urbanMSP

Valspar to invest $30 million in Minneapolis headquarters, add 135 jobs

Paint manufacturer Valspar Corp. plans to expand its research-and-development campus and renovate its former headquarters building in downtown Minneapolis.

Coatings technologies and applications will be developed in the new lab.

The project will create up to 135 full-time jobs over the next two years, including high-paying roles in the material sciences, reported Valspar, a maker of paints and industrial coatings, in a news release.

The company is investing $30 million in the project, which will add 87,000 square feet of lab, meeting and office space. The expansion is expected to be completed in early 2014.

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http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_2 ... rs-add-135

This is a great "get" for Minneapolis. Unfortunately for this board, it's not going to give us any tower cranes during construction -- looks like a renovation of one of their existing buildings.

This is a great "get" for Minneapolis. Unfortunately for this board, it's not going to give us any tower cranes during construction -- looks like a renovation of one of their existing buildings.

No tower, but they do have a fantastic abstract mural on the outside of their building which is a great piece of public art for the community. Plus they are adding good paying jobs to our downtown workforce, and I'm sure at least some of them will own or rent nearby.

Well it looks like they want to add 87,000 square feet, but that's pretty negligible. For comparison, the Zenith Phase II office portion was supposed to be something like 150,000 square feet and that's just six floors.

My read is that this adds 87,000sf into what was previously vacant space in their existing campus.

Great news.

Typically terrible reporting. Why did Valspar leave it's former headquarters in the first place? Where did it go? (to the Ameriprise building downtown). Why? Well, any interested reader has to go look it up, the Pioneer Press wants to keep you guessing (http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/s ... l?page=all - they outgrew the old space, left in 2009 because cost of renovation was too high. Apparently it is no longer; silver-lining of recession probably - they can demand lower construction prices).

This is completely off topic, but the Economist said it best when it said that American newspapers have the worst of both worlds of European journalism. They are boring, like the high-brow Euro press (Financial Times, Le Monde, El Pais, Frankfurter Allgemeine), but they somehow fail to inform, like those newspapers actually do. Unfortunately, they also share the disadvantages of the yellow press with none of the advantages. They are trying to cater to mass interests but they are too prude to emrace the soul of tabloids by plastering women, sports, and shocking scandals all over the place (Daily Mail, Bild Zeitung).

As a result, the Pioneer Press fails on all accounts. Pity, because bloggers aren't going to keep our political and corporate leaders accountable (and the Strib isn't all that much better).

Why SHOULD the papers try to write better? The revenue is falling and will likely never return to former glory, as the internet and Kindles have taken over paper copies. They have to keep cutting and slashing just to stay afloat, so I don't expect to see the writing (or edittingg) improve anytime soon!

Why SHOULD the papers try to write better? The revenue is falling and will likely never return to former glory, as the internet and Kindles have taken over paper copies. They have to keep cutting and slashing just to stay afloat, so I don't expect to see the writing (or edittingg) improve anytime soon!

[Apologies for the hijack]

1. Papers should write better because otherwise leaders are not held unaccountable. Yeah, there's first-past-the-post winner takes all democracy of 51%, but even such a crude mechanism fails without an informed electorate (leading to nonsensical statements such as "I like him because he's tall" or "He has nice hair.") Without a good press, electoral politics becomes a beauty pageant and real politics is captured by self-interested institutions.

2. Yeah, if the death spiral just mentioned were the only way it has to be, then you're right - the Strib and Pioneer press will die and local journalism will be reduced to the Daily (along with industry specific publications). I don't think this needs to happen though. I've never understood why papers don't give jobs to ultra-zealous overly-qualified newly minted journalism majors? Seriously, Reuters and other (smarter) agencies do this really well. They give poor kids a laptop, a camera, a pittance of a salary, and they say: go out and get us good material. The kid gets to publish some high quality pieces in a reputable publication, seriously boosting his credibility with future employers. It's cheap, accomplishes the public purpose of journalism effectively, and aids a budding career. Arguably the only good reporting on the Arab Spring has been obtained in this fashion. Could the Strib send a smart 24 year old to Libya to be the Strib's foreign correspondent in the Middle East North Africa region for $10,000 a year? Absolutely. Will they? No. Instead, they try to grab idiotic columnists to condescendingly pander to the supposed partisan sympathies that we all seethe with. It's ridiculous.

I sense a thread steering dangerously off topic.

I look forward to a renovation of the Valspar buildings. There is a lovely industrial character about that street.

Strib angle. Sounds like they'll do a really nice restoration of their original buildings and they hope to be a catalyst for neighborhood redevelopment.

http://m.startribune.com/business/?id=175462421&c=y

this is great news. i'm happy to see our downtown based companies choosing to grow here. US bank re-upped their lease for another ten years and now this news. and that target renovation of the former let it be record store looks very nice.

this is great news. i'm happy to see our downtown based companies choosing to grow here.

Agreed. The positives of this announcement can't be understated. I'm assuming they will leave the exterior unchanged (I hope)?

Don't forget that both Wells Fargo and Dorsey & Whitney are looking for additional space downtown (somewhere in the range of 250K to 550K SF each) too.

Don't forget that both Wells Fargo and Dorsey & Whitney are looking for additional space downtown (somewhere in the range of 250K to 550K SF each) too.

And we could see a new office tower sprout up with one of these as a major tenant. Hines owns the 1/2 block at Marquette and 10th street, and Dorsey and Whitney is leasing from them already. I suspect Hines wants to build something very substantial at 10th and Marquette, and I'm positive the idea of D&W as a tenant on the Marquette block has not been lost by Hines. However, whether that comes to fruition is anybody's guess at this time.

Wasn't Dorsey the anchor tenant of 50 South Sixth when it was built, and then they backed out of that status?

I think so. They want to do the same thing all over again I guess.

I think so. They want to do the same thing all over again I guess.

Now, I didn't say this was a "for sure "at all. But I can't believe a powerhouse developer like Hines hasn't thought about possibilities for their very desirable 10th and Marquette site, especially when there are firms out there looking for new office space. Back to Valspar. I'm excited about them upgrading their space. I hope they keep their murals intact. They are awesome!

I attended a meeting at Valspar HQ this week and Sr Managment presented the plans for the redo of their old HQ. A couple highlights are..... They will have a showroom on the first floor of the taller/older of the 2 buildings. This building will also contain training/meeting rooms for a global training center. The longer 3 story buidling will be labs for about 150+ PHD Chemist. They will retain and operate all the current buildings across 11th. I know some here had expressed the need to preserve the mural on the back of the building, sad to report that the mural has to be removed for a cople of reasons. 1. The amount and type of paint is actully damaging the building, the limestone brick is being damaged by the paint and it does not allow that side of the building to "breathe". 2. The buildings have received historic designation with a "date of significance" of 1949. In order to receive the tax credits it needs to be removed. I was very impressed with the passion and excitement the management have for this project and for Valspar in general, maybe they put something in the kool-aid

Well I hope all those chemists reformulate their paint. It's one of the worst on the market. I've painted a helluva lot of rooms in my life and know how to prep a surface (that's 75% of the job). I tried it twice, threw it away and nearly had a fit trying to fix the mess. Bad flow, bad leveling and bad coverage. And I'm not the only one who's had problems with it.

with that huge valspar mural of the exterior, it should be visible from any goodyear blimp camera work so that is free advertising for them. not sure if the nfl currently does that here because of the dome.