After Lockheed Martin announced it would leave Eagan in 2010, its emptying corporate campus near City Hall became a sign of bad times.
Now, with plans advancing to turn the site into one of the Twin Cities' largest new retail developments in recent years, it's becoming a sign of Eagan's resiliency. Already the south metro's economic powerhouse, the city has weathered massive job losses from Lockheed and Delta Air Lines, and thanks to an influx of smaller new businesses, the city is home to more jobs today than ever.
And that's before ribbon is cut on the retail and office development on the Lockheed site or a sprawling new outlet mall under construction in the city's Cedar Grove redevelopment area. Each call for more retail space than such specialty centers as Edina's Galleria or the West End in St. Louis Park.
The economic boom also includes plans for hundreds of units of high-end apartments at two locations. One proposed apartment project would be part of a complex with offices and a data center.
The developments have the potential to strengthen Eagan's already healthy tax base. The redevelopment of the Lockheed site alone could boost tax revenue on that property from about $330,000 to $2.5 million a year, according to the developer, Minneapolis-based CSM Corp.
Newcomers to Eagan include Zep Vehicle Care Inc., a producer of auto cleaning products, which recently moved into a facility with offices and a research operation. MISO, which runs the Midwest's regional electrical grid, is moving from St. Paul into a new 60,000-square-foot building. Tech-support company Stream Global Services relocated its headquarters from suburban Boston late last year.
"You always like to have that really big fish in the bottom of your boat, but it's OK to catch some sunnies," said Mayor Mike Maguire. "Those job numbers add up, too."
Some worries
Eagan still has nagging concerns, like the 190-acre office campus Delta emptied after it took over Northwest Airlines and moved hundreds of jobs out of the city. A deal to sell it fell through in 2010, and lack of interest prompted the airline to pull it off the market.