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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-27-04-04 • City of-Lakeville Economic Development Commission Meeting Minutes Apri127, 2004 Advanced Wireless Communications 20809 Kensington Blvd. Lakeville, MN Members Present: Comms. Brantly, Emond, Gehrke, Matasosky, Miller, Schubert, Smith, Ex-Officio member City Administrator Robert Erickson Members Absent: -:Comms. J. Erickson, Pogatchnik, Tushie, Ex-Officio member Todd Bornhauser -Executive Director -Lakeville Area Chamber of Commerce Others Present: Ben Coons, President and CEO of Advanced Wireless Communications, Brenda Sand, V.P. of Operations for Advanced Wireless Communications, Staff present: David Olson, Community & Economic Development Director; Amanda Schwabe, Economic Development Coordinator 1. Call Meeting to Order. • Chair Matasosky called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. in the Board Room of Advanced. Wireless Communications, 20855 Kensington Blvd, Lakeville, Minnesota. 2. Approve March 23, 2004 Meeting Minutes Motion 04.07 Comms. Emond/Schubert moved to approve the minutes of the March 23, 2004 meeting. Motion carried unanimously. 3. Overview of the Development of the Fairfield Business Campus Mr. Olson stated that Advanced Wireless .Communications (AWC) was the last business to construct a corporate headquarters in the Fairfield Business Campus. The Redevelopment Tax-Increment-Financing (TIF) district that was created in 1989 to assist in the development of the Fairfield Business Campus property, allowed the City to write-down land costs to entice businesses to the area.: The intent was to .attract high-tech companies.. Mr. Olson shared that the City waited patiently for the right corporate headquarters to come to the. park. Mr. Olson informed EDC members that the Fairfield Business Campus now provides close to 500 quality jobs for area residents and has a total market valuation of $16.5 million. He stated that this project is one of the most successful mid-sized. business campuses in the metro area. 1 • Mr. Olson continued to say that AWC is one example of how the businesses that have located in the park have stayed. AWC leased space in the park prior to purchasing the last. available lot and constructing their own facility. He continued to say that the Itron building is the only building in the Fairfield Business Campus that has athird-party``. owner. Mr. Olson stated that the Fairfield Business Campus property owners are part. of an association that holds annual meetings and also has common ownership of the Fairfield Business Campus signs and boulevards. Comm. Emond shared that the City was originally looking. for a Fire Station. site .when they came upon what is now the Fairfield Business Campus. At that time the area was farmland owned by the St. Paul Companies. He explained that the City went looking for about three acres and ended up purchasing 80. Mr. Olson informed EDC members that the City still owns one lot, described as Lot 4, Block 1, and plans to maintain the lot to be the site of a future Fire Station. Chair Matasosky stated. that with the Communications Strategy in mind, the story of the Fairfield Business Campus, including the .number of employees and tax .information, might be something the EDC would want to use as an article for publication. • Comm. Emond reminded EDC members that there was opposition to the proposed Business Park in the beginning, but that in the end the Fairfield Business Campus is a good project. 4. Review of the Advanced Wireless Communications Project Mr. Olson shared that AWC reached an agreement with the City in .the fall of 2002 to purchase the last remaining lot in the Fairfield Business Campus. AWC broke ground in June 2003. He explained that as part of the Contract for Private Redevelopment between the City and AWC, AWC agreed to a minimum market value of $1,575,500. Dakota County Assessors currently have the market value of AWC listed as $1,670,600, thereby exceeding the required minimum. Mr. Olson .stated that AWC also had to identify job creation goals as part of the Contract for Private Redevelopment. The job creation goal of 14 was set and the. City is pleased. to report that the job creation goal for the AWC project has been.. met within the required time frame. Mr. Olson informed EDC members that the City is pleased that the iast project the City was able to do in the Fairfield Business Campus was done so well. He thanked. Mr. Coons for agreeing to host the EDC meeting. • Mr. Coons thanked the EDC for the opportunity to host the meeting. and introduced Brenda Sand, V.P. of Operations. Mr. Coons then shared background information `on 2 • AWC, how the company came to its new location in the Fairfield Business Campus and his business interests in China. City Administrator Erickson stated that Ben understated the challenges that AWC faced to achieve their new location and that the business world can sometimes be as challenging as the regulatory world. Mr. Coons explained to EDC members that. AWC does "component .level" work, whereas most companies in their industry do "board level" work, which allows AWC to identify defects quickly and repair items that most shops would discard. Mr. Coons stated that in 2003, AWC repaired approximately 1,600 radios each month. Currently, AWC picks up 300 radios, twice a week, from :just one of their clients (Target) to repair. Comm. Emond questioned if it was.. cost effective for companies to repair the radios rather than replace them? Mr. Coons shared that at this point it still is. He continued to say Ghat most of the repairs are cosmetic in nature. Mr. Coons and Ms. Sand then gave EDC members a guided tour of their new, 23,000- square-foot facility. i 5. Director's Report Mr. Olson stated that the City Council awarded a bid for the CSAH 50 project at their April 19t" meeting. He shared that Dakota County awarded a bid for CSAH 60 this month as well. Pre-construction meetings are scheduled for both projects this week. City Administrator Erickson informed EDC members that the low bidder for both CSAH 50 and 60 interchange improvements was PCI. He shared that Dakota County has placed $3.5 million in the 2006 budget for right-of-way and CSAH 70 interchange improvements and that the City has received $5.5 million in TEA-21 funding from the federal government, which will be matched by both the City and County. He continued to say that momentum is building for a number of upscale commercial/retail developments in the area of the interchange improvements. Mr. Olson informed EDC members that all of the agenda items for Thursday's Planning Commission meeting are commercial projects. Residential growth is still strong, .with the City. issuing 199 building permits through March. Mr. Olson stated that the Dakota County CDA broke ground this week for their Prairie Crossing affordable housing project located at 203`d Street and Iberia Avenue, which is south of UBC Lumber located on CSAH 50. This affordable rental family townhome project will contain 40 units and will have rents that average $590 for atwo-bedroom • unit and $640 for athree-bedroom unit. The project should be completed in the next 12 3 • months. He stated that plans for the affordable housing on the Wren site, located on 210th Street, would continue. 6. New Business There was no new business. 7. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: Attested to: Amanda Schwabe, . T. Bra tly, Secretary Economic Development Coordinator 4