At the Grand Rapids Industrial Park, Voyageur principals and Grand Rapids area economic development officials believe the site is well suited for multi-use.

At the Grand Rapids Industrial Park, Voyageur principals and Grand Rapids area economic development officials believe the site is well suited for multi-use.

Over the last two years, Voyageur Capital Group has partnered with several Northern Minnesota sawmills and area economic development agencies to build Northstar Pellets, a wood pellet manufacturing plant.

The project was first targeted for Bemidji and later shifted to Grand Rapids, but was eventually scratched because of failed state legislation that was needed for a portion of the project’s funding, according to Marty Goulet, a Voyageur partner who also serves as chief financial officer of Wagner Construction Company.

In the process, last year, the investment group ended up buying the long-shuttered Ainsworth Lumber Company oriented strand board (OSB) plant in Grand Rapids, which would have been the site of the proposed Northstar Pellets plant. Purchase price was not disclosed.

Voyageur Capital is now marketing the site as a multi-tenant industrial park. The location includes 400,000 square feet of space and sits on 138 acres. In full sales mode, Goulet noted, “It has everything you would want.” Beyond the square footage and acreage, he ticked off a long list of amenities that included city sewer and water, 18MW substation, BNSF rail access, a six-inch gas line and “significant incentive dollars” available from IRRRB, city of Grand Rapids and other sources.

The wood pellet plant had been intended as a sustainable business that would use “a glut of residual wood” left over from more than 100 sawmills in the region that have gone out of business in the last decade because of a drop in demand caused by a shrinking paper mill industry, Goulet said.

Meanwhile, there is a growing global demand, especially in Europe and Asia, for wood pellet use for renewable energy purposes, Goulet said. That demand is expected to eventually occur in the United States, he added.

“It’s an industry we feel we know something about,” given Wagner Construction’s “long history of working in the timber industry,” said Goulet.

For now, Voyageur principals and Grand Rapids area economic development officials believe the space and land will be well suited for multi-use, and Goulet said he’s talked to “a range of businesses” about leasing space at the site.

“Voyageur has brought a plan together to use the industrial park as a multi-tenant facility, which we think will make it much more feasible,” said Rob Mattei, director of community development for the city of Grand Rapids.

Tamara Lowney, president of the Itasca Economic Development Corporation agreed. “IEDC has been thrilled to work with Voyageur Capital Group because they bring a unique perspective to develop the site for multiple use, which is the key to diversifying rural Minnesota.”

For more on this topic, see the BusinessNorth exclusive Investing in partnerships.

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