If you’re a fan of art deco, you have probably admired Minneapolis’ Foshay Tower and St. Paul’s City Hall, but have you heard of the “House that Flax Built”?
That is 1667 Snelling Ave. N in Falcon Heights, a 161,000-square-foot structure that was one of the last major buildings in the Twin Cities to be constructed in the art deco style, an aesthetic that favored sleek forms and a bold palette that dominated architecture and design during the 1920s and 1930s.
It was also one of the first corporate headquarters to be constructed in the suburbs, said Larry Millett, former architectural critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and author of numerous books about buildings across the Twin Cities.
In his “AIA Guide to the Twin Cities: The Essential Source on the Architecture,” he described it as “superb” example of late Deco.
“It’s got a wonderful design and it’s in a great setting,” Millett said on Tuesday. “If it’s not on the National Historic Register, it should be. It’s a pretty significant Twin Cities building.”
The building, which went on the market over the first week of June, is currently owned and occupied by TIES (Technology and Information Educational Services), an educational technology consortium owned by 48 Minnesota school districts. However, it has a long and rich history, Millett said.
It was constructed in 1946 to serve as the seat of the Farmers’ Union Grain Terminal Association (GTA), an agricultural cooperative that provided 16 million of the 80 million bushels of wheat the U.S. sent to war-torn Europe after World War II, according to the Minnesota Historical Society. The new headquarters was financed with the profits that GTA garnered through the sale of flax, which gave the structure its informal name.
The Grain Terminal Association opened the building in January 1947, two years before Falcon Heights was incorporated as a village. At the time, it was a state-of-the-art corporate campus surrounded by cornfields, said TIES Executive Director Mark Wolak.
“It was meant to be a self-sufficient, stand-alone enterprise,” Wolak said. “It had its own cafeteria, its own elevator operators, a barber shop, a carwash and its own generators as well.”
The building sits on a 0.4-acre lot improved with a four-story central pavilion flanked on either side by two three-story wings, with one running along Snelling and another fronting on Larpenteur.
The exterior is clad in Indiana limestone. Inside, the pièce de résistance is the main lobby, which is decked out in glossy, warm wood paneling and flooring inset with intricate, vivid geometrical designs.
Grain Terminal Association, which became Harvest States Cooperatives, stayed in the building until 1998, when it merged with Cenex to form Inver Grove Heights-based CHS Inc. TIES acquired the asset in 2002.
The current condition of the building varies a good deal, said Jaclyn May, a Cushman & Wakefield broker tasked with marketing the property for sale.
“Some parts of it have been renovated recently and have that exposed look, but there is also older stuff going back all the way,” May said. “A prospective buyer could buy it as-is, or do a major overhaul depending on what they want to preserve.”
The building now houses a data center, which will be removed, and a 55,000-square-foot conference and event center, which was added to the property in 2014.
It is on a rapid transit bus line and just a few blocks north of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus and Como Regional Park.
“This building could be used for office, events, education or housing and each of those would command a different dollar amount, so we’ve made that part negotiable,” May said.
The building was assessed at roughly $7.8 million for taxes payable in 2019, according to Ramsey County property records.
TIES, which is being absorbed into a national educational cooperative, has listed the property without an asking price.
Wolak added that the nine-member executive committee that governs TIES will decide which buyer will win out, based on several different factors like the amount offered, proposed use and impact on community.
Tours and question-and-answer sessions end on July 31 and proposals are due by Aug. 3. A buyer will be selected by the end of August.
“Whoever buys it, I hope they treat it nicely. I’m afraid it might be a tear-down,” Millett said. “That would be a shame.”
