Minnesota Business Developments

by Rhonda Mix - rhonda.mix@state.mn.us
August  2010

Northern

The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth plans a $15.5 million expansion to its science center. The 40,000 square foot addition will include space for new classrooms and labs. Groundbreaking for the project is planned for April 2011, and the project is slated for completion by the fall of 2012.

Central

Cold Spring Brewing Co. is planning a 6,000 square foot expansion to its Cold Spring facility in order to increase its capacity to brew more beer brands. The expansion would increase the company’s beer production up to 185,000 barrels a year and would create about 12 new jobs.

Twin Cities Metro

Newly acquired contracts prompted Twin Star Medical, a medical-device company, to move to bigger space in Minneapolis. The company plans to move on Nov. 1 to a 4,000-square-foot space in the building of Excelen Center for Bone & Joint Research and Education. Twin Star Medical, which develops catheter technologies to treat wounds and deliver drugs, currently has a workforce of seven employees and expects to hire two to three more people in addition to contractors.

In preparation to increase production, NVE Corp. is expanding within its headquarters in Eden Prairie. The company, which makes tiny sensors used in products ranging from pacemakers to industrial equipment, is expanding to meet customer demand. NVE is converting about 1,900 square feet of under-utilized space in order to allow for increased production and add more room for research and development.

Coborn’s Inc. is adding another supermarket in Minnesota. Construction began in early summer this year on a 38,000-square-foot store in Belle Plaine. The store is scheduled to open in November this year. The $5.6 million project will include a grocery store, pharmacy, liquor store, and gas station. The new store is expected to create about 25 full-time jobs and 88 part-time jobs.

Groundbreaking has occurred for the new FBI field office in Brooklyn Center. The $61 million project is being built at the intersection of Interstate Highway 694 and Minnesota Highway 100 and will create more than 700 construction jobs. The 150,000-square-foot facility will include a five-story office building, a 200-car parking area, and an annex for maintenance and repair of the agency’s vehicles. The building will have blast-proof glass and a closed circuit television security system plus a pullout entry where visitors will be screened before entering the building. The facility is slated for completion in January 2012.

Southern

A rural electric utility, People’s Cooperative Services, plans to build a new headquarters building on 71 acres in Oronoco. The $9 million project includes a 75,000-square-foot headquarters building plus pole and storage yards. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2011. The project is slated for completion in early 2012.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s Minnesota Job Skills Partnership Program (MJSP) awarded a $135,000 grant to support safety and technical skills training for 120 Parker Hannifin Inc. employees in New Ulm. The training collaboration includes MJSP, Ridgewater College and Parker Hannifin, a manufacturer of motion and control technologies. Under the one-year grant, technicians, assemblers, operators, maintenance staff, and management will receive safety courses in electrical safety, workplace safety audit by zone, fire extinguisher training, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 10-hour basic compliance. Ridgewater College will also work with Alexandria Technical and Community College to provide technical training in CNC mill and lathe operations; theory, controls and programming; basic and advanced blueprint reading, gaging, and metrology; and basic statistical process control.

A new Hy-Vee Supermarket is being built in Worthington. The new 60,500-square-foot store will replace the existing 31,900 square foot Hy-Vee Supermarket in Worthington. The $14 million project is slated for completion in the spring of 2011. Several features will be in the new store that are not in the current store — a pharmacy, an expanded food court, a Caribou Coffee shop, a club room for cooking classes and meetings, and a Hy-Vee HealthMarket, a store-within-a-store that offers natural foods, organic foods, and foods for special dietary needs. At a later date, Hy-Vee plans to add a convenience store and a gas station.

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