|
| A 160,000-square-foot parcel included in The Oaks Business Park, which is currently under construction in Oakdale, is a candidate for a $120 million cancer treatment facility. Pictured is a site plan for the entire business park, which is 55 acres with plans for over a dozen buildings. submitted image/ Carlson Real Estate Company |
|
Cancer treatment company has its eye on The Oaks
Business park site in the running with three cities for $120 million facility
Katy Zillmer
staff writer
A multi-million dollar business park under construction in Oakdale is now in the running for a new $120 million cancer research/treatment facility.
However, the project developers and the state and federal agencies assisting with the site search have kept most other information confidential, a standard practice until a location is selected.
Recently, city staff have been notified that The Oaks Business Park, located at the northeast corner of the Interstate-94 and Interstate-694 intersection, is a finalist with Woodbury, Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove for "Project Centaur," the code name for the confidential development proposal, according to administrative intern David Schaps.
The official groundbreaking for The Oaks, a 55-acre site with 650,000 square feet available for over a dozen buildings, was June 29. Carlson Real Estate Company owns and will manage the business park. It is part of Minnetonka-based Carlson Companies.
City staff were originally contacted by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) with information that The Oaks was being considered for the project, Schaps said.
Fluor Global Location strategies, a site search firm based out of South Carolina, had originally contacted DEED for information about Minnesota's potential sites and has kept in contact with staff about the process, Schaps said. A representative of DEED's communication department would not comment for this article.
Through research on the project's code name, Schaps identified that NanoLife Holdings, out of Newport Beach, Calif., looks to be the company interested in Oakdale and the other cities to build the cancer treatment facilities. If approved for The Oaks, the building would be about 160,000 square feet in size and could bring 195 jobs to the city, according to Schaps.
As part of the process, community information about Oakdale, including city taxes and amenities such as access to freeways and The Oaks' proximity to major corporations, was sent to the development group.
Oakdale is promoting its relatively low property taxes in comparison with the others that are candidates for the development proposal, Schaps said.
Tax data, including, city, county and school district figures were presented to the project developers, showing that Oakdale has the lowest tax rate overall, he said. "I think we were just a little bit underneath Woodbury. That is advantageous to any business or actually any resident moving to the city of Oakdale," Schaps said.
Market-driven development
Staff and other companies working with Carlson Real Estate on the business park are aware of the cancer treatment facility proposal. No tenants have officially signed leases for any of the park's buildings at this point, said Craig Lien, of Welsh Companies, the marketing and property management group for The Oaks.
"What I know at this point in time is that we are still in the ballpark (for Project Centaur). By 'we' I mean Minnesota. My understanding (is that) they were looking for 12 locations in 20 different states," Lien said.
Some buildings in The Oaks are currently under construction and Lien said tenants for those buildings would likely be moved in before the proposed cancer treatment facility would be completed.
According to Lien, the entire business park will include:
• four "flex" buildings for office space
• two single-story office structures
• two-story and six-story Class A office buildings, four office condominium buildings and space for a two -story, build-to-suit structure.
Walls for one of the "flex" buildings have been completed and it will be ready for occupancy by the end of February, Lien said. One of the single-story office buildings will be completed by the end of May, and the office condominiums, 36 total in four buildings, should be completed by the end of the year, he said. As a whole, The Oaks could be complete in five to 10 years.
Until the final word is received on "Project Centaur," a remaining site in the business park is planned for a six-story office building at 160,000 square feet. "If 'Project Centaur' came that is the site they would take," Lien said.
Construction will continue on The Oaks, but Lien said the amount of tenants interested in the business park will be a factor in that process. "(Carlson Real Estate) is willing to do something speculatively. But they're not going to build out the whole park. It will be tenant driven to that extent," Lien said.
Project incentives
From the city of Oakdale's standpoint, staff will continue to try to entice "Project Centaur" to choose The Oaks site, and are seeking "bioscience status" for some existing business parks and undeveloped parcels to increase the appeal of bringing a cancer-treatment facility to this area, according to Schaps.
He said the city has been encouraged to apply for bioscience status by DEED as a direct result of the "Project Centaur" proposal.
According to documents Schaps presented to the City Council Nov. 28, the state Legislature established the Minnesota Bioscience Zone Program in 2003 with the first three zones designated in St. Paul, Minneapolis and Rochester.
Since then the state Legislature has authorized DEED to take more applications and designate more areas with bioscience status.
The City Council is applying to the state Legislature for the bioscience designation. Its application states that bioscience facilities improve quality of life through curing diseases and producing high numbers of quality jobs.
The area Oakdale has proposed to the state for consideration consists of approximately 256 acres of land including business parks, vacant parcels and some existing bioscience businesses. If the application were approved the existing businesses may be eligible for tax incentives if they expand their operations and create new jobs in the city, Schaps said. However, businesses that are interested the vacant parcels in Oakdale are not required to fit into the category to access this land, he added.
The tax incentives will only be available if the state Legislature allocates funds after new areas are designated as bioscience zones. This could happen during the Legislature's 2007 session. If not the city will wait until the following year for the funding to be reconsidered, Schaps said.
"We just look at this as an opportunity, not only as an incentive for 'Project Centaur,'" Schaps said.
Oakdale's application for the bioscience zone was sent to the state last week with a decision expected to occur shortly after the first of the year, he said.
That's also when the city will learn if it's a finalist for "Project Centaur."
"We're optimistic about it. We hope that this is going to be a benefit to the community," Schaps said.
Katy Zillmer can be reached at kzillmer@lillienews.com or at 651-748-7822.
|
