Minnesota Business Developments
by Rhonda Mix
May 2011
Northern
A growing data storage company, Involta, plans to build a 24,000-square-foot data center in Duluth at the Duluth Technology Park. The $13.6 million facility would be the company’s first phase of a proposed four-phase expansion in Duluth. The project is expected to provide more than 100 jobs. Based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Involta stores clients’ critical information data systems in secure data storage centers.
Concordia College broke ground at its Moorhead campus for a $13 million school of business. The project is slated for completion by the fall of 2012.
Central
St. Cloud-based Polar Corp. is expanding its production facilities located at Holdingford and Opole. The company, which manufactures and repairs tank trailers, has added a third production shift at its Holdingford plant and new state-of-the-art equipment at its Opole site. Polar Corp. plans to hire 70 to 80 more employees within the next 30 to 60 days.
Twin Cities Metro
Business at Olympic Steel Inc. is growing, so the company is opening a 60,000-square-foot distribution center in Roseville and adding 60 jobs this year in the Twin Cities area. Also, the Ohio-based company plans to add $2- to $3-million worth of additional steel-fabrication equipment to its Plymouth plants. Olympic Steel currently employs about 250 people in the Twin Cities area.
Hennepin Theatre Trust plans to open a 300-seat theater on the first floor of the City Center in downtown Minneapolis. Called the New Century Theatre, the 12,000-square-foot space will house the theater, ticket office, and its headquarters. Hennepin Theatre Trust currently operates the historic State, Orpheum and Pantages theaters along Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. Construction on the New Century Theatre is expected to start in June with the first show slated to premiere in September. The general contractor for the project is Minneapolis-based Greiner Construction Inc. The lead architect is Minneapolis-based Shea Inc.
Plans are under way for the redevelopment of the Brookdale shopping center in Brooklyn Center into Shingle Creek Crossing, a retail project anchored by a new Walmart Supercenter. Much of the current Brookdale Center, which is mostly empty, will be demolished. The Sears store will remain, and a 122,000-square-foot piece north of Sears will stay and be renovated. The Kohl’s store and the Applebee’s restaurant, each located in stand-alone buildings, will stay. The first phase of the project will be the construction of an 182,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter, which is slated to begin in late August or early September. Phase two of the project involves the construction and leasing of the remainder of the new shopping center. Once complete, the entire center will be 402,489 square feet.
Menards plans to tear down its current 128,000-square-foot Golden Valley store and build a new store twice that size in its place. The new store will be a megastore that is slated for completion next spring.
Walser Automotive Group plans to open its second Used Car Xpress in Brooklyn Park in June. Used Car Xpress sells mid-priced cars, most of which are rental returns with fewer than 50,000 miles and priced between $6,000 and $12,000. Most of the vehicles still have some warranty remaining. Walser opened its first Used Car Xpress in Maplewood last year. A third location is slated to open in July or August in Forest Lake.
Southern
A manufacturer of single-panel hydraulic lift doors, Icon Door Systems, opened a plant in Minneota. It is located in what was the vacant Universal Forest Products building. Icon has a manufacturing facility in California, where it began business, but the company plans to make the Minneota location its main sales, design, and manufacturing location. Icon plans to employ about 40 people by the end of the year.
The Mayo Clinic plans to build a computer data center at its Mayo Support Center in Rochester. The 60,000-square-foot addition is the first phase of a three-phase expansion plan for the facility.
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