Mortenson Partners with Crown Iron Works on Development Deal

Blaine Council Approves Tax Incentives to Attract Global Company

Excerpt from Hometown Source:

The Blaine City Council has approved a measure to bring the headquarters of a global company to the city.

On July 12, the council approved an economic development tax increment financing (TIF) district as an incentive for Crown Iron Works to set up shop there.

“These (economic development TIF districts) are specialized districts that are specific for increasing employment and tax base for new manufacturing and R and D facilities,” Economic Development Coordinator Erik Thorvig said.

The evening started with a brief meeting of the Economic Development Authority (EDA), where Thorvig presented the TIF district and a developer agreement with Mortenson Construction, which owns the land.

Blaine has been working with Crown for almost two years on bringing the offices to the city from its current headquarters in Roseville.

The company is setting up at 9859 Naples St. As part of the deal, Mortenson will construct a 70,000 square-foot building for offices and research with an additional 5,000 square-foot building for oilseed extraction. The specialization required for Crown’s work put the original estimated project cost at just over $14 million. That left Crown, which will lease from Mortenson, paying about $15 per square foot annually.

That cost was above the area market rate and higher than what Crown was willing to pay. To bring annual rent per square foot down to $11.41, a sum Crown is comfortable with, the project needed to be reduced by $3.2 million.

“The developer sharpened their pencil and got the project down by about $2 million but that still created a $1.2 million gap that we had to solve,” Thorvig said.