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Business North - The Daily Briefing - Business Newspaper Online
Itasca development group will acquire Ainsworth site
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11/9/2009 by Beth Bily |
Itasca Economic Development Corp. said Monday, Nov. 9 it will assume ownership of the former Ainsworth oriented strand board mill in Grand Rapids by year’s end.
The economic development agency plans $5 million in renovations to transform the industrial site into a multi-tenant eco-industrial park.
The nonprofit group announced its purchase agreement at the Forest History Center, next to the former Ainsworth site. Cost and other terms of the purchase weren’t disclosed.
British Columbia-based Ainsworth formally abandoned the plant and two other board mills in Bemidji and Cook earlier this year following a near halt in U.S. demand for OSB stemming from a stagnant housing market.
The Grand Rapids site includes a 400,000 square foot manufacturing site. The development corporation plans to demolish about half the current site and retrofit the remaining space. Interim President Diane Weber said about 10 prospective tenants have toured the facility, adding the first tenants could be in place by mid-2010. She said funding for demolition, retrofitting, possible environmental remediation, marketing and holding haven’t been fully secured.
Economic developers are marketing the site to eco-industrial businesses, such as wind energy and biomass industries. The development corporation has a non-binding letter of intent to relocate from an out-of-state biomass fuels company Weber wouldn’t identify. She said it potentially would employ 30 workers.
The development corporation and Area Partnership for Economic Expansion (APEX) secured funding from the Blandin Foundation, Grand Rapids Economic Development Authority and Iron Range Resources to commission a project feasibility study. It included a property assessment, market analysis and redevelopment design options. Redevelopment plans are based on the study findings, Weber said.
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