Weekend Reformer: Minneapolis data center deal falls apart

Good morning, Reformers.

A deal to turn the Star Tribune’s old printing plant in downtown Minneapolis into a data center has fallen apart. 

Virginia-based developer Legacy Investing withdrew its land use application for the proposed data center, which drew intense criticism from North Loop residents, the Star Tribune reported. Legacy had previously developed a data center in the Sleep Number building in downtown Minneapolis. 

MPR News reported that the city hasn’t received other applications for the site. 

Minneapolis’s North Loop was once an industrial hub, a warehouse district that boomed from the late 1800s to early 1900s. It’s been transformed into one of Minneapolis’s trendiest neighborhoods, with upscale restaurants and bars. The old printing plant, one of the last large industrial sites in the area, is one building away from the river and surrounded by apartment buildings. 

A curious place for a data center, I thought when I first learned of the plan. (Though smaller, more urban data centers aren’t uncommon.)

Americans, concerned about electricity and water usage and pollution, are largely opposed to data centers in their communities, which are cropping up more quickly than before in response to demand from Big Tech’s artificial intelligence race. 

In the Reformer this week, Brian Martucci took a closer look at the costs and benefits of building a data center, writing that evidence from data center host communities suggests the economic benefits are real. 

House Speaker Lisa Demuth presented her education plan this week, Michelle Griffith reported. If elected governor, Demuth said she would bolster school safety, implement a teacher “pay for performance” model (we already have one) and allow districts to opt out of mandates, like paid family leave. 

I made 6 charts on the state of labor in Minnesota. One highlight: unemployment in the state surpassed national rates in January, during Operation Metro Surge, for the first time since 2007, reaching its highest levels in five years. 

Immigrant businesses are finding that the drawdown of Operation Metro Surge is not bringing shoppers and diners back to stores and restaurants in full force as they had hoped, Atra Mohamed reported. 

A new report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor found that Minnesota often fails to inspect assisted living facilities on time, and that the state’s ratings of facilities don’t include serious maltreatment cases, I reported. 

Crime dropped in 2025 again, continuing to be at levels Minnesota hasn’t seen since the 1960s, I reported. 

Alex Pretti’s memorial was vandalized by two gallons of synthetic motor oil, which is not flammable, Nicole Neri reported. Volunteer caretakers, who have looked after the site ever since Pretti was disarmed and shot by federal agents in January, cleaned the site Friday. 

Republican Eric Pratt announced the resignation of a congressional campaign staffer Thursday over the staffer's now-deleted white nationalist social media posts, I reported. 

The 2026 Minnesota State Fair’s total attendance ended up being around 1.9 million, falling short of the pre-pandemic 2019 record of 2.1 million, I reported. Also click for a bonus chart about the fair’s chocolate chip cookie competition.

Minnesota has never waited for Washington’s permission to tackle hunger, or improve the quality of its food for students, Cole Hanson wrote in a commentary about RFK’s new nutrition initiatives.

To celebrate Labor Day, we also published a 1961 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. on the importance of binding together the labor movement and the Civil Rights Movement.

Barbers incarcerated at the Stillwater prison are giving free haircuts to veterans with a state-issued ID from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday. Haircuts are first-come, first-served. 

The prison is set to close in 2029 after officials deemed it outdated and dangerous. The free haircuts are an offshoot of the prison’s recently implemented “earned living unit” system, where prisoners get more freedom and movement based on past behavior.

Correspond: [email protected]