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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAdd on-Opus at UMore Park in RosemountOpus may be first in at UMore Park in Rosemount By: Matt M. Johnson September 9, 2016 2:49 pm 0Finance and Commerce The Opus Grouphas offered to purchase nearly 159 acres of UMore Parkland in Rosemount to develop an industrial research park, potentially making it the first private developer to buy into the site since the University of Minnesota stepped away from its role as a joint developer. Minnetonka-based Opus would pay a little more than $14 million for the vacant land. Susan CarlsonWeinberg, the university’s director of real estate, presented the offer during a Thursday meeting of the University of Minnesota’ facilities, planning and operations committee. The university has been marketing the acreage for industrial or business park use for about a year. If the university accepts Opus’ offer, it would receive the equivalent of $88,272 per acre. Facilities committee Chairman David McMillan said the purchase offer will come back to the committee in October for action. The committee could recommend that the school’s Board of Regents approve the sale. The site, in the northeast corner of the 4,772-acre UMore property, is 3.5 miles west of downtown Rosemount. It’s in the southwest quadrant of 145th Street and Blaine Avenue West, about a half-mile west of Highway 52. Dakota County Technical College is a few hundred yards to the west. Phil Cattanach, Opus’ director of real estate development, said in a statement Friday that the company is “excited to be partnering with the University of Minnesota.” He said the company will share details of its plans for the UMore acreage in the coming months. Under the terms of the deal, Opus would give the school $100,000 in earnest money. Opus would then buy the property in phases over the course of 10 years. Opus would develop the land in phases that “will reflect market demand and the identification of end-user clients,” Weinberg said. If the developer is unable to draw the end users it wants, Opus may buy portions of the land or none of it, she said. The university has long planned to develop UMore Park into a community that would be home to 20,000 to 30,000 people. In February, several university leaders issued a reportrecommending the university not take a role in “vertical development” at UMore. The Board of Regents later approved a resolution directing the school to sellthe land and rely on private developers to build there. The Opus offer comes about a year after the university issued a request for proposals to sell the 158.8 acres for industrial or business park development. No acceptable proposals were received, Weinberg said. The land remained for sale for industrial and business park use. Kim Lindquist, Rosemount’s community development director, said Friday that she is pleased to see Opus come to UMore as a buyer. The city has been working with the university to getUMore developed. The university has used the land –once a site of a World War II ammunition plant —for research and other activities for decades. The acreage Opus has offered to buy previously received “a few nibbles,” she said, but this is the first time a private developer has made a real commitment. “This is a great opportunity to have a partner with Opus,” she said. The university could take on more than $2.8 million in improvements in making the sale. It would be required to relocate a Northern Natural Gas pipeline at a cost of $1.45 million and may have to pay Rosemount up to $1.4 million for water, sewer and roadway improvements. Terms of the deal would require Opus’ first purchase to be for an amount equal to or exceeding those expenses, school documents show. Lindquist said Rosemount has worked up a preliminary estimate of $6 million for public infrastructure improvements needed at the Opus site. That includes extending city water and sewer services and improving Blaine Avenue. A portion of that expense will be billed to the developer.