Graco building just beside the park. (Karen R. Nelson)
A major company that has called Northeast its home for the past 80 years will be relocating over the next two years.
Graco, which has had facilities along the banks of the Mississippi since the 1940s, will be moving its headquarters operations to the northwest suburbs.
The move seemed to surprise city officials, but Michael Rainville, the Minneapolis council member who represents the Third Ward, said Graco has been buying parcels of land around Dayton and Rogers for years, indicating the company’s future plans.
Graco, which manufactures fluids and materials handling equipment, was created in South Minneapolis by two brothers, Russell and Leil Gray, in 1926. The Gray Company, as it was known then, made an air-powered portable lubricator — an invention of Russell’s.
The company moved to Northeast in the 1940s and purchased the current property in 1954.
During the war, the company gained renown for making the “Convoy Luber,” a lubricator that was used extensively by the U.S. military. In 1958, it patented an airless spray gun. The company changed its name to Graco, went public and now does business worldwide. It employs 4,000 people.
For some time, the company has been building new manufacturing facilities and headquarters in the cities of Dayton, Rogers and Anoka. A new headquarters building will be built at either Rogers or Dayton.
The company will “gradually exit” the Northeast site during the next two years.
Rainville said the future of the Graco land is very bright, and he has been in contact with private developers. “As a site for housing, how can you beat it? It’s in a great area of town next to the river,” he said. “Maybe we could do a little more park land there. And there’s room for all kinds of small businesses, shops and stores.”
He said the site matches the Third Ward’s goal of “walkable neighborhoods.”
Rainville said the site’s nearness to 13th Avenue, the river, East Hennepin and the arts districts make it a prime parcel of land. “It’s an urban planner’s dream.”
Although the company is leaving its riverbank site, Graco’s name will live on at Graco Park. The park is being built by a consortium of government agencies led by the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board.
Graco has donated over $10 million in money and land for the park. The nine acres have been re-contoured and an outdoor stage with a grassy seating area was opened this year. It is located just north of the Plymouth Avenue Bridge and just south of the Graco building.
Graco’s investment in the park meant that it could be built 8 years earlier than originally planned.
The relationship between the city and Graco has had its ups and downs through the last decade or so. The exit could mean the loss of jobs and taxes for Minneapolis.
Graco sued the city in 2017 over the $15 minimum wage imposed by the city. Even though all of its Northeast employees were paid more than $15 an hour, the company said the minimum wage hike created an uneven business environment in Minnesota. In 2020, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city.
The city and company also scuffled about a trail easement that would connect Sheridan Memorial Park with trails to the south. In the end, the city sold land to Graco and provided a $1.145 million tax increment plan to the company. That tax increment district will expire in 2027, the same year that Graco will leave its Northeast building.