Minnesota Business Developments
by Carol Walsh - carol.walsh@state.mn.us
November 2011
Northern
A Volkswagen dealership is coming to the Duluth area in March 2012. Volkswagen of Duluth will open at the former Saturn of Duluth site at 4735 Mall Drive. The building is undergoing a $1 million makeover. Volkswagen of Duluth will carry a complete line of new Volkswagens, sell used Volkswagens, and provide vehicle servicing. The new dealership will provide at least 30 full-time jobs.
The Iron Range Resource and Rehabilitation Board just announced $820,000 in Community Redevelopment grants that it will be awarding to Coleraine, Effie, Ely, Gilbert, Grand Rapids, Ironton, Hibbing, and Virginia. The grants will be used for demolition, hazardous waste and material removal, site improvements, and blight elimination. Each community will contribute funding from other sources in partnership with the IRRRB.
Central
Vaultas, a Minnetonka-based company that specializes in data backup, storage, cloud computing, and Web hosting is expanding to St. Cloud with plans to build a $2 million, 5,000-square-foot data center within the next year. The company, which recently completed a similar facility in Alexandria, has constructed an 800-gigabyte fiber optic network between Minneapolis and Fargo, ND, with an outlet for a data center in St. Cloud that would employ a half-dozen technicians and other workers. Company officials hope to have the new center operating by the end of next summer.
Sandler Training, an international business development organization, is opening a center in St. Cloud. Sandler Training provides consulting, coaching, and training in sales for individuals and organizations.
Twin Cities Metro
As part of an effort to boost efficiencies, hearing-aid maker Sonic has relocated its manufacturing operations to a larger facility in Eagan. The new site is a 22,000-square-foot building at 1020 Discovery Road. The 15-year-old company retained all 90 employees during the move.
Ximedica, a medical device product design firm based in Rhode Island, has expanded to the Twin Cities with the opening of an office in the University Enterprise Labs facility in St. Paul. The office currently has four full-time employees, and the company expects to grow to 12 workers by the end of 2012. Ximedica specializes in medical devices that deliver fluid and monitoring equipment. The majority of their business comes from medical device companies.
Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority is looking for partners for its renovation of the St. Paul Union Depot. Requests for proposals seek a private developer and a firm to offer day-to-day operations of the property. Amtrak’s Empire Builder and the Central Corridor light rail line will run through the 290,000-square-foot historic facility which is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2012.
Southern
Chart Industries Inc., an Ohio-based manufacturer of products and services for the energy, industrial gas, and health care industries has announced plans to open a manufacturing facility that will bring at least 100 new jobs to Owatonna. The company plans to lease a vacant 141,000-square-foot industrial building where it will manufacture equipment that is used to store and distribute liquefied natural gas. DEED will provide a $500,000 forgivable loan from its Minnesota Investment Fund and tax incentives under the agency’s JOBZ program. DEED is also exploring the possibility of providing job training assistance through the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership. Company officials expect the welding and fabricating positions to pay between $15 and $22 an hour.
The Redwood Falls Wal-Mart is set to expand the building by about 30 to 35 percent in the coming year. Since it opened in November 1992, the store has expanded twice already. The plan calls for the expansion to include a grocery section, with the rest of the sales floor to be remodeled as needed. Construction will begin after the holidays and will be finished by the fall 2012. The Redwood Falls store currently has 116 part-time and full-time employees. Officials predict they may need to add another 10-15 percent as the store continues to grow.
Construction on the first commercial wind farm in Faribault County has begun on a site west of Blue Earth. The 36-megawatt project could potentially generate enough energy to power 20,000 homes annually, according to Exergy Development Group, which purchased the construction rights. Big Blue Wind Farm will utilize 18 wind turbines, each reaching more than 400 feet high. Construction will include concrete foundations for the turbines and access roads, with turbines expected to be erected by mid-February. The construction phase is expected to require about 45 workers.
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