Hot property: Gateway Commerce Center retail building

Gateway Commerce Center retail building Hanson Boulevard and Hwy. 10, Coon Rapids

Type: Multi-tenant retail Size: 5,990 square feet

Developer: H&W Limited Partnership

Details: The second building in a long-planned, 32-acre commercial development along Hwy. 10 in Coon Rapids has been approved by the city's Planning Commission, only months after its first structure -- a gas station/convenience store -- opened for business.

In July, the city approved a 7,400-square-foot Holiday station with 20 gas pumps and an attached car wash -- the first of 12 planned elements to appear in the Gateway Commerce Center, a concept from developer William Cooley that was first proposed in 1980.

The project was delayed for years as Cooley, principal of H&W Limited Partnership, waged a legal battle with the U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers, which had classified most of the property as wetlands.

Cooley won in the lower courts, and after appeals, eventually was awarded $3 million. Now he's proceeding with plans for about 326,000 square feet of space available for sale or lease.

The project's first steps, however, have been small ones. After last year's approval of the convenience store, the Coon Rapids Planning Commission on Feb. 16 also unanimously approved a site plan for an adjacent 5,900-square-foot multi-tenant retail building.

The building would be back-to-back with the convenience store and include a drive-through window for a possible food-service user. It could house up to three tenants, although no leases had been signed, said the project architect, Kathy Anderson of Architectural Consortium.

"The Holiday station is getting a lot of traffic, and we went ahead and put in foundation piers for this building last fall in anticipation of getting tenants," she said. "Retail is coming back."

DON JACOBSON