Minnesota Business Developments

by Rhonda Mix
April 2011

Northern

Experiencing a growing demand for its product, Loll Designs Inc.,
a manufacturer of outdoor furniture in Duluth, is expanding with plans to construct a new 20,000-square-foot production facility at a site in Duluth overlooking Stryker Bay. The new $1.2 million facility will be double the space of its current facility.

Central

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development awarded a $250,000 grant under its Minnesota Job Skills Partnership to train 222 workers at Bayer Built Woodworks Inc., which manufactures and finishes millwork in Belgrade. Spray operators, finishing technicians, information technology staff, and sales and marketing staff will learn coating and wood-finishing techniques using a customized virtual-reality program offered by Dakota County Technical College. The training will improve efficiency at Bayer Built Woodworks and contribute to the growth of the business.

Twin Cities Metro

Comcast Corp. is expanding in Minnesota by adding a call center in Minnetonka this summer. The telecom giant plans to hire 450 people to work at the new call center, which will handle calls from the Twin Cities, Houston, Denver, Sacramento, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Portland, and Seattle.

Cigna Behavioral Health Inc. plans to hire 100 more employees to work for its health-coaching program that it operates in Eden Prairie. A division of Cigna Corp., a Philadelphia-based health insurance company, Cigna Behavioral Health wants to bring more of its health-coaching offerings in-house.

Because of an increase in demand for their services, the Web-development firm, The Nerdery, is expanding its headquarters in Bloomington and adding 100 employees to its current workforce of about 200. The firm recently secured a new lease that more than doubles its space in Bloomington from 21,401 square feet to 44,625 square feet.

The global real estate company CB Richard Ellis Inc. is expanding its office in Bloomington and plans to hire about 125 accounting professionals before the end of August.

Mahtomedi-based Chuck & Don’s Pet Food Outlet plans to open three more stores in the next few months — two in Minnesota and one in Colorado. This will bring the total stores in Minnesota to 17. The first of the new stores to open in Minnesota is a 4,500-square-foot space located in Blaine. The second is a 2,500-square-foot store that will be located in northeast Minneapolis.

Whole Foods broke ground in Edina for a new 32,000-square-foot store in Edina’s Centennial Lakes Plaza shopping center. Slated for completion in the spring of 2012, the new store will employ between 125 and 150 people. The specialty grocer also plans to build a store in Minnetonka to open in the fall of 2011.

Regions Hospital plans to build a $36 million mental health facility on its St. Paul campus. The eight-story, 115,000-square-foot building will be located between the hospital’s North Section and the East Parking Ramp along University Avenue. The facility is slated for completion by the end of 2012.

Southern

Pinnacle Foods Group LLC is closing its vegetable processing plant in the state of New York and increasing manufacturing at its Waseca plant in order to cut the cost of transporting vegetables from the Midwest. The company was awarded $100,000 through the Minnesota Investment Fund to facilitate upgrades needed at the Waseca plant. This expansion will add 15 jobs to the area.

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