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Tim Nelson
St. Paul, Minn.

Island Station, St. Paul landmark, to be imploded Sunday

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A St. Paul landmark will be brought down with a blast on Sunday.

Crews are tearing down the Island Station, an old coal-fired power plant on the Mississippi River, upstream from downtown St. Paul. The 10-story building is topped by a 180-foot smokestack.

The blast is planned for 10 a.m. Sunday. Authorities plan to close roads in the area and keep watchers at a distance.

"We will detonate the charges, and the stack will fall as well as the building," said Jim Wutzke of Frattalone Companies, project manager for the demolition.

It will mark the second time explosives have been used to demolish a stack in the area. In 2008, a blast brought down the 570-foot concrete stack that stood beside Xcel Energy's High Bridge Plant.

The St. Paul City Council voted unanimously in July to declare the plant a historic heritage site, but that designation brings no protection.

The Island Station plant was once a candidate for redevelopment as condominiums, but the project fell through. A development company is expected to purchase the site, but hasn't said what it plans there.