It’s pretty clear that the St. Paul Ford Plant will close next September, despite the city’s best efforts to persuade the auto maker to keep building Ranger trucks there.
But now the Minnesota Film and TV board has an intriguing idea for reusing the plant: a film production facility.
Finance & Commerce says the board will ask the Legislature for funding for the idea, although the current projected $6.2 billion deficit won’t help.
The plant is big enough, and film makers would like its 40- to 45-foot clearance from the light grid, says a proposal, and adding a 18,000- to 24,000-square-foot sound stage would make it marketable for movies or commercials, the group said.
There are lots of other ideas for the plant’s huge footprint on the Mississippi River in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood: An October 2009 study by the Minnesota Department of Commerce suggested a manufacturing site for “green” products.
