HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-03-15 - Eagan Business NewsBUSINESS NEWSEAGAN
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FROM THEEDITOR
EAGANESTABLISHES DATACENTERMORATORIUM
It seems that not a day goes by without a headline mentioning AI and its impact on the growth of data
centers. Eagan’s first data center opened over a decade ago, and by the end of this year, we’ll have a
total of four. But the City Council has put a yearlong pause on new approvals. Why? Our cover story
shares the details.
Support local businesspeople
— including farmers, artists,
and restaurateurs — during
this season’s last Indoor Market
Fest, 4–7 p.m., at Eagan Community
Center (1501 Central Pkwy.).
Interested in legislation that
could impact your business?
Then consider attending the
2026 Chamber Day at the
Capitol. Visit dcrchamber.
com/events for more info.
Minnesota businesses lost hundreds
of millions of dollars in revenue/wages
during December–February federal
immigration enforcement, according to
many media reports.
To help families who’ve been
sheltering in place, the Eagan
Community Foundation is collecting
donations for rent relief and more. For
info, visit eaganfoundation.org.
DID YOU KNOW Aburgeoning appetite for ever
more AI, cloud computing, and
24/7 internet connectivity is driving
the demand for more data centers
across the country. Yet data center
developers with their sights on the
City of Eagan should look elsewhere
— at least for the next year.
The City Council has unanimously
passed a data center interim
ordinance, a first of its kind in
Minnesota. “We want to understand
as fully as we can the implications of
the new generation of data centers,”
said Mayor Mike Maguire during
the Feb. 17 meeting. “The size
and scope of [these] data centers
are giving the Council pause.” This
moratorium stipulates that no new
data center may be located in Eagan
within 500 feet of residential homes
or use more than 20 megawatts
of electricity through Feb. 17,
2027, unless the Council lifts the
moratorium earlier.
In the meantime, City staff will
conduct a study of data centers,
which store, process, manage,
distribute, and protect data.
The study will include long-term
infrastructure impacts; use of
resources, including energy and
water; noise produced by data
centers; changing design standards;
and how future data centers fit within
Eagan’s zoning framework.
Following the study, “Community
Development, along with
any consultants, will make
recommendations to Council regarding
reasonable restrictions on the operation
of data centers within Eagan,” explained
Dianne Miller, city administrator.
EAGAN’S CURRENT DATA CENTERS
Eagan will soon have four data
centers, all of which were approved
prior to the moratorium. The former
Unisys site (3199 Pilot Knob Rd.)
has an enterprise data center, which
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DATA CENTER Continued on next page
2 Q1 2026 | EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS
BRIEFLY
PEOPLE
After a distinguished 34-year career,
Fire Chief Hugo
Searle has
concluded his
fire service with
the Eagan Fire
Department.
During nearly
five years as
Eagan’s fire chief, he strengthened
the City’s full-time fire department
model, improved emergency
response times, and fostered
a culture rooted in teamwork,
mentorship, and service.
BUSINESS
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business
Journal listed the top 20 women-
owned companies ranked by 2025
revenue, including All in One
Accounting (#14) and Transport
Express (#11), led by Heide Olson
(founder and CEO) and Lacey
Olson (chief manager and owner),
respectively. n After an eight-year
effort, Caponi Art Park is now
listed on the National Register
of Historic Places. The nearly
40-year-old, 60-acre park features
roughly 50 large-scale sculptures,
most by founder Anthony Caponi.
n Davey Tree Expert Company
has purchased a $7.5M, 7.25-
acre commercial property (3300
Terminal Dr.). n Due to bankruptcies,
Francesca’s and Saks OFF 5th
have closed most of their stores,
including those at Eagan’s Twin
Cities Premium Outlets. n Ryan
Cos., which purchased the former
179-acre Thomson Reuters campus
(610 Opperman Dr.), is continuing
its redevelopment, now proposing
a 337,000-sq.-ft. industrial building
for an unnamed tenant. n In other
Thomson Reuters news, roughly
180 employees recently sent a letter
supported Unisys operations. The
new property owner has indicated
its intention to continue operation
of the existing data center. The
90,000-square foot DataBank data
center (3255 Neil Armstrong Blvd.)
opened in Eagan back in 2015. It’s a
colocation data center, which means
that it houses multiple clients and is
served by various network providers.
Opening this summer is another
colocation data center, owned by
Boston-based Centra, at the former
Thomson Reuters’ dedicated data
center (610 Opperman Dr.). Dubbed
MSP1, this 100,000-square-foot, 12
MW carrier-neutral facility is scheduled
to open by late summer and will
primarily serve as a signal booster
for networks of clients, among them,
Minnesota-based broadband and
telecommunications provider Arvig.
Eagan’s fourth data center, owned
by Excelsior-based Oppidan, will
serve as an industry edge data center,
again working as a signal booster for
its tenant network. Construction is
underway, and this 61,554-square-
foot, single-story 5MW data center
(3621 Argenta Trl.) will likely be
occupied and operational this fall.
Both Centra and Oppidan say their
facilities are designed to be energy
and water efficient. EBN
ECOLAB TO INVEST $500M IN EAGAN CAMPUS
The 82,200-square-foot project
will include a new campus entry,
remodeled customer-experience
facilities,
and state-of-
the-art labs.
“Ecolab
has been an
innovator in
Minnesota
and a valued
partner here
in Eagan,”
Mayor Mike
Maguire
says. “Their $500 million investment…
reflects the strength of our workforce
and presents important growth
opportunities for both Ecolab and our
Eagan community.”
To help support the project, Ecolab
applied to the Minnesota Forward
Fund for $10 million. Eagan’s City
Council supported this request last
May via a
resolution,
which noted
that the
project will
not only help
secure 1,000
positions
but bring
thousands
of Ecolab
customers to
Eagan annually for training.
Notes Maguire: “We at City Hall
look forward to learning more
about Ecolab’s expansion plans
and continuing our successful work
together.” EBN
Hugo Searle
Ecolab announced in March its intention to invest $500 million
in a project that will update and expand its two-decade-old
Schuman campus (655 Lone Oak Dr.), which focuses on
research and development plus training.
DATA CENTER Continued from cover
3EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS | Q1 2026
Eagan, like other large cities, is
required by Minnesota state statute
to create a comprehensive plan
and to meet Metropolitan Council
requirements.
The report relies heavily on the
technical analysis conducted by
City departments. “Community
Development coordinates the full
plan document, but it’s a big lift for
a lot of City departments,” says Jill
Hutmacher, community development
director. “The plan is what it’s called
— comprehensive.”
City staff, with the help of
consultants, will develop eight
technical master plans: Climate
Action, Parks, Sanitary, Storm,
Transportation, Water Supply,
Integrated Water, and Water
Resources. The City must also
create land use and housing plans.
All plans must align with each other
and with the Metropolitan Council’s
forecasts for housing, population,
and job growth. “In other words,
the comprehensive plan holistically
evaluates every aspect of
the City’s built and natural
environment and determines
what changes are necessary
to accommodate projected
growth,” Hutmacher says.
To kick off the project, City
staff will begin to talk with
community members on a wide
variety of these topics. Over
the spring and summer, you’ll
see staff at Eagan Market Fest,
Juneteenth, Big Rig Rally,
and more events. Staff will
be reaching out for business
input through the Dakota
County Regional Chamber
of Commerce, Rotary clubs,
and other business groups.
“Wherever a group of people
is interested in comprehensive
planning, we can be there,”
Hutmacher says. Online opportunities
to provide input will be available as
well.
Because the Metropolitan Council
must approve the 2050 CP by
December 2028, the report will likely
be submitted in mid-2028. Like to see
the previous CP? Visit cityofeagan.
com/2040plan to read the full 2040
Comprehensive Plan. EBN
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2050
BRIEFLY Continued from previous page
to company leadership expressing
ethical, legal, and human-rights
concerns about the company’s
multimillion-dollar contract with
U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). The employees
asked the company to provide more
transparency about how federal
agencies may use Thomson Reuters’
CLEAR investigative database,
which compiles large amounts of
public and commercial data used in
investigations. In a statement, the
company said it provides technology
that supports investigations related to
national security and public safety and
noted that it maintains safeguards to
ensure its products and services are
used in accordance with contractual
terms and applicable law.
GOVERNMENT
While the City of Eagan hadn’t
received a request for an ICE
detention center, the City Council
decided at its March 2 meeting to
unanimously approve a resolution to
oppose any ICE detainee facilities in
Eagan. n During this year’s State of
the City on March 19, Mayor Mike
Maguire focused on how community
members’ voices help guide Eagan
forward. The event, held at the CLA
Connection Center (2685 Vikings
Cir.), celebrated the city’s continued
growth, strong financial stewardship,
and commitment to community
engagement that makes the City a
great place to live, work, play, and do
business. Watch the State of the City
at cityofeagan.com/sotc. n Eagan
was a top performer in the 2025
Voice of the People Awards in five
categories, and won the top award
for health and wellness. Run by
research firm Polco, its survey tracks
resident responses from hundreds
of U.S. communities and bases the
awards on their input. EBN
It’s just about that time again — time for the City of Eagan to
begin working on its next Comprehensive Plan (CP). Once a
decade, the process of creating Eagan’s CP helps determine
community goals, guides development and redevelopment, and
addresses changes over the next 20 years.
To make decisions about the Northwest Central
Commons Small Area Plan, City staff talked with
members of the public — here in front of Eagan
TV cameras at the Eagan Community Center.
Similar interviews will begin soon regarding the
2050 Comprehensive Plan.
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U.S. POSTAGE
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TWIN CITIES, MN
PERMIT NO. 4902
4 Q1 2026 | EAGAN BUSINESS NEWS
1 EAGAN ESTABLISHES DATA CENTER MORATORIUM
3 LOOKING AHEAD TO 2050
2 BRIEFLY: STATE OF THE CITY, THOMSON REUTERS, AND MORE
4 EAGAN’S GIVING CIRCLE
2 ECOLAB TO INVEST $500M IN EAGAN CAMPUS
IN THIS ISSUE
EAGAN’S GIVING CIRCLE
Is your business looking for more ways to give back? Look
no further than the Eagan Community Foundation, the City’s
philanthropic hub.
The 35-year-old organization started broadening its mission in
2016. Beyond a focus primarily on scholarships, the foundation
began expanding community grants while also adding donor
services, flexible funds, and
programs that build community
connections.
Recently the foundation put a
new spin on its annual Community
Connections Coffee Break event in
February: Participants paid a fee
to attend, but then the collected
$1,500 was sent back out to six nonprofits in amounts decided
upon by the attendees themselves, who voted via tokens. An
additional $500 was raised for the Eagan Community Response
Fund, which currently prioritizes rent support and other emerging
community needs.
“We wanted the event to function like a giving circle,” explains
Jamie Hopkins, executive director, “where neighbors pool their
generosity and work together to support organizations and
initiatives that strengthen Eagan.”
Before distributing their tokens, participants took a quiz to learn
what kind of givers they were — answering questions like, do you
typically give during a crisis? They then had an immediate and
real opportunity to align their
giving with their values.
“We were asking people
to be introspective, take
action, and think about their
community in new ways,”
Hopkins says. “People really
loved it.”
If your business is interested in learning more about
community needs and where your dollars might stretch the
furthest, contact eaganfoundation.org.
“Businesses don’t have to figure it out alone,” Hopkins says.
“We connect them with local needs, align giving with values, and
turn that commitment into real impact.” EBN