Emerson eyes old ADC Telecom site

The abandoned ADC Telecommunications site in Shakopee could become home to 500 new manufacturing jobs under a plan being considered by Emerson Process Management Rosemount.

Company officials are scheduled to meet with Shakopee city leaders on Tuesday to discuss a possible building project that includes a request for $6 million in subsidies from the city, Scott County and the state of Minnesota.

Emerson officials emphasized that the plan to take over half of the 100-acre site is just one of several options being considered.

"This is very preliminary. Nothing has been decided," said Dave Baldridge, the company's spokesman. "We are in the midst of considering options, one of which is Shakopee."

If chosen, the old ADC structure would be used to expand Emerson's Rosemount final assembly operations in Chanhassen, Baldridge said. The Rosemount operation makes factory and process products for industrial customers.

If Emerson moves into the old ADC site, it would be a tremendous economic boost for Shakopee, a city of more than 37,000.

ADC's former 500,000-square-foot building and the surrounding 100-acre site have been vacant for a decade since ADC fell on hard times and pulled out of the proposed office and manufacturing complex at Shakopee's Valley Park Business Center near Hwy. 169 and Hwy. 101.

More recently, the property has gotten a chance for a second life as a manufacturing plant.

In October, Opus Development Corp.'s senior vice president, Dave Menke, confirmed that Opus had bought the property. He declined to disclose a price.

ADC had paid $7.5 million for the vacant land in 2000. This year, the building and property were listed at $12 million.

If a deal is reached, Emerson Process Management Rosemount, which is a division of the $24 billion St. Louis-based Emerson Electric Co., would have 500 hourly and salaried workers at the site, Baldridge said.

Those employees are expected to be working on new energy-related products.