6.0. EDSR 01-09-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Starting the year right Starting the year right by Susan M.A. Larson Staff writer The new year is off to a fine start for Otsego, with news of a multi- million dollar industrial park to be built there by Duke Realty. "This is the first major industrial development for Otsego," said City Administrator Mike Robertson. "We've had several small industrial parks, but this will be as big as anything any other community has. Right now, the concept calls for a million square feet of industrial space." "It's actually more than that," said Pat Mascia, Duke's senior vice president, Minneapolis operations. "We could conceivably build r.4 million.° "It will be a $ too million project when it's done," said Mayor Larry Fournier. "We look for our tax base to continue to be one of the lowest in Wright County." File on Duke Realty Corp. •Duke Realty Corp. owns, builds, develops, leases and manages commercial real estate in r4 cities in the Midwest and the South. •Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., with an office in Minneapolis, Duke is one of the larger commercial real estate companies in the United States, with toe million square feet of office and industrial properties in t4 cities in the Midwest and South. •Duke has nationwide construction capabilities with 4,50o acres of land to support 64 million square feet of development and total property ownership of more than rt5 million square feet. The city has agreed to the development and provided incentives and discounts on sewer and water hookup fees. The future industrial park, which Mascia said has yet to be named, will be located just east of Highway ror and south of County Road 37. Duke has approximately rho acres, of which about tzo has been earmarked for industrial. The industrial park will include space for warehouse, office, manufacturing and distributing. "We have various sites under contract," said Mascia. "We haven't closed on any of the land yet. We're scheduled to close on one piece (last week) ... Grading and dirt work will start this spring. Then we have to let the site settle a while. We ie going to look at the feasibility study, but we might be able to put a building up (in 2006). There's some challenges with the topography there." Describing the future park, Mascia said, "We're looking at big box industrial, probably 24-3z-foot clear buildings" of various sizes. "There will be a couple of build-to-suit pads where we could build a couple of smaller buildings, 50,000-85,000 square feet. The rest will probably be anywhere from t53,ooo to z9o,oo0 square feet." Of the decision to build in Otsego, "The location is great," said Mascia. "We have a big footprint in Brooklyn Park and we're looking to expand that. It's the biggest and strongest industrial submarket in the Twin Cities." Expounding on that, Mascia explained that Duke likes to build large industrial parks with a lot of density in one area. There are, he noted, very few sites available that allow for that. ~ ~~ ~d tan ... ~tgage Rates at All Timo Low http://www.erstarnews.com/2006/January/3starting.html 1/5/2006