2015-03-01 Eagan Business NewsEAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | FIRST QUARTER 2015 1cityofeagan.com
EAGAN
JOURNAL OF THE EAGAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY
BUSINESS NEWS
Central Park Commons approved
Mayor Mike Maguire
For the first time, Eagan’s State
of the City was held offsite.
Twin Cities Premium Outlets
welcomed the annual crowd to its
Market Hall.
The growing demand for solar
energy in the U.S. is likely to
result in the one-millionth solar
installation in 2015.
Businesses are yet to be
determined for Central
Park Commons, a retail-and-
office center planned for the
former Lockheed Martin site.
During his 2015 State of the City speech,
Mayor Mike Maguire focused on
“intentional successes,” highlighting new
development and economic vigor, and
current challenges, including the need to
strengthen social and community
connections vital for the future.
Nearly 100 elected officials, business
leaders, residents and city staff members
gathered to hear the presentation at
Twin Cities Premium Outlets
on Thursday, March 19.
Maguire began by lauding
“these remarkable spaces,”
referring to the upscale
outlet center, which has
brought jobs, new retailers
and surrounding development
to Cedar Grove. “[They] are the product
of a City vision, both flexible and firm,
that adapted to market realities, while
remaining responsive to neighborhood
expectations,” he said. In addition, Maguire
detailed the numerous players involved
in what became the most successful new
outlet mall opening in the United States.
Next, Maguire shared news of the former
Lockheed Martin site, which — after multiple
proposals — has received City Council
approval to become Central Park Commons,
a walkable, inviting retail-office center,
scheduled to open in 2016. He noted that the
project is yet another example of the City
not saying “yes to the first thing that comes
along, but working with developers to
encourage memorable enhancements
and experiences in Eagan.”
The third major success shared
was DataBank, a major new
88,000-square-foot data center,
which will serve as an
Upper Midwest asset.
Already, he pointed out,
it’s winning recognition
despite the fact that it
won’t open its doors
until later this spring.
(For more, see “DataBank wins accolades,”
page 2.) He also hailed the vision of City and
business leaders who created AccessEagan, a
wholesale fiber-optic network and a “a major
reason DataBank chose to locate here.”
Other presentation highlights included
recognizing anniversaries, including 50 years
for the Eagan police department and 25 years
for the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority; and
sharing positive City survey results, including
the quality of life, safety and City direction.
From there, Maguire turned his focus
to the need to build “soft infrastructure” —
strengthening the “social and community
connections that we increasingly understand
FIRST QUARTER 2015
VOLUME 13 NUMBER 1
State of the City, 2015
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Mayor highlights successes, asks
“What’s next?”
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 kicks off 2015 with
annual coverage of the State of the City
event, featuring a trio of highlights and a
new Eagan Forward project. Plus, we delve
into solar energy and its growing popularity
in Eagan and Minnesota.
Did you know Minnesota is 27th in the
nation for installed solar capacity at 20
megawatts? It’s true, and demand is only
growing, thanks to dropping system costs,
the allure of stable energy bills, and the
desire to be environmentally friendly. Is it
time for your company to find its place in
the sun? Find out on page 2.
APRIL 21, 2015
Open to Business, City Hall, 1 to 3 p.m.
* Visit dcrchamber.com for more information.
APRIL 30, 2015
DCR Chamber Legislative Breakfast:
Regional Planning vs. Local Control*
MAY 21, 2015
WomEn’s Circle Social: Wine
Tasting and Networking*
State of the City CoNtINUEd oN pAGE 3
FROM THE EDITOR
EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | FIRST QUARTER 20152 cityofeagan.com
Ironwood’s solar installation should pay for itself in seven years.
Briefly
New retail-office center in the works
A new 434,000-square-foot Central Park
Commons has been approved by Eagan City
Council for the former Lockheed Martin site,
at the intersection of Yankee Doodle and Pilot
Knob roads.
The new urban-styled center is planned to
include retail stores, restaurants, medical
offices and a grocery store. Minneapolis-based
CSM Corporation, which owns the property,
plans to build the pedestrian-friendly center,
completing it in 2016. Look for six buildings, an
outdoor plaza, outdoor seating and walking paths.
Watch for more news as the project progresses.
DataBank wins accolades
DataBank has been recognized as the 2015
Business Recruitment Project of the Year by
the Economic Development Association of
Minnesota. The project was selected for its
capital investment, job creation and long-term
benefits, including business development and
economic boost to the state and region. EDAM
recognized both the City of Eagan and the
Dakota Electric Association for their efforts to
attract the national data-center provider.
In addition, DataBank will receive a Progress
Minnesota Award from Finance & Commerce in
April, and the company has been awarded the
Uptime Institute’s Tier III Certification for its
Eagan building design.
Currently, DataBank is completing a $49
million update to its 88,000-square-foot
building (3255 Neil Armstrong Blvd.). When
it opens this spring, the business plans to
employ 40 people and provide space for
telecommunications companies and other
businesses in the Upper Midwest. Currently,
only one other data center exists in the Twin Cities.
PeOPle: Laurie Rieb Bolin, director of
development, 360 Communities, and
Ingrid Lindberg, chief customer experience
officer, Prime Therapeutics, were among
a dozen honorees named by the Dakota
County Tribune and Sun Thisweek as 2015
Exceptional Businesswomen. v Mark Langanki
Ironwood Electronics. Lessors, Inc. Murphy
Warehouse. These three Eagan businesses
are just a few of those that have made
significant investments in solar power over
the past few years. Not long ago, solar energy
rarely made economic sense. But that has
changed in Minnesota and elsewhere.
According to the Solar Energy Industries
Association (SEIA), the 25 U.S. companies with
the most solar capacity
now have 1,100 systems,
totaling 569 megawatts,
which generates “enough
electricity to power more
than 115,000 homes.”
Why are commercial
enterprises choosing
solar? First, solar
energy can reduce
operating costs due
to the falling price of
solar systems. Second, it can lock in energy
costs for years to come, while fossil-fuel costs
remain erratic. Third, clean solar energy
decreases a business’s carbon footprint.
And fourth, it’s a positive marketing tool
for those businesses whose customers are
motivated by environmental concerns.
In Minnesota, businesses have been further
incentivized by the State Legislature, which
has set renewable energy mandates for utilities
and provided tax incentives for businesses.
“I am very interested in environmental
issues as well as technology,” says Mike
Fedde, owner of Ironwood Electronics. That
said, he notes that such a “big investment
has to have a payoff.” Thanks to state
incentives, his solar project will pay for
itself in approximately seven years.
Such incentives include the Made in
Minnesota (MiM) Solar Incentive Program,
which invites three categories of applicants,
including businesses, to apply for “funding
reservations.” Selected applicants receive
annual payments based
on the kWh (energy)
output of their Minnesota-
made solar systems in the
previous year; payments,
made over 10 years, are
based on a system’s
performance. Commercial
systems may have up to a
40 kW (power) capacity.
In addition, rebates
are available to Eagan
commercial property owners who install
Made in Minnesota-certified solar thermal
systems; the rebate is equal to 25% of the
installed commercial system, up to $25,000.
“We’re more heavily involved in
solar energy than I thought we would
be,” says Peter Klein, vice president for
finance, St. Paul Port Authority. Last year,
SPPA completed a dozen or so projects;
this year looks to be busy as well.
Klein points to two SPPA loan programs,
available statewide, that have made solar
projects in Minnesota economically feasible:
Since its inception in 2010, the Trillion BTU
Here comes the sun
Commercial solar projects are hot among Eagan businesses, thanks to
dropping system costs, financial incentives and set energy prices.
Briefly CoNtINUEd oN NExt pAGE
Solar CoNtINUEd oN NExt pAGE
homES CoulD BE
powErED By ThE Top
25 Solar-ENErgy-
proDuCiNg CompaNiES
115,000
EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | FIRST QUARTER 2015 3cityofeagan.com
Workers install solar panels on the
Murphy Warehouse in Eagan.
has been named chief technology officer
of ConvergeOne, a leading independent
provider of IT,
communications
and more.
v Philip J.
Kluesner will
join Carlson
Commercial, an
Eagan-based
commercial
real-estate firm,
which recently merged with Gannett Peak
Partners in Edina. v Cynthia MacDonald has
been named vice president and CEO of Blue
Cross and Blue Shield Northern Plains Alliance
and COO of ClearStone Solutions; BCBS has
also promoted Stacia Cohen to vice president
of Medicare Star Center of Excellence.
BUSiNeSS: Blue Cross and Blue Shield
of Minnesota Foundation is seeking
proposals for one- and two-year grants of
$25,000 to $100,000 to further health equity
in Minnesota communities. v In other Blue
Cross and Blue Shield news, about 30,000
Minnesotans with BCBS coverage could have
had their data compromised by the security
breach of health insurer Anthem, Inc.; both
insurers belong to the Blue Cross and Blue
Shield Association. v Enventis has signed on
as the fifth
provider on
AccessEagan,
the City’s
17-mile business fiber network. v JonnyPops,
which got its start in part by selling its frozen
treats at Eagan Market Fest, has raised
approximately
$500,000 in
funding from
investors.
v Meritex,
a private real-
estate investment and
management company, has acquired the
155,000-square-foot Kennebec Distribution
Center in Eagan. v Employees at Thomson
Reuters can now access health care at work,
visiting Your Wellbeing Health Center, a
6,000-square-foot facility providing urgent,
preventive and chronic care. EBN
add value and vibrancy to a community.”
To that end, he invited the City of Eagan as
a whole to begin a creative, “community-
visioning process” with City-contracted
Next Generation Consulting. Among
the goals of the Eagan Forward project,
scheduled to begin this summer, are driving
a renewed vision and setting benchmarks.
“This is not simply about…what
conversations happen inside City Hall,”
he said. “It’s about a much broader
community conversation.” EBN
program has funded over $33 million in
projects. The program provides loans for
energy-efficient and energy-renewable projects,
offering 100 percent of each project cost with
no money down, roughly a 4 percent interest
rate and five-year terms. Businesses don’t
begin repaying the loans until they start seeing
energy savings; additionally, MiM rebates help
cover costs. A typical Trillion BTU project
costs between $100,000 and $2 million.
Another SPPA program, Property Assessed
Clean Energy, or PACE, tends to fund more
costly projects, often multitenant buildings. A
special low-cost, property-tax assessment for 100
percent of a solar project is placed on the real
estate by a government body. The business then
makes twice-yearly payments to the government
body, which, in turn, pays the SPPA; the City
of Eagan contracted the SPPA to manage any
PACE applications it receives. Because the
loans are paid back for up to 20 years, “the
cash flow is very positive,” says Klein.
Of course, there are stories of individual
residents with rooftop solar panels
who sell excess solar energy to their
utilities — and collect monthly checks.
That’s not often true for businesses,
says Jeff Schoenecker, senior electrical
engineer, Dakota Electric. “Most of the time,
a business’s [energy] load is greater than
the amount of solar energy it generates.” He
notes that a business needs “quite a bit of
square footage” — on a roof or on land — to
generate excess electricity. Still, he says,
“if you’re using 100kW, the 40 kW you’re
creating is offsetting your energy costs.”
Schoenecker says Dakota Electric has
found a great deal of interest in solar — both
for those who want fixed energy costs for the
future and who feel “it’s the right thing to do.”
Fedde of Ironwood Electronics would likely
count himself among both groups. “This is the
right time,” he says, “to do these kind of projects
with economic and environmental wins.” EBN
“Do all of the puzzle pieces come together?” asks
Brandon Charboneau, All Energy Solar, which
oversaw the Ironwood Electronics solar installation
in Eagan. “It just comes down to numbers at the
end of the day.” If it works, he says, “why wouldn’t a
business do this?” EBN
When a business contacts a solar-panel
manufacturer or installer, a consultant will
determine the costs and feasibility of each custom
project. Likely, he or she will:
• discuss goals for the business,
• determine the roof or land space that’s
available for solar panels,
• evaluate the business on site,
• consider how the business’s current
infrastructure integrates with a potential
solar project
• and calculate the costs of such a project
GettiNG StarteD
with SOlar
State of the City CoNtINUEd FRoM CoVER
Briefly CoNtINUEd FRoM pREVIoUS pAGESolar CoNtINUEd FRoM pREVIoUS pAGE
For more information, consider visiting these websites:
Dakota electric
dakotaelectric.com
Property assessed Clean energy Program
sppa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/newPACE2014.pdf
State incentives database
dsireusa.org
trillion BtU Program
sppa.com/wp-content/uploads/sellsheet_03.08.pdf
Philip J. Kluesner
EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | FIRST QUARTER 20154 www.cityofeagan.com
STANDARD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
TWIN CITIES, MN
PERMIT NO. 4902
Murphy Warehouse used an SBA loan to
fund a solar project at its Eagan location.
Three years ago, deciding to install solar on
his Eagan warehouse wasn’t a no-brainer for
Richard Murphy, despite the facts that his four
other warehouses had solar systems and he’s
known in the distribution industry as a “green
guy” — and not just because he’s Irish, he jokes.
While Murphy was used to making back
his renewable-energy
investments in under five
years, he was looking
at more than twice
that in Eagan. At the
time, Dakota Electric,
a not-for-profit co-op,
couldn’t offer the financial
incentives major utilities
were required to pay.
That’s when his financial institution
suggested he turn to the Small Business
Administration for a loan. Murphy was
skeptical, having been turned down before
by SBA for other purposes. But Murphy
Warehouse was quickly granted the loan this
time, thanks to the business’s renewable-
energy focus. And the loan offered great
terms, requiring just 5 percent down and
covering 95 percent of his costs. That
meant he could work with Dakota Electric
after all — “a great company,” he says.
Murphy was so impressed that he got
in touch with Finance &
Commerce magazine to
spread the word to other
small- and medium-sized
businesses. “For us, we
felt that was something
other businesses should
hear about,” he says.
Just a few years
later, additional state incentives are giving
businesses the boost to go solar, working
with any utility, including Dakota Electric.
In the meantime, Murphy continues
to spread the green gospel: Last year,
Murphy Warehouse was the fifth-largest
producer of solar power in Minnesota. EBN
eVery PUBliCatiON NeeDS a New lOOK
frOM tiMe tO tiMe. With this issue, Eagan
Business News unveils its new design. We welcome
your feedback, plus your story ideas. Contact us at
EBN@cityofeagan.com.
Expanding his solar system
3830 Pilot Knob Road
Eagan, Minnesota 55122
State of the City, 2015
Mayor Maguire highlights successes,
challenges during annual event
p1
p2
p2
p4
Briefly
Central Park Commons approved,
DataBank wins awards and more
Here comes the sun
Businesses invest in solar energy
Murphy Warehouse
A strategic leader in green energy
IN THIS ISSUE
Design & Layout
Cory Laux
Overdog Art
Editor
Karin B. Miller
Working Words, Inc.
“For uS, wE FElT ThaT
waS SomEThiNg
oThEr BuSiNESSES
ShoulD hEar aBouT.“
– riCharD murphy