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2015-06-01 Eagan Business NewsEAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | SECOND QUARTER 2015 1cityofeagan.com EAGAN JOURNAL OF THE EAGAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY BUSINESS NEWS Dallas-based DataBank now has two data centers in Minnesota —in Eagan and Edina. The company has two more in Lenexa, Kansas, and two in Dallas. While Lockheed Martin vacated its offices on Pilot Knob Road in 2013, it maintains an Advanced Technology Laboratories office on Corporate Center Drive. DataBank executives and staff members — many hailing from the company’s Dallas headquarters — welcomed visitors, business executives and elected leaders to their new, cutting-edge data center on Wednesday and Thursday, May 20 and 21. “Among the things we’ve appreciated about DataBank from the very beginning,” said Mayor Mike Maguire, addressing the Wednesday evening crowd, “is that these folks have a deep understanding of these technology issues, they share our vision, and they make their solutions available to every carrier and provider. That makes for a more robust marketplace and more competition.” Founded in 2005, DataBank offers enterprise-class data-center solutions, providing customers with zero downtime of data, applications and deployed infrastructure. “DataBank is thrilled to open up the doors to the Twin Cities’ premier colocation facility,” said Jerry Blair, the company’s cofounder and senior vice president of sales. The project took time to come together. A few years ago, the DataBank team explored the Twin Cities, discovering “there was some pent-up demand and a lot of great opportunities in the market. We saw great data centers owned by corporations, [but] there were no purpose-built, multitenant data centers, which is the world we play in.” Up until the opening of DataBank, most of the Twin Cities had to rely on the 511 Building, the sole “carrier hotel” in Minneapolis. In fact, nearly 70 data networks use this building for routing Internet traffic. This means SECOND QUARTER 2015 VOLUME 13 NUMBER 2 DataBank open, securing clients’ data MARK YOUR CALENDAR SUBSCRIBE ONLINE City of Eagan 3830 Pilot Knob Road Eagan, Minnesota 55122 To subscribe to Eagan Business News or our online publication, E-Biz, please visit us at cityofeagan.com/EBN Eagan Business News is pleased to cover two major stories in this issue. First, after years of laying the foundation for high tech in Eagan, the City welcomed DataBank to its business community in late May. Read our front-page article to learn more about this data-center company and how its clients, Eagan and our region will benefit. Second, CSM’s construction of Central Park Commons is getting underway. But first, we thought it fitting to feature the developer’s environmentally-friendly and business- savvy demolition practices. Check out the article on page 2. SEPTEMBER 12, 2015 Cedar Grove businesses and the Twin Cities Premium Outlets will host the City’s Streets Alive event * Visit cityofeagan.com/alive for more information. FROM THE EDITOR It’s long been the goals of the Eagan City Council to encourage greater telecommunications competition, to improve Internet connectivity and to ensure redundancy of fiber routes for greater regional security. With the opening of DataBank, Eagan checks those boxes in a big way. car-ri-er ho-tel: a building designed to serve telecommunications businesses and Internet service providers with fiber-optic routes linked to a variety of hubs in other cities. “DataBaNk is thrillED to opEN up thE Doors to thE twiN CitiEs’ prEmiEr ColoCatioN faCility.” – JErry Blair, DataBaNk DataBank coNtINUEd oN PAGE 3 DataBank employees, City staff members and Chamber personnel look on as CEO Tim Moore prepares to cut the ribbon at DataBank in Eagan. EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | SECOND QUARTER 20152 cityofeagan.com At this point in its demolition, just a shell of the former Lockheed Martin building remained at 3333 Pilot Knob Road in Eagan. Note the piles of salvaged and other materials. Nearly 50 years after the Lockheed Martin building was erected, developer CSM began its methodical deconstruction last fall, prepping the 51-acre site for Eagan’s latest development: Central Park Commons. Rather than using demolition alone, CSM takes a greener approach — and one that makes financial sense. “It’s increasingly usual,” says John Johannson, senior vice president, Welsh Companies/Colliers International, and development partner with CSM. “Almost anytime you demolish a building, most developers conduct some salvage.” Doing so, he says, is smart from a business perspective: It saves time — there’s no need to truck used concrete offsite, for example, as most of it is crushed for use as aggregate. It saves the environment — less fuel is burned, because fewer trucks are needed; and many materials are recycled or reused, rather than sent to landfills. It prevents wear and tear on trucks and roads. And it boosts the bottom line, thanks to reuse of materials. “We’re not going for LEED certification,” says Johannson. “We’re just being responsible stewards and doing what’s smart. We spend a lot more on site, but that’s a trade-off. . . . There’s value in what we salvage. Everybody involved in the project feels good about it.” FFE and asbestos abatement In 2013, CSM began its work on the Lockheed Martin building, pulling out what was salvageable: cooling tower equipment, pumps, motors, lights, fixtures, equipment and more. In the business, it’s called “FFE — furniture, fixtures and equipment,” says Dan Ullom, CSM construction manager, adding that recovered items were recycled or sent to a secondary market. Then the building sat empty for about a year as CSM offered various development plans; the City Council granted approval in February this year. But last fall, when the Lockheed Martin building was becoming a public nuisance due to break-ins, CSM restarted its deconstruction work with asbestos abatement in late September. Because of the size of the building — 663,000 square feet — and the fact that asbestos was found on every level, the job took four months. The Lockheed Martin building is “the biggest salvage job we’ve ever done — and the biggest building we’re ever taken down,” says Ullom. Eventually, the team recovered 480,000 pounds of asbestos-containing material; this BriEFly PEOPlE: Michael Malouf is the new president of Anthem’s dental business; he is based in Eagan. v Mary Robb, BSN, RN, has been promoted to vice president of integrated health management at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. v Aaron Vollmer has been promoted to operations manager for Advanced Engineering and Environmental Services, overseeing its Eagan and Maple Grove offices. BUSiNESS: The American Cancer Society moved its Midwest Division offices to Eagan in May and celebrated with a ribbon-cutting event. v Aspenwoods, Cedarvale Highlands and Eagan Gables — Eagan apartment complexes — are now smoke- free properties; the Dakota County Public Health Department and Live Smoke Free are assisting multifamily buildings to transition to smoke free. v Eagan-based ConvergeOne, a communications provider, has acquired Littleton, Colorado-based Sunturn, which designs and delivers unified communications, collaboration and contact-center solutions. v Eden Prairie-based Excelsior Group plans to buy the former headquarters (owned by Delta) of Northwest Airlines; there is no word yet on plans for the two Eagan buildings, which total 552,000 square feet. v Holiday Inn Express & Suites broke ground at the site of the former Al Baker’s Restaurant in late April; the 93-room hotel is scheduled to open in June 2016. v The Minnesota Board of Pharmacy has suspended the license of Minnesota Independent Cooperative, an Eagan-based prescription drug wholesaler, indicted on fraud charges in May. v Developer Morrissey Hospitality received City Council’s final approval of its plan to build a Home2 Suites, a new hotel brand from Hilton, in the Cedar Grove Redevelopment Area; a 2016 opening is planned. v NACR, a communications solutions and services company, announced Uptivity as its Partner of the Year. EBN Deconstruction before demolition CSM makes recycling a priority with Lockheed Martin building. Demolition coNtINUEd oN NEXt PAGE SEcrEt SPacE When CSM purchased the Lockheed Martin building, it expected to demolish all 623,000 square feet of the building. But surprise! Late in the demolition process, the team found a door in the subbasement, which led to a cavernous 40,000-square-foot space. Bonus! thE loCkhEED martiN BuilDiNg is “thE BiggEst salvagE JoB wE’vE EvEr DoNE — aND thE BiggEst BuilDiNg wE’vE EvEr takEN DowN.” – DaN ullom, Csm EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | SECOND QUARTER 2015 3cityofeagan.com that should this building ever experience a major outage or a natural disaster, the Internet could be inaccessible to users. Understanding the great need for another carrier hotel in our region, with diverse routing besides Minneapolis and Chicago, a number of local entities helped land the Eagan project. The City’s community development team and Dakota Electric collaborated with the State of Minnesota, Greater MSP, the Department of Employment and Economic Development, and the Dakota Regional Chamber of Commerce to close the deal. Many representatives of these organizations attended grand-opening events. Visitors experienced the security of the Eagan facility from the moment they pulled into the parking lot and were directed to valet parking. Touring the facility, they saw not only the relaxing client accommodations (including a foosball table) but two Meet- Me Rooms — 50,000 square feet of pristine, white space, which will soon feature built- to-suit cabinets, cages and private suites, all designed to accommodate clients’ equipment “with unmatched connectivity.” Several clients’ services go live by early June. Prior to opening, the Eagan data center underwent a rigorous commissioning process, which included an Uptime Institute audit to achieve Tier-III build certification. This ensures the entire infrastructure will operate in the most efficient and reliable manner with the highest levels of redundancy, eliminating “the possibility of a single-point failure for its clients,” said Maguire. For additional details or to schedule a private tour, visit databank.com. EBN was brought to an approved landfill, while following EPA and MPCA regulations. Demolition and construction Finally, four years after CSM purchased the Lockheed Martin building, the team began its demolition in mid February; even then, they started by pulling additional pipes, metal and HVAC equipment from the property. Because of the sometimes-secret nature of Lockheed Martin’s work — and the similarly confidential work of the building’s former occupant, Unisys (and Sperry/Univac before that) — concrete, for security, was the building’s primary construction material. An impressive 100 million pounds of concrete was removed; it will be crushed and used as aggregate on site. (Additional concrete couldn’t be reused because of its asbestos contamination.) Soon the final footings will be removed, and earthwork and utilities installation will begin. Construction will start in earnest in late summer. EBN Salvaged materials by the (impressive) numbers: 116,000 LBS. OF COPPER 123,000 LBS. OF ALUMINUM 8 million LBS. OF STEEL 100 million LBS. OF CONCRETE DataBank coNtINUEd FRoM covER Demolition coNtINUEd FRoM PREvIoUS PAGE Get a bird’s-eye view of the 2015 demolition: March 31 https://vimeo.com/eyeaerial/review/124062448/7b87dcbbed april 16 https://vimeo.com/eyeaerial/review/125201631/4f2a541035 May 12 https://vimeo.com/eyeaerial/review/127676740/f1fa20120b According to DataBank, the company customizes customer deployments: • to effectively manage risk • to improve clients’ technology performance • to allow clients to focus on core business objectives For more information, visit databank.com. The 434,000-square-foot, pedestrian-friendly Central Park Commons — scheduled to open in late summer 2016 — plans to feature a grocery store, retailers, restaurants and medical offices. It is expected to bring an estimated $2.2 million to the City’s tax base. DataBank MMR rooms will soon accommodate clients’ high-tech equipment in built-to-suit cabinets, cages and private suites. First client signs on During an evening grand-opening event, a Warroad-based company — rich in Minnesota history — was presented with a plaque, marking its role as the first client to sign on to the Eagan data center. The third- and fourth-generation, family-owned and -operated Marvin Windows and Doors — with additional facilities in Eagan — announced its decision to use DataBank as its carrier hotel “for disaster recovery capability,” said Jim Crowe, director of information systems. EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | SECOND QUARTER 20154 www.cityofeagan.com STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID TWIN CITIES, MN PERMIT NO. 4902 Tweens dig into their desserts from Ruhland Strudel Haus, one of roughly 60 local businesses that will participate in the weekly Eagan Market Fest this summer, every Wednesday, June 3–September 30. In addition, nearly 100 professional artists will display and sell their creations at Eagan Art Festival on June 27 and 28. Finally, don’t miss Eagan’s July 4th Funfest. But plan ahead for parking — with the former Lockheed Martin site under construction, no parking will be available there. All events will be held at Central Park. EBN Coming soon: Eagan Market Fest, Art Festival and Funfest 3830 Pilot Knob Road Eagan, Minnesota 55122 DataBank open, securing clients’ data New data center opens in Eaganp1 p2 p2 p4 Briefly American Cancer Society opens, ConvergeOne acquires Sunturn and more Deconstruction before demolition Recycling a priority during Lockheed Martin demolition Coming soon: Eagan Market Fest, Art Festival and Funfest 150+ entrepreneurs sign on to summer events IN THIS ISSUE Design & Layout Cory Laux Overdog Art Editor Karin B. Miller Working Words, Inc. Jon Childers, an instructor at Eagan Art House, begins work on a piece of pottery during last year’s Eagan Art Festival.