Iconic Grain Belt sign could soon be lit again

The iconic Grain Belt beer sign, which has loomed dark along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis for almost 20 years, might soon be lit again.

New Ulm-based August Schell Brewing Co., which now brews Grain Belt, announced plans Wednesday to buy the historic Nicollet Island sign and the land it sits upon.

The family-owned company plans to donate the 1940s icon to the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, which will raise money to light and maintain the sign.

"People love the sign," Schell's president Ted Marti said Wednesday afternoon. "At least we ensure the sign is saved. … That's sort of the bottom line."

People assumed Schell's already owned the sign, Marti said, but it was never part of the package when the beer brand changed ownership, including when Schell's bought it in 2002.

The sign originally graced the top of the Marigold Ballroom on Nicollet Avenue S. in Minneapolis and was moved to its river location in 1950.

The Minneapolis Brewing Co., the original maker of Grain Belt, leased the bottlecap sign from the Eastman family, descendants of early entrepreneurs in the city. The sign is now owned by the Eastman Family Trust, according to a spokesman for Schell's.

Marti said he doesn't yet know how much money it will take to light up the sign. At one point, "years and years ago," estimates of $500,000 were thrown around, but with LED and other new technology, the price could be less or more than that, he said.

In 2009, Marti had said that the company was interested in bringing the sign back to life, but that building a financially and physically sound brewery had been the top priority.

"We spent a lot of time concentrating on our business and, to be honest, you can't make beer with a sign," Marti said Wednesday.

This year, though, "it seemed like the right time to sort of get off the dime, so to speak, and get the sign purchased," Marti said. "It was time to ensure that it didn't fall into someone else's hands and then we would kind of lose control of it."

Founded in 1860, Schell's is the second-oldest family-owned brewery in the United States. It became the largest brewery in Minnesota when it acquired Grain Belt.

Doug Gasek, the Preservation Alliance's executive director, said the group will begin fundraising and will need "the help of everyone" to make sure the sign gets relit and maintained.

Marti said Schell's "absolutely" will contribute to that: "We'll be participating in whatever it takes."

The Grain Belt sign and other historic icons along the riverfront are "kind of touchstones for the community," Gasek said. "It's really ingrained in … the continuity of culture from one generation to the next."