One of Arden Hill’s biggest employers is poised to get even bigger.
Land O’Lakes is seeking to expand its corporate headquarters just north of Interstate 694 by about 145,000 square feet and 200 employees.
The deal is contingent on “a number of factors,” according to company spokesman Rebecca Lentz.
At least one of those appears to be public assistance.
The company seeks tax abatements on the new proposed square footage from Arden Hills, Ramsey County and the Mounds View school district for 15 years after it completes construction on the expansion, which could be complete by December 2018 if it moves ahead, said Jill Hutmacher, community development director for Arden Hills.
Land O’Lakes would continue to pay its existing property taxes uninterrupted.
The company also is seeking aid from the Department of Employment and Economic Development Minnesota Investment Fund and Job Creation Fund.
For Ramsey County, the tax abatement on the expansion would equal up to $1.4 million over the 15-year-window, said John Siqveland, a spokesman for the county.
If commissioners end up approving it, it would be the first time the county grants a tax abatement for economic development.
“It is big, I am not trying to downplay that in any shape or form,” Ramsey County Board Chair Victoria Reinhardt said about the potential tax break. “But I think this is an opportunity to have a Minnesota-grown company expand right here at home, rather than exporting the jobs someplace else.”
She added she was told by a Land O’Lakes employee that the abatement opportunity was the primary reason the Fortune 500 company was seeking to stay local.
None of the involved public entities have voted on the tax abatement request yet.
Land O’Lakes has had its headquarters in Arden Hills since the early 1980s. Employees on the roughly 50-acre site now work out of 285,000 square feet of space split between an office building and a research and development facility, Hutmacher said.
The company also leases two buildings inside Shoreview’s corporate center, which is across the street from the Arden Hills site.
Between both locations, the company employs about 1,800 people in the area, Lentz said. Should the expansion move ahead, it plans to hire 200 more over the next several years.
The jobs would pay at least $19.30 an hour, according to information provided to the county.
The added square footage would allow the company space to house the new employees while also making room to accommodate those now officed in Shoreview, Hutmacher said.
She added that Arden Hills is glad one of its biggest employers wants to stay and grow within its city limits.
“It’s a (Fortune 500) company that (provides) really good jobs… and is a great corporate presence in the community and as a corporate citizen,” she said. “This is a corporate entity that we definitely want to keep.”
The move would be a little more of a mixed bag for Shoreview, said Tom Simonson, the city’s assistant city manager and community development director.
“Generally, we are very supportive that they will grow in our area, but certainly it’s disappointing they will be pulling out of Shoreview,” Simonson said. “We will have to work with the property owners (of the Shoreview Corporate Center) to see if we can find some good companies to replace them.”
The company reached the tentative decision to expand in Arden Hills after considering a “number of options,” Lentz reported.
“We … decided that a proposed expansion in Arden Hills provides us with excellent opportunities for our employees and to attract and retain top talent,” Lentz wrote in an email.
She added that agribusiness is one of the “greatest growth industries of our time…” that is charged with meeting the “challenge of feeding (nine) billion people by 2050,” as the number of college graduates expressing interest in careers in agriculture reportedly continues to dwindle.
Land O’Lakes is a member-owned cooperative with more than 10,000 employees worldwide. It netted $13 billion in 2015, according to its website.
Ramsey County will hold a public hearing on the proposed tax abatement for the project at 9 a.m. April 5 in the council chambers at the Ramsey County Courthouse.
Commissioners will vote on the tax abatement in the following weeks. Arden Hills City Council is expected to vote on the issue in April.
