Our firm represented 3M Company in connection with the sale of most of its former headquarters facility on the east side of St. Paul, Minnesota. The 35-acre parcel was sold to the St. Paul Port Authority in December 2008 for $3.5 million. In addition, 3M and the Port Authority entered into an agreement for the sale of the remaining 10 acres owned by 3M at this location. The sale of the 10-acre parcel closed in December 2009.
The property sold to the Port Authority served as 3M's headquarters from 1910 to 1962. Given the lengthy ownership period, there were a number of title, survey and environmental issues that needed to be investigated and addressed to complete the sale. After an extensive investigation of the environmental conditions at the site, 3M and the Port Authority reached an agreement with respect to the cleanup of the site. 3M agreed to remediate certain relatively minor environmental issues at the site that could be traced to its historic manufacturing operations, and the Port Authority agreed to address certain other environmental issues at the site that did not appear to result from 3M's operations.
