Buyer emerges for Minnesota’s never-used backup mortuary

The state of Minnesota is set to sell a refrigerated warehouse it purchased at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in case it is needed as a back-up mortuary.

When the the administration of Governor Tim Walz announced the purchase of the former Bix production building in Saint-Paul, he expressed concerns, based on New York City experiences, that state mortuaries could be inundated with victims of the pandemic. The state paid nearly $ 5.48 million for the facility, which could have held 5,100 bodies, but never stored any corpses there, just personal protective equipment.

Now, St. Paul Pioneer Press reports, the board of directors of the St. Paul Port Authority is preparing to vote on Tuesday on whether to remove the warehouse from state hands for $ 5.65 million, the property’s current appraised value, giving the state a small profit.

The port authority’s goal, according to board documents, is to return the building as quickly as possible, with the aim of selling it by December 1.

“The idea is to find a buyer who will bring jobs to the city of St. Paul,” Andrea Novak, Port Authority marketing manager, told the newspaper. “There is no specific buyer behind the scenes. We will market this aggressively.

The Democratic governor had been criticized for buying the facility from Republicans who saw it as an unnecessary expense.