MacQueen Equipment Blog

MacQueen Equipment to Expand Into Beacon Bluff Site

June 3, 2015

MacQueen Equipment to Expand Into Beacon Bluff Site

Large Equipment Operator to Hire Equipment Mechanics

Saint Paul, MN — Macqueen Equipment will expand its Saint Paul operations into Beacon Bluff and add up to 10 large-equipment mechanics to its staff in the process.

The Port’s Board of Commissioners Tuesday approved the sale of nearly six acres of land to Macqueen, a company that distributes, services and sells large equipment, such as snow plows, sewer vacuum trucks, street sweepers and snow equipment. Macqueen is based at 595 Aldine St., Saint Paul, but has operations in three other states. “We’ve been a fixture in the Midway for 50 years and look forward to being a Saint Paul company for the next 50 years,” Macqueen Chief Executive Officer Curtis Steffen said.

Steffen noted that the company and its 35 employees simply ran out of room at its Midway location. The new 40,000-square-foot facility in Beacon Bluff will be completed and occupied by the first quarter of 2016.  At that time, Macqueen will begin transitioning its operations to the new site, freeing up yet another a development opportunity in the Midway. However, Steffen said he would begin to hire and train additional employees before then.  The company provides on-the-job training for its employees, which initially earn about $40,000 annually. The Port will assist Macqueen in recruiting potential employees from the surrounding neighborhood. The site is located along East Seventh Street between Earl and Duluth Streets.

The Port estimated that Macqueen’s operation in Beacon Bluff would generate about $150,000 annually in property taxes.

Background

Macqueen will occupy the site of the former Globe Building Materials factory, which the Port acquired for $200,000 in 2005 from an Indiana bankruptcy court.  The company made tarpaper and roofing shingles at that site.  When the Port began cleaning up the site it found several large storage tanks full of fuel oil and underground vaults that contained more than 80,000 gallons of tar. The Globe manufacturing process left the building coated with petroleum product and asbestos contamination.

Until recently, the site generated very little market activity. But this development “will add substantially to activity at the east end of Beacon Bluff and provide positive signals to others wising to invest along this portion of East Seventh Street,” said Monte Hilleman, the Port’s vice president of real estate and development.

About the Saint Paul Port Authority

The Port Authority is a multifaceted development organization that works to clean up polluted and/or underutilized industrial land while investing in imaginative ways to attract — or retain — business that will nurture competitively paying jobs. Our mission is to expand Saint Paul’s job and tax base through environmentally friendly and sustainable development. Currently, we have redeveloped 21 inner-city business centers, home to 556 companies that employ 24,000 people.