Revitalizing an Industrial Pier into a Resilient Waterfront Destination

AMI served as the structural, civil, environmental, and marine engineer for the 84,500-square-foot Pier B Resort, a complex brownfield redevelopment on the Duluth waterfront. The project transformed a historic industrial pier into a four-story destination hotel while preserving and integrating legacy structures, including a turn-of-the-century lime kiln and warehouse and a mid-1900s bulk cement storage facility.

AMI provided integrated engineering services spanning building, site, waterfront, and environmental systems. Our work included structural engineering for the hotel, civil and stormwater design, utilities, marine civil engineering, retractable bridge design, land and marine surveying, underwater inspections, demolition support, construction observation, wave run-up analysis, geotechnical engineering, environmental remediation, and the design of critical habitat improvements.

A key component of the project was the remediation of legacy contaminants in Slip 2 through a collaborative public-private partnership involving the developer, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The remediation included placement of a minimum 2.8-foot cap of clean, pre-screened dredged sediments across more than two acres of the slip. An additional seven feet of material was placed above the cap to provide structural support for aging pier walls while creating protected shallow-water habitat.

Project permitting and environmental cleanup required extensive coordination with local, state, and federal agencies. AMI supported regulatory approvals, concurrence processes, and closures related to design, construction, environmental remediation, and historic preservation, helping deliver a resilient waterfront redevelopment that balances structural performance, environmental restoration, and public access.