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Due north: Promise of commuter rail, diminishing open space contribute to rising land val... Page 2 of 3 694,which provide the infrastructure necessary for large-scale developments. II) "Because of I-94 and the interchanges off that,the northwest quadrant will probably see a higher proportion of growth than other sectors," said Collin Barr,vice president of development at Ryan Cos.US Inc. in Minneapolis. "The southwest is trying to grow at the same pace,but it doesn't have something like 94 in place yet. So,the northwest will be the quadrant that attracts the most commercial development in the next few decades." Another contributing factor to the rising prices is the rebounding industrial marl{e,t, Little said. "It's coming back, and that's driving up the land values. Although there's a big retail push, the industrial market is turning out to be the most active right now." Spurring development As developers turn their attention to the northwest suburbs, city planners in the area have been quick to respond. In November, Elk River officials announced they would open about 100 acres of city-owned land for industrial development. Other cities, such as Rogers and Maple Grove, eagerly welcomed retail, industrial and residential projects,bringing in developers who found Anoka and Ramsey were running short on land. Although companies have the option of developing industrial parks and commercial space farther outside the metro, Little said second- and third-ringsuburbs are provingmore attractive because sewer and water services are generally already provided by the Metropolitan Council. Undeveloped communities would require greater expense and effort to install such systems; so although land costs might be lower than those in the northwest suburbs, overall development costs might turn out much higher. • Glimpse of the future Rogers, in particular,has become a model for the type of growth that's likely to spread throughout the northwest suburbs, Little said. Several new industrial developments have sprouted up within the past few years as land has become scarce in other areas. Thorpe Distributing Co., a distributor of Anheuser-Busch products, was formerly located in Medina. When it needed to expand its facilities two years ago, company officials discovered the city didn't have enough room for the additional warehouse space it needed. "We would have preferred to stay where we were,but there was too little land available," said Jack Stevenson, Thorpe's vice president of sales and marketing. The company chose to build in Rogers because the city had the highway system nearby and large tracts of space. Stevenson said rising land values and the boom in development within just the past year have made company officials glad they moved when they did. "What we bought even two years ago would be much more expensive now," he said. "And I don't even know that we'd get it. There's hardly any land left in Rogers to buy." The city is likely to see another building boom now that Cabela's has opened its vast$50 million store, featuring an aquarium stocked with sport fish, an indoor archery range and shooting gallery and a 28-foot-tall mountain. The 188,000-square-foot facility is more than four times the size of an average Best Buy store. • Although retail endeavors traditionally don't drive land-value increases,the enormity of Cabela's undertaking is expected to draw more commercial and retail interest, raising already climbing land costs. http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2005/10/17/focus l.html?t=printable 10/18/2005