The Northland Building in downtown Virginia, Minnesota, faces demolition despite its place on the National Registry of Historic Places. (PHOTO: St. Louis County)
In a follow-up to an earlier story, St. Louis County will demolish the historic Northland Building in Virginia, Minnesota, next year, according to this Jerry Burnes report in the Mesabi Daily News.
The building is owned by St. Louis County, which seeks to replace the facility with a new office complex. Attempts to find new tenants or a new buyer have been unsuccessful. The City of Virginia has also refused to take over the building, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places.
From Burnes’ MDN story:
Interested buyers had until Sept. 23 to submit a plan to make the building a “viable entity” that would provide jobs and pay taxes on the property. Offering the building for sale was an agreement the St. Louis County Board made with city of Virginia officials in a last-ditch effort to save the structure.
“We actually went out there looking for people,” said Commissioner Keith Nelson of Fayal Township. “We tried.”
The county wasn’t expecting any offers on the 100-year-old building.
Nelson said the timeline on the Northland Building remains the same — demolition to start late next fall and construction beginning in 2018.
It’s been a rough year for historic buildings in downtown Virginia. The Coates Hotel went up for auction last month but failed to attract any bids, despite a minimum of just $250,000.
One can interpret woes like this many different ways. Yes, local governments love new buildings. Local economic conditions are rough. It’s true, people can lose touch with their history. But for me the real problem here, and across the Iron Range, is that no one sees downtown properties like these as opportunities.
Cities only talk about the burdens of maintenance. Yet, ironically, maintaining a multi-story building downtown is far more sustainable than running utilities out to the edge of town, sometime cities and the county do all the time. That’s right, even though the economy is bad and it all costs money.
The loss of the Northland Building is disappointing, but not particularly surprising given these conditions and local attitudes.
Looks like the city of Virginia could make this a beneficial move if they turned this building into apartments or maybe condos for folks that prefer city living. Pretty soon there will a nothing left of the old iron range.
I am originally from the Crosby-Ironton area. I have been in Arizona for years and am amazed every time I return ‘home’ to see how there is almost nothing left of the country I knew.
I hope a miracle happens for this building.