7153 152nd St. W., Apple Valley

Type: Office

Size: 100,000 square feet

Lot: 3.7 acres

Owner: Dakota County

Details: A "global business services provider" is interested in occupying a prospective new, 100,000-square-foot office building and adjacent parking ramp on a vacant site in Apple Valley's Central Village, city officials say.

The city's planning staff indicated it's working with an unnamed developer on plans for it to acquire three tax-forfeit parcels there for $1.2 million — the cost of the outstanding assessments on the property — and construct a two-story office building, to be leased by the unidentified company.

Planners said the company considers Apple Valley its "preferred location" to relocate its operations, but reported the developer needs help to fund the "significant improvements" that would be needed to be make rents at the site competitive.

In a bid to move the effort forward, the Metropolitan Council's Committee Development Committee last week approved the city's request to switch an $866,000 transit-oriented development grant awarded in 2011 to revamp the Commons I & II office buildings to the Central Village West site, a third of a mile from the Apple Valley Transit Station on the Cedar Avenue "Red Line" bus rapid transit route.

The city had hoped to lure Stream Global Services to the Commons I & II buildings, which are near the 147th Street Station, but the firm last year opted instead for office space in an Eagan.

Apple Valley Community Development Director Bruce Nordquist said the talks with the developer are "prospective," with nothing official to report, but, he added, "We believe that site can support 100,000 square feet of development with structured parking."

The city and Dakota County last month reached a memorandum of understanding in which the county agreed to hold the three parcels back from auction while the city attempted to land a development deal for them.

Under the arrangement, the county's Community Development Agency would retain two other parcels at the Founders Circle site for future rental housing use.

Don Jacobson is a freelance writer in St. Paul. He can be reached at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.