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INFORMATION EDSR 07-10-2006REJournals.com -Major new industrial park planned for Maple Grove MIMNE80iA REAL ESTATE JOIJR~IAL Page 1 of 2 INFORMATION Friday June 23 2006 Welcome, Major new industrial park planned for Maple Grove signaut Maple Tree Business Center envisions 450,000 s.f., six buildings Don Jacobson Editor ~'i~k A major new industrial facility is being proposed in Maple Grove, one that its t0 ' owners hope will eventually add nearly 450,000 square feet of office/showroom ~~$t and warehouse space to one of the fastest-growing parts of the Twin Cities ~~,~; metro area. (~onfe! The first of Maple Tree Business Center's six planned buildings, a 77,000 square foot structure with 24-foot clear ceilings, was before the Maple Grove Planning l' Commission for approval in June. City officials and the local developer, Town Center Companies, are positioning the Maple Tree project a signature gateway '~ for the city into its Gravel Mining Area, which has seen an explosion of retail development in recent years. ~ f1,`2~ The city is seeking high architectural standards for the business center, which would be located at 85th Avenue North (also known as Weaver Lake Road) and ' ;n^^ s interchange with Revere Lane North, about two miles east of Weaver Lake Interstate 94. The city's planning commission tabled the project after its first appearance before them, urging Town Center to make the building's architecture more striking, as would befit an area the city wants to upgrade and turn into a gateway. ~. That's just what the owners are now doing, says Doug Uhrhammer of Town ~ • ' Center Companies, a Maple Grove-based real estate firm. , , Would you li "It's going to be upscale so it will look like an office park," he says. "We're advertise wi Learn how y going through the PUD process now, and we're going to show the city some options on the outside skin. It's at the beginning of the Gravel Mining Area, which is an area they have long-term plans to redevelop. "There are some older distribution buildings that were built around 12 years ago up there now, and they're not attractive. The city wants to have a statement made there and are looking for an upgrade, we've been able to do that so far. We're not asking for any public subsidies for this, and we've already gotten a lot of inquiries from prospective tenants." Uhrhammer says Maple Tree will be "50-50 warehouse-office space. We're aiming at 20,000 to 30,000 square foot users because we're looking at large bays with a 24-foot clear height." The city is trying to funnel that growth along corridors, and one them is the Gravel Mining Area. The area still has several active mines (some of which are http://www.mrej.com/story.cfm?Market=MN&StoryID=14217 6/26/2006 » HOME » ARCHIVES n BUBSCN4B@ > CONTACT » CONFERENCES » A BIND Faribault Foods acquires S&W brand from Del Monte -Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Jo... Page 1 of 2 Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal -June 26, 2006 httpaltwincitiea.biziournals.com/twincities/stories1200fi1061261st~6. h_t_ml .~~~ ~ttNNfAptt~S ~~~NAI~ BUSINESS PULSE SURVEY: What is the bast addition to the Twin Cities culture scene? Faribault Foods acquires S&W brand from Del Monte MinneapalislSt. Paul Business Journal -June 23, 2066 by Nicole Garrison-S~naer Staff Writer Faribault Foods Inc. just added another brand to its growing portfolio of food products. INFORMATION The Minneapolis-based food company bought S&W Fine Foods, a line of canned beans and pastas, from De] Monte Foods Co. of San Francisco. The cash acquisition will increase Faribault's revenue of $20o million by another $2,5 million. S&W is distributed primarily in the Western United States. Faribault also owns Sun Vista, a line of canned beans sold in California and Arizona. "Having a bigger presence on the West Coast is a real plus," said John Trucano, founder and president of Eagan-based Acorn Financial Corp, an investment-banking firm focused on food companies. "Retailers generally want to buy more products from fewer suppliers." Faribault had a co-packaging contract for the S&W line before the purchase under which Faribault produced some products for S&W. Faribault was founded in t895 as avegetable-canning company. In r9~6, the company reported $5 million in revenue. In t98o, Reid MacDonald and three siblings took over the company from their parents and he became CEO. The S&W acquisition is part of Faribault's long-term strategy to own regional brands that are market-share leaders. In recent years, the company has acquired Kuner's of Colorado, Chilli Man of Missouri, Mrs. Grimes of Iowa, Sun Vista of California and Pride of Tennessee. MacDonald would not disclose the purchase price of S&W, but none of Faribault's buys have been huge. "We typically buy businesses that are not too large for us to digest," MacDonald said. "And mostly we do things that we already know how to do." One recent exception to that rule was the company's purchase last year of SoftPac Industries Inc. m Elk River. SoftPac fills stand-up juice pouches, similar to Kraft's Capri Sun line, for grocery retailers and wholesalers, mass merchandisers and dollar-store chains. That line falls under Faribault's private-label business. More purchases are likely, MacDonald said. "We've basically grown by acquisitions, and we Il continue to do that in the incremental way we've always done it," he said. ngarrison@bizjournals.com ~ (6iz) 288-ziiz All contents of this site ©American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved. http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2006/06/26/story6.htm1?t=printable 6/26/2006 REJournals.com -Major new industrial park planned for Maple Grove Page 2 of 2 owned by Town Center Companies), and its boundaries stretch for 2,000 acres in the east-central part of the city. The big expanse of open space has become well known for its massive retail expansion. Two major shopping areas, including the first two phases of the Arbor Lakes center and the still-developing Fountains at Arbor Lakes, have added more than 1.2 million square feet of retailing since 1998. That retail growth is also spurring other kinds of development: for instance, the Maple Grove planning commission is currently considering a proposal fora 69,000 square foot, 115-unit Courtyard by Marriott hotel for the Fountains center. The industrial area at the northern tip of the region is important for building a "gateway" into it, says Dick Edwards, Maple Grove's city planner. "When the city crafted and adopted the Gravel Mining Area Plan, which includes Arbor Lake and nearby industrial areas, it called for a mixture of uses and an elevated architectural presence. (Maple Tree) would be the first new development going onto the edge of the Gravel Mining Area, and the Planning Commission is looking for features that say, 'this is gateway and heart of the new area,' with roads extending south." The momentum for industrial development in Maple Grove is considerable -- the demand for modern office-showroom and warehouse space is soaring in the northwest metro, says Scott Kummel, an industrial broker for Northstar Partners, which is handling the leasing for Maple Tree Business Park. "The market is tight up there, we think, and it's only going to get tighter," he says. "Land prices are going through the roof. There was 1 million square feet of absorption in the northwest sector last year, the highest of any of the sub- markets. The northwest has 28 percent of the entire industrial market, and 63,000 new jobs are projected to be created there by 2010, which will also be the highest in the Twin Cities." Minnesota Real Estate journal 5353 WaYZata Bivd, Sulte 307 Minneapolis, MN 55416 1-B86-516-7439 Real Estate Publishing Group 415 N State StreeC Chicago IL 60610 1-588-753-7828 Copyright 20D0-2005 G Real Esta[e Publishing Group. 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