serverfarm.

In recent months, Legacy has been active in both acquisitions and dispositions. The company sold another Minneapolis facility to Cloud Capital and Bahrain-based asset manager Arcapita, while simultaneously advancing new projects elsewhere. Legacy has partnered with GI Partners to redevelop a former stock exchange building in Chicago into a 33MW data center and is planning to develop a former karting track outside San Antonio, Texas, into a 50MW facility.

The Minneapolis project highlights the growing trend of converting legacy industrial properties into data centers as demand for digital infrastructure continues to rise. However, the city's moratorium underscores the tension between the rapid expansion of data center development and local regulatory concerns. For Legacy, the successful close of this deal will depend on navigating those restrictions while executing its redevelopment vision for a site deeply tied to the city's history.