A Lakeville charter bus company has snapped up a sprawling former manufacturing campus in Vadnais Heights, paying $12.75 million for 55 acres that spent more than six decades as a wood-products operation. The buyer, Schmitty & Sons, now owns four buildings, rail access and acres of yard space at 4000 Labore Road.
According to The Business Journals, the Lakeville-based charter bus company purchased the 55-acre former manufacturing campus for $12.75 million. The site had been home to Structural Wood Corp., a wholesale distributor of engineered wood products that was selling its campus as it prepared to shut down.
A 62-Year Run Comes to a Close
Structural Wood Corp. was founded in 1964 and, at its peak, employed roughly 100 people, according to Stack Industrial Partners. The firm announced it would close at the end of the year after 62 years in business, bringing an end to a long industrial chapter at the Labore Road site. Stack Industrial Partners co-founders Chris Weirens and Alex Baron handled the listing for the property.
The campus itself is substantial. The four-building complex includes a 44,500-square-foot warehouse, a 34,800-square-foot fabrication shop and office, a 1,400-square-foot garage and a 1,270-square-foot storage shop, per the same account. A separate report from the Business Journals noted the campus also includes rail access and 23.6 acres of yard space situated near major interstates, features that made it an attractive target for industrial reuse.
Ramsey County had estimated the property's value at about $5 million, well below the $12.75 million sale price, according to Stack Industrial Partners.
City Signs Off on Bus Operation
Before the sale could translate into a working bus yard, Schmitty & Sons needed local approval to change how the site could be used. The Vadnais Heights Planning Commission voted 7-0 on Aug. 25 to recommend approval of a conditional-use permit allowing the company to operate a transportation and transit facility along with bulk liquid storage at the address, according to Citizen Portal.
The Vadnais Heights City Council followed with a unanimous 5-0 vote on Sept. 1 to approve the conditional-use permit, clearing the way for Schmitty & Sons to operate a bus company at the former Structural Wood site, Citizen Portal reported. The approved permit carries conditions tied to compliance with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, regulated exterior vehicle washing, and environmental protections around fuel storage.
Part of a Busier Twin Cities Industrial Market
The Vadnais Heights deal lands amid a run of industrial property transactions across the Twin Cities. Sealy & Company recently acquired two fully leased industrial properties in Plymouth and Brooklyn Park for $34.4 million, expanding its regional portfolio, according to Finance & Commerce. Pendulum Property Partners, meanwhile, made its first Twin Cities acquisition by purchasing Minneapolis' Nordeast Business Center for $20.67 million, the outlet also reported.
For Vadnais Heights, the shift from a decades-old wood distributor to a bus company's transportation hub marks a tangible change in how the 55-acre site will be used going forward, with the city's conditional-use permit now in place to govern operations there.
