In the wave of warehouse projects coming to the metro area, there is a new leader — a 3.5 million-square-foot project in Cottage Grove.
The proposed Cottage Grove Logistics Center will enclose an area equal to 73 football fields — enough to put much of the city of Landfall indoors. It will include nine buildings on a 252-acre plot, south of 100th Street near Ideal Avenue.
The proposal by NorthPoint Development of Kansas City, Mo., has been approved by the Cottage Grove Planning Department, and the city council is scheduled to vote on it Dec. 15.
The developer is asking the city to create a tax increment financing district to reduce its costs by $8.3 million, according to city administrator Jennifer Levitt.
The new plan for the Logistics Center plan replaces an earlier version, which called for 2.4 million square feet of development.
The Logistics Center is projected to create as many as 1,870 jobs. NorthPoint is expected to break ground on the site next spring, and parts of the project are expect to be completed by late 2023.
NorthPoint plans to lease the buildings to various businesses, said Levitt.
“There will be one landlord and many tenants,” she said.
The project will mean large-scale improvements on a number of streets. Levitt expects that a new street — 105thStreet – will be constructed, along with other new streets, roundabouts and improvements on existing streets.
The project, including the cost of the land, will be about $265 million, she said. The buildings will have a maximum height of 51 feet, according to the site plan.
In terms of square footage, the Center will tower over other well-publicized mega-projects — triple the size, for example, of the 855,000-square-foot Amazon Fulfillment Center in Shakopee.
The project is the largest of a wave of trucking and warehousing projects recently initiated in the metro area.
Others include:
- A proposed one-million-square-foot center on 77 acres in Lake Elmo.
- In Oakdale, a 310,000-square-foot center in the 4Front Technology and Office Campus, including one or two buildings.
- An Amazon center, approved by the city of Woodbury, with 517,000 square feet.
- The 475,000-square-foot InverPoint project in Inver Grove Heights.
Levitt said the demand for trucking and warehousing facilities is driven by on-line shopping, which requires trucks to deliver purchases.
“The Midwest has been somewhat of a void for these,” she said.
The huge new project is another victory for the city’s business park, said Levitt.
“We have gone through a lot of effort to make sure these projects are shovel-ready,” said Levitt. “It shows we are open for business, and it makes us very successful.”
As if to prove that point, she announced another large-scale project in the business park — a 19-acre, 332,000-square-foot addition by Renewal by Anderson.