Business View Magazine | November 2019

347 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 COTTAGE GROVE , MINNESOTA Andersen (Windows) will make it the city’s largest employer. “We’re also interested in the technology market,” says Levitt. “We have some large, shovel- ready tracts of land, which is unique in the Metro, so we’re really poised for development as a technology center. We have a great partnership with Xcel Energy, one of our suppliers of energy to the site; also with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), and our Community Development Authority at Washington County. We have such attractive land for development, but for that to work successfully, it’s going to take partnerships at all levels.” Cottage Grove has commercial nodes, but no traditional downtown core, so they’re literally going to build one. Plans are currently in the works for the Shoppes at Cottage View development project at the southern leg of the final part of the Ravine Parkway. The area has been designed as multi-use – incorporating residential, commercial, business, and public space. The Mayor acknowledges, “The Shoppes at Cottage View would be this ‘downtown feel’ that Cottage Grove does not have. We’re already marketing that area on behalf of the landowner, and have received high marks from developers who expressed interest in coming to the city to be part of that. The City is also exploring the potential of building a Community Center in the “Shoppes” area, which is generating a lot of buzz as well. We are proactive and aggressive in a big way. We’re not giving away the farm but we look for solutions – we don’t put up roadblocks. Developers know we will work with them.” Another accolade in the city’s achievements is the HERO Center, being built on the Ravine Parkway, directly north of the City Hall Public Safety Building on city property. The City of Cottage Grove and its neighboring City of Woodbury combined finances, along with funding from the State of Minnesota, to put the project together. Pete Koerner, Cottage Grove Director of Public Safety, explains, “The HERO acronym stands for Health and Emergency Responder Occupations. This is a regional facility and will be a state-of- the-art, immersive training center for police, fire, Shoppes at Cottage View Rendering