Star Tribune
Le Sueur’s old Green Giant plant could become a cannabis-growing site
LE SUEUR – Chris McPhillips knew more than four years ago producing cannabis would be a lot more profitable than selling it.
It’s the next gold mine, oil industry, the wave of the future. And the Twin Cities businessman was determined to get in early on the action. What he didn’t know in 2020 was the millions of dollars, the former Green Giant factory, and the support of a greater Minnesota city he would need to to make it work.
McPhillips, like hundreds of other entrepreneurs, is waiting for Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management to start awarding licenses to companies ready to grow cannabis and marijuana that will soon be for sale across the state. But he has built-in advantages that could position his new enterprise, Minnesota Valley Cannabis Co., to take a hefty share in the billion-dollar-plus industry that’s poised to take over Minnesota.
“When we spoke to the city of Le Sueur, they didn’t balk at us coming here,” McPhillips said. “I decided to invest the money that I’ve made here.”
McPhillips is getting outsized attention for his audacious plan to turn a 50,000-square-foot building built in the 1960s into a massive cannabis-growing operation. He bought the building, one of four in the former Green Giant complex in Le Sueur’s industrial neighborhood, about two years back. Once he secures a manufacturing license, he plans to invest up to $10 million into the facility and hire up to 250 workers — 50 full-time, up to 200 part-time — to start operations by the end of next year.
Chris McPhillips, the owner of Minnesota Valley Cannabis Company, and his dog, Scrappy, pose for a portrait inside the former Green Giant canning building he bought in Le Sueur, Minn. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
McPhillips owns Crown Automotive, an auto parts distribution company out of Bloomington. He’s also worked with partners to found CrunkBabies, a Twin Cities-based clothing line. But he switched interest to cannabis once word came from state leaders that Minnesota was interested in legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana.
“There’s only a few markets that come in our history that are brand new,” he said.
Industry experts expect Minnesota’s retail cannabis sales to top $1 billion once they start in 2025. Some financial firms predict Minnesota’s industry could hit $1.5 billion in annual sales and serve one out of eight residents by 2029; other firms are more optimistic.
The St. Paul school board on Thursday agreed to take the district’s property tax levy to the limit once again — this time to the tune of a 7.9% increase in 2025.
The action came at the tail end of a spirited truth-in-taxation season that found homeowners venting at hearings about the high cost of government in St. Paul, and a week after the City Council voted to lower Mayor Melvin Carter’s proposed increase in the city’s share of the tax bill to 5.9%.
Jane Prince, a former City Council member, appeared before the school board earlier this month to ask members to ease the bite on homeowners. Between 2015 and 2024, she said, St. Paul Public Schools raised its levies by 50%, compared with a 39% hike in Minneapolis.
On Thursday, Tom Sager, the district’s executive chief of financial services, cautioned that a move by the board to levy taxes in an amount less than that allowed by the state Department of Education could lead to a corresponding decrease in the amount of state aid it receives in some funding categories.
Board Member Carlo Franco said Thursday he hoped that the district could one day get to the point of lowering its levy increases in response to homeowners decrying “big taxes” in St. Paul.
“Our commitment is to make sure that those ‘big taxes’ translate into big outcomes and big successes for our kids,” Franco said.
The owner of a city’s $275,300 median-valued home will see a $142 increase in the district’s share of the property tax bill, or 11.5%. Changes in individual property values, as well as levies set by the county, city and other tax bodies, are among the other factors determining one’s final overall tax bill.
Star Tribune
18-year-old from North Dakota charged in north Minneapolis shooting that killed teen girl
An 18-year-old from West Fargo, N.D., has been charged with killing a 17-year-old girl this summer in a shooting at a north Minneapolis gas station that injured another person.
Erick Corday Scott was charged Thursday in Hennepin County District Court with second-degree murder for the death of Lonnaya I’zanay Warren-Lloyd, of Minneapolis. Scott has no criminal history in Minnesota but, since turning 18 in April, he has been charged with three different crimes in North Dakota: felony conspiracy to commit robbery with a firearm; misdemeanor fleeing a police officer on foot; and unlawful possession of a firearm as a violent felon.
The firearm possession charge was filed on Dec. 12 and Scott is in custody at the Cass County jail.
Katie Nechiporenko, an assistant Cass County state’s attorney for North Dakota, said that while Scott hasn’t been convicted of a felony as an adult, he has a juvenile record that can be used to enhance adult sentencing on the most recent firearm charge.
“It’s just for certain crimes as they relate to guns,” she said. “It’s North Dakota’s carveout.” Nechiporenko said she has not been contacted by Hennepin County about the murder charge against Scott.
Messages were left with Scott’s lawyer in North Dakota. No attorney was listed for him in Hennepin County.
According to court and police documents:
Police responded to the Super USA gas station around 11 p.m. on July 7 after reports of a shooting. They found Warren-Lloyd in the front passenger seat of a parked car with multiple gunshot wounds. She was transported to North Memorial Hospital where she died.
That rings hollow, Our Streets said
“MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 team should be embarrassed to repeat a harmful history by removing these options without consent from those most impacted,” the Our Streets statement said. “MnDOT continues advancing plans to rebuild this emblem of white supremacy against the will of affected communities.”
In September, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting Our Street’s push for a road with fewer lanes and the opportunity to repurpose highway land for public housing, affordable commercial space, parks, community gardens, or uses determined by surrounding communities.
The resolution asks MnDOT to “improve the Rethinking I-94 project’s evaluation criteria to more accurately measure and prioritize the impacts on adjacent neighborhoods.”
Any redo of I-94 needs to improve the ability to move goods and people through the corridor, fix aging infrastructure, address safety issues and congestion, promote better health, and enhance community and connectivity, MnDOT said.
