In expansion mode under new owners, Wuollet Bakery to build wholesale production facility in St. Paul
Sep. 25—The Beacon Bluff Business Center off Phalen Boulevard will soon have a new occupant, one familiar to connoisseurs of Grand Avenue pastries.
Wuollet Bakery is acquiring three acres within the former 3M campus to construct a 50,000-square-foot commercial baking, manufacturing and wholesale production facility, with the goal of expanding the brand across the Twin Cities and beyond.
The land conveyance won't net the St. Paul Port Authority much money — the sale is $1 — but it comes with workforce agreements that require local hiring at living wages. The board of the Port Authority will meet Tuesday to approve the transaction.
Wuollet was founded in the 1940s and maintains retail bakeshops in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Edina, Robbinsdale and Wayzata. It recently came under the ownership of Eric and Olga Shogren, who also operate the Baker's Wife in Minneapolis and Hans' Bakery in Anoka, as well as 65 bakery-cafes and 13 pizza restaurants in Russia, according to board documents.
The St. Paul Port Authority acquired the former 3M headquarters in 2008 and has been marketing parcels of the campus to employers since 2012.
Wuollet plans to develop the land next to Loomis Armored at East Seveth and Forest Street, with construction to start by next February and take about a year. The Port Authority expects Wuollet to bring 70 new jobs to the site over a 10-year period.
