Grain Belt Brew House wins national preservation award
The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently presented the Grain Belt Brew House with a National Preservation Award. The project was one of 22 national award winners honored by the trust during its 2005 National Preservation Conference.
The brew house, built in 1891, is part of the larger Grain Belt complex near 13 th Avenue and Marshall Street NE. The complex includes six historic structures: the brew house, the boiler house, the gausthaus, the warehouse, the bottling house and the office.
In 1975, Storz Brewing Company of Omaha closed, forcing Grain Belt to cease local operations. In 1986, the City of Minneapolis established the Grain Belt Brewery Redevelopment Project and, three years later, bought the 14-acre complex to encourage and assist redevelopment. Throughout the ‘90s the City stabilized the Grain Belt property and sought developers interested in restoring the complex.
In 2000 the City sold the brew house to Ryan Companies, Inc. to rehabilitate and reuse for office space. RSP Architects Ltd., designed the brew house for its own office space and also designed the wagon shed/shop parcel in 2001 for relocation of the Pierre Bottineau Library.
The brew house and library projects served as a catalyst for private housing development in the Grain Belt Brewery area. The Marshall River Run housing project to the north is under construction, and construction on the first phase of the Grain Belt housing project—a four-phase 400-unit project—is expected to begin in the summer of 2006.
Each year the National Trust celebrates the best of preservation by presenting National Preservation Awards to individuals and organizations whose contributions demonstrate excellence in historic preservation.
Published Oct. 12, 2005