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City of Pine Island Awarded $600,000 Bioscience Infrastructure GrantSt. Paul – The City of Pine Island has been awarded a $600,000 Bioscience Business Development Public Infrastructure (BBDI) grant, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) Office of Business Development has announced. The City will use the funds to extend water and sewer infrastructure to serve the 200-acre BioBusiness Park at Elk Run, the first phase of a master planned 1,775-acre community being developed on Highway 52. The cost to extend the water and sewer infrastructure is estimated to be $2 million. The BioBusiness Park will include several facilities and an environment that is conducive to bioscience-based business development. The larger development eventually will also include The Falls, a healthy living campus focused on the prevention of illness and the promotion of wellness in a natural environment. Estimated infrastructure costs for the first phase of the development is $6 million. “The bioscience industry has a great deal of potential in Minnesota, and the BioBusiness Park development in Pine Island is another key infrastructure project for the state,” said DEED Commissioner Dan McElroy. The BBDI grant program, created by Legislature in 2006, assists with complex and costly public infrastructure development projects that support bioscience-based manufacturing; technology; warehousing and distribution; research and development; bioscience business incubator; agricultural bioprocessing; or industrial, office, or research park development. Since 2005, DEED has administered nearly $30 million in bioscience bonding projects. Recently awarded projects include: City of Austin, $512,500, to support the Hormel Institute expansion; $743,500 to Blue Earth County, $743,500, to support the emissions testing facility; City of Chaska, $1 million, for the Chaska Biotech Park; and $1 million to the City of Minneapolis, $1 million, for redevelopment. DEED has proposed $10 million for this grant program in the SEED – Strategic Entrepreneurial Economic Development – initiative this legislative session. For more information on the BBDI grant program, contact Kevin McKinnon, Director, Business Development, 651-259-7442, toll-free 1-800-657-3858, or email kevin.mckinnon@state.mn.us or go to: www.deed.state.mn.us/biozone/ Project Partners: Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development City of Pine Island Elk Run Upon request, the information in this news release is available in an alternative format |
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