FedEx jobs in Brooklyn Park will move to new Maple Grove center

The new FedEx distribution facility planned for Maple Grove will replace a smaller distribution center in Brooklyn Park, company officials said Tuesday.

All of the nearly 300 jobs at the current center will transfer when the Maple Grove package-handling center opens in 2014, said Erin Truxel, a spokeswoman for FedEx Ground.

"No one will lose a job," she added.

Truxel said additional employees are likely to be hired once the new center is up and running. She said the jobs are mostly hourly positions whose pay rate varies by position.

The Maple Grove facility is planned for land northwest of the Interstate 94/494 interchange. The property is owned by Bremer Bank, which will sell the land to FedEx if plans for the center are approved by the Maple Grove City Council.

The 276,431-square-foot building would be used by FedEx SmartPost, a division that ships smaller parcels primarily for online retailers.

The city's Planning Commission will discuss the project at its Feb. 25 meeting and forward it to the City Council in March.

The SmartPost service, which uses the U.S. Postal Service for final delivery to people's homes, averages 2 million parcels per day, has 25 distribution centers and 7,000 employees, and is based in New Berlin, Wis., according to the FedEx website.

Scannell Properties, an Indianapolis-based developer that has done other projects for FedEx, submitted plans for the building to the city in January.

The property was foreclosed on by Bremer Bank in 2009, said Teresa Morrow, a vice president at Bremer.

"We're hopeful the city will approve it and the sale will continue to move forward," she said. "From our perspective it would be something that Maple Grove would be very interested in because of the jobs."

Minnesota employers added 3,000 jobs in transportation and warehousing between September and December, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, even though employment growth in that sector has been flat for three years.