Retail giant Target Corporation got the greenlight this week to double the size of its Northern Campus in Brooklyn Park as the retailer makes room for up to 4,000 additional employees who will work at the site in Target's technology division.
In an unanimous vote, Brooklyn Park's City Council approved the $65 million Target expansion will include two new eight-story office buildings, adding to the existing four office buildings on the 136-acre Northern Campus site.
The expansion is part of Target's overall growth and pent-up demand for office space. According to Brooklyn Park city officials, the plans call for bring between 3,000 to 4,000 workers to the Brooklyn Park campus, some existing employees from downtown Minneapolis in addition to new hires.
For more than a decade Target Corporation has been Brooklyn Park's largest employer with an estimated 1,300 workers currently located at the northern campus.
Brooklyn Park Mayor Jeff Lunde said the addition of several thousand workers will help spur economic development in the area of Highways 610 and 169.
"As this building starts to take place, it's going to allow us to start to attract those restaurants that people have been asking for because the business crowd drives restaurant development," said Lunde.
Lunde said the expansion and addition of employees will help strengthen the city's case for the completion of the remaining stretch of Highway 610 and could bolister the possibility of a light rail transit expansion to the city.
Brooklyn Park is providing a more than $2 million subsidy to Target for the two new buildings. Brooklyn Park's Business Development Manager, Amy Baldwin, said the city hopes the Target expansion is not the last.
"They certainly have the capacity to continue growing," said Baldwin.
The two-building expansion in Brooklyn Park is expected to be completed in 2014.
Alexandra Renslo reporting
arenslo@twelve.tv
May 22, 2012