business

Construction began last week on a 175-room Embassy Suites Hotel that will be connected to the Earle Brown Conference Center in Brooklyn Center.

The $30 million hotel, which is being developed by Duluth-based Oliver Companies, is expected to be complete in about one year. Oliver's other Twin Cities hotel projects include a Hampton Inn in Lino Lakes.

The Embassy Suites is the first of two hotels to be built next to the conference center, according to John Sheehan, an agent specializing in the hospitality market at Edina-based Cambridge Commercial Realty. Sheehan negotiated the development agreement with the city for both hotel projects.

Sheehan said work on the second hotel, which will have 75 rooms, will begin in about 18 months.

New site for Heraeus

Minneapolis-based Griffin Companies recently represented W.C. Heraeus in its purchase of a 30-acre site in White Bear Township that will be the future home of its medical component manufacturing business. The price of the parcel on Centerville Road was not disclosed.

Heraeus, a medical technology company based in Germany, employs about 100 people at facilities in White Bear Lake. They will relocate to the new 80,000-square-foot offices and manufacturing operations, which will be able to accommodate about 200 more employees, according to Jim Edberg, a sales and leasing associate at Griffin.

Arden Hills office center

Chesapeake Companies of Minnetonka recently announced plans to develop an office complex on one of the few remaining parcels of available land along the Interstate 494 /694 loop.

Chesapeake could begin work next year on Traverse Business Center. The project will be on a 26.5-acre site at the interesection of I-35W and I-694 in Arden Hills.

The city has approved up to 495,000 square feet of office space for the site. Current plans call for constructing a 203,000-square-foot building in a first phase and following later with a 261,000-square-foot building.

Jon McClure, a Chesapeake principal, said the developers will work with tenants to tailor the specific size and design of the planned buildings to users' needs.

Cheseapeake has hired the Twin Cities office of Cushman & Wakefield to market space in the office center.

Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723

Susan Feyder • sfeyder@startribune.com