Biz beat: Big boxes are rising, and new stores coming

Construction continues this winter on retail boxes, big and small, in Dakota County.

The walls and most of the roof are in place for a Target being built northwest of Robert Trail and Hwy. 55 in Inver Grove Heights. The $5.5 million building is to open in July, said Tom Link, city community development director. McGough Construction is building the 134,000-square-foot store.

Mauer Chevrolet in the city's northwest corner is undergoing a $3.8 million renovation and expansion of its old building at 1055 Hwy. 110, Link said.

And Cameron's Warehouse Liquors is opening a $1.1 million store at 6533 Concorde Blvd. this week. The 7,000-square-foot building is about a block from its former century-old store that was razed for the Concorde Boulevard reconstruction.

More building and store openings in Burnsville

Footings were being poured this week for the Wal-Mart store underway on Cliff Road and River Ridge Boulevard, said Skip Nienhaus, Burnsville's economic development coordinator. The $12 million, 150,000-square-foot store with an outside garden center is scheduled to open in the fall, he said.

Best Buy is remodeling the former Circuit City for its new digs at County Road 42 and Aldrich Avenue in Burnsville. The company will use its existing store as a training and idea-testing center after it moves its merchandise into the new store next fall, Nienhaus said.

Tires Plus hopes to close this month on a lot in the Towne and County Shopping Center at Hwy. 13 and Cliff Road. It plans to build an 8,400-square-foot Total Car Care center.

Camvac USA moved into a suite this month at 12701 Sheridan Av. S. on the south side of Hwy. 13. Nienhaus said the company has developed a way to suck sludge, water and contaminants out of fuel tanks for gas stations and others who maintain such tanks.

Aero Drapery & Blinds had a ribbon-cutting last week at 1254 County Road 42 West in the Burnhill Plaza Shopping Center. Founded in the 1940s, Aero sells custom window treatments to consumers and builders in the Twin Cities area.

Walls are going up on another 150,000-square-foot Wal- Mart with a garden center in Lakeville. The store is west of I-35 on County Road 70, across from the Lakeville 21 Theatre. It's slated to open by September.

Super Menard's still alive

The city Planning Commission earlier this month voted down a rezoning request by Fischer Sand and Aggregate because the project didn't comply with land use guidelines. Fischer had sought to rezone the 25-acre site from sand and gravel to retail business.

Peter Fischer assured the commission at its last meeting that he had "no intent to build a retail-based shopping center," said Community Development Director Bruce Nordquist. Fischer has done market studies that he wants to show the city, Nordquist said.

The commission will review the project at its March 7 meeting and "revisit if there is room for more retail in this quadrant than originally was thought" in 2009, when the land-use plan was adopted, Nordquist said. The site is part of 275 acres that Fischer owns.

Building a Super Menard's could be "job-producing, value-creating and help to jump-start the whole 275 acres," Nordquist said.