5. EDSR 09-11-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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"When this is built out between industrial and commercial, there will be over $150 million in tax value," said Jim Brown, director of development for Dynamics. A few small projects are leading the way. The Victory Sports Grill is slated to open in May. On Wednesday, ground was broken for Options Inc., a local nonprofit with a 5-acre site. DIRECTV has a contract for an 8.71-acre site for a technical facility. There are spaces for potential big box retailers. Glines has plans for Commerce Park, a baseball field for "town teams." Atwo-story commercial building would be wrapped around part of the ballpark. "It's just a concept that we're working with the city on. [It's] all dependent upon city approval," Glines said. Glines is prepared to be patient, projecting that it could be 2010 before all of the commercial parcels in the project are sold. "The city's kind of warming up to it," said Thares, who noted there has been some concern about the project sapping vitality from Big Lake's downtown. But those concerns are being eased, Thares said. "We have a downtown that's about ahalf-mile away from this area that we're interested in reinvigorating and helping it stay as healthy as possible," Thares said. "The businesses that are going out there are probably the ones that would take up too much land to go into our downtown." Brian Ertel, president of New Hope-based Envision Corp., purchased a 7.55-acre site from Dynamics on the south side of Highway 10, at the west end of the project area. Ertel is planning asix-building office campus with total square footage ultimately topping 100,000 square feet. He's billing the project as the Marketplace Professional Center. "Certainly there's demand there, and the demographics are very strong. Big Lake happens to be smack dab between St. Cloud and Minneapolis. And both of those regions are growing toward each other," Ertel said. "We're expecting 25 percent [population] growth in the next five years. Big Lake does not have any sort of office campus like this." Ertel's goal would be to have a 50-50 split between office and medical office tenants. His preference is to lease space to tenants, but he's also willing to do commercial condos. Ertel is still awaiting for some city approvals for his project, scheduled to be heard at meetings in early March. His first building is slated to be 13,626 square feet. "I will begin construction on that as soon as I've got it 50 percent leased. We're close on that," Ertel said. "I'm not going to build six buildings hoping that they're going to fill." Ertel hopes to attract a clinic to one of his buildings. "We're talking to medical providers right now," he said. Ertel said he's trying to get ahead of the growth curve. "We're planning ahead so that we can handle the growth down the road," he said. LOAD-DATE: February 23, 2006