The Twin Cities Assembly Plant wasn't just a factory. For nearly a century, that massive 122-acre chunk of Highland Park was the literal heartbeat of St. Paul. When the last Ford Ranger rolled off the line in December 2011, it felt like a funeral. People cried. Grown men who had spent thirty years hosing down chassis or welding frames stood in the cold, staring at the "Ford" script, wondering what would happen to the neighborhood.
Honestly, most people thought it would just rot.
They expected another rust-belt eyesore, a fenced-off graveyard of concrete and broken dreams. But the St. Paul Ford Plant story didn't end with a "Closed" sign. What’s happening there now—a massive $2 billion redevelopment called Highland Bridge—is one of the most ambitious urban experiments in the country. It’s also a case study in how you turn a heavy industrial site into a place where people actually want to live, work, and grab a coffee without worrying about what’s in the soil.
Why the St. Paul Ford Plant Was a Literal Powerhouse
You can't understand why the closure hit so hard without knowing how weirdly unique this plant was. Henry Ford himself picked the spot. Why? Because of the river.
Most car plants are just big boxes in a field. This one was a masterpiece of vertical integration. In 1925, Ford built a hydroelectric dam on the Mississippi River just to power the facility. They even had a silica sand mine underneath the plant. Think about that for a second. They were literally mining the ingredients for glass hundreds of feet below the assembly line, bringing it up, and turning it into windshields.
It was a closed loop before "sustainability" was a buzzword.
During the peak years, the St. Paul Ford Plant was the golden ticket for the middle class. If you got a job at Ford, you were set. You bought a house in Highland Park, you sent your kids to Cretin-Derham Hall, and you retired with a pension that actually meant something. But by the 2000s, the writing was on the wall. The plant was old. It was multi-story in an era where modern manufacturing wanted flat, sprawling layouts. Ford was hemorrhaging money globally, and the Ranger—while a cult classic—wasn't the F-150.
The closure in 2011 wasn't just a loss of 800 jobs. It was the loss of an identity.
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The Messy Reality of Tearing It Down
When the lights went out, the real headache started. You don’t just knock down a Ford plant and put up a Starbucks.
First, you have the environmental baggage. Decades of painting, degreasing, and industrial manufacturing leave a mark. We're talking about solvents, heavy metals, and petroleum hydrocarbons. Ford spent years on the remediation process, working with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to make sure the dirt wasn't going to poison anyone. They hauled away thousands of tons of contaminated soil. They crushed the concrete from the old buildings—over 300,000 tons of it—and kept it on-site to use as base material for new roads.
It was loud. It was dusty.
And then there were the tunnels. The sand mines underneath the plant are legendary in St. Paul lore. While some urban explorers tried to sneak in, the reality was much more boring: most of them had to be sealed or stabilized to support the weight of new apartment buildings. You can't build a four-story luxury complex on top of a hollowed-out cavern without some serious engineering.
Highland Bridge: The $2 Billion Pivot
Fast forward to today, and the site of the former St. Paul Ford Plant is unrecognizable. Ryan Companies, the developer who took on the project, didn't just build a bunch of houses. They're building a "15-minute city."
Basically, the idea is that you can get everything you need—groceries, work, parks, beer—within a 15-minute walk. It’s a complete 180 from the industrial powerhouse it used to be. Instead of smoke and steel, you have:
- Over 50 acres of public parks and open space.
- A massive "water feature" that looks like a creek but is actually a sophisticated stormwater management system.
- Thousands of housing units, ranging from low-income apartments to multi-million dollar row homes.
- A Lunds & Byerlys grocery store that serves as the new anchor.
One of the coolest parts is how they handled the history. They didn't just pave over the past. The "Highland Bridge" name itself is a nod to the connection between the site and the surrounding neighborhood. But more importantly, the hydroelectric dam is still there. It’s now owned by Brookfield Renewable Power, and it still churns out carbon-free electricity. It's a weird, lingering ghost of Henry Ford's original vision.
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The Gentrification Debate
Let's be real: not everyone is happy.
Highland Park was already a wealthy neighborhood. When the St. Paul Ford Plant was active, it provided a blue-collar anchor. Now, some residents worry that the new development is just an ivory tower for the elite. While the city mandated a certain percentage of "affordable" housing, the price tags on the new single-family homes are eye-watering. You’re looking at $1 million plus for a lot of the new construction.
There's also the traffic. Adding nearly 4,000 new residents to a corner of the city that's already congested during rush hour is... a choice. Ford Parkway is a nightmare at 5:00 PM, and no amount of bike lanes is going to change the fact that people in Minnesota love their SUVs.
What Actually Happened to the Ranger?
There’s this weird myth that the St. Paul plant closed because the Ford Ranger died. That’s only half true. Ford actually killed the Ranger in North America because they were closing the plant and didn't have another place to build it efficiently.
The Ranger went on a "hiatus" in the U.S. until 2019, but it never really left the global market. The irony? The new Rangers are huge. They’re basically the size of the 1990s F-150s. If you go to the Highland Bridge site today, you’ll see plenty of people driving the new Ford Rangers—trucks that were designed in Michigan and built in Wayne, Michigan—parking in front of a grocery store where their grandfather used to weld the old version for $20 an hour.
It's the circle of life, I guess.
Lessons from the Ford Site
What can other cities learn from St. Paul? Honestly, it’s about patience.
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The city didn't rush this. The planning process took years of community meetings, some of which were incredibly heated. They fought over building heights, park placement, and property taxes. But because they took the time to get the zoning right, the St. Paul Ford Plant redevelopment isn't just a strip mall. It’s a legitimate extension of the city’s fabric.
It’s also a reminder that industrial land is a finite resource. Once you turn a factory into apartments, you’re never getting that factory back. St. Paul traded its industrial soul for residential density and green energy. Was it worth it? Ask the people living there in twenty years. For now, it’s the best-case scenario for a "dead" plant.
How to Explore the Site Today
If you’re heading to the old St. Paul Ford Plant area, don't expect to see any rusted ruins. It’s gone. But you can still experience the scale of what was there.
- Walk the Hidden Falls Trail: Head down the hill toward the river. You can see the outlets for the stormwater system and get a sense of why Henry Ford wanted this limestone-heavy land.
- Check out the Hydro Dam: You can’t go inside, but you can see it from the Ford Parkway bridge. It’s a beast of a structure that’s been humming since 1924.
- Visit the Gateway Park: This is the entry point to the new development. Look at the maps they have posted; they do a decent job of explaining the site's history without being too corporate.
- Grab a coffee at the new retail hub: It’s the best way to see the "15-minute city" concept in action. You’ll see young professionals with laptops sitting where a massive paint shop once stood.
The St. Paul Ford Plant is a ghost, but it’s a ghost that’s been put to work. It’s not a museum; it’s a neighborhood. And in the world of urban planning, that’s about as good as a "happily ever after" gets.
To really understand the impact, look at the tax base. The old plant, when it was sitting empty, was a drain. Today, Highland Bridge is projected to generate millions in annual property taxes for the city of St. Paul. That money goes to schools, roads, and services across the whole city, not just the wealthy Highland neighborhood. It's a massive wealth transfer from a global corporation's former asset to a local municipality's future.
The blue-collar era of the Mississippi riverfront is over. The era of the "urban village" has begun. Whether we like it or not, the St. Paul Ford site is the blueprint for the next century of American cities.
Next Steps for Residents and Visitors:
- Visit the Highland Bridge Information Center: Located near the retail district, it offers detailed maps of the completed and upcoming phases of the project.
- Review the MPCA Remediation Reports: For those concerned about environmental safety, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency maintains a public record of all soil and groundwater testing performed on the site.
- Support Local History: Visit the Ramsey County Historical Society to view archives and oral histories from former Ford plant workers to understand the human element behind the machinery.
- Explore the New Parks: The assembly of four new public parks is now open, offering some of the best views of the Mississippi River gorge in the Twin Cities.