Just Sold: Coborn's faces off with Target in Otsego.

Byline: Anne Bretts

Editor's note: "Just Sold" is a Finance & Commerce feature based on certificates of real estate value recently filed for commercial transactions and significant residential transactions in Twin Cities counties. Additional details in the transactions come from Plat Research, the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office, company documents, online real estate listings, F&C archives, CoStar and other research. Some purchase prices and per-unit calculations have been rounded. Full prices are available on the CRVs posted here.

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For nearly a century, Coborn's Inc. has had its roots in the St. Cloud area, but over the years the employee-owned grocery company has expanded its reach along Interstate 94 and into the western suburbs of the Twin Cities.

Now the retailer is poised to strengthen that eastern frontier and take it right to Target's doorstep.

Coborn's Inc. has closed on two transactions totaling $3.436 million for land for the first phase of an 18.04-acre retail and apartment development at the southwest intersection of 90th Street and Parrish Avenue in Otsego. The site is directly across Parrish Avenue from a Super Target that has been serving the area since 2005.

In one transaction, Coborn Realty Company LP paid Timothy and Susan Neibling of Elk River $2 million in cash for a house and land at 1567 90th St. NE. The sale agreement allows the seller to lease for up to six months. Property records indicate the property includes 5 acres of land. The price works out to $401,186 per acre.

In a separate transaction, Coborn's paid the Karen S. Anderson Irrevocable Trust in Minneapolis $1.43 million in cash for 3.44 acres at 15700-15760 90th St. NE. The price works out to $415,635 per acre.

Both sales closed Aug. 13.

Saulk Rapids-based Rice Cos. is developing the site in two phases, according to information it filed with city during the approval process. President and CEO Chris Rice declined comment on the project. A Coborn's spokesperson confirmed the grocer has plans to build a store that will bring 140 jobs to the city, but declined to give any details.

The site plan provided to Finance & Commerce by Coborn's and filed with the city shows a 52,622-square-foot grocery store, multiple retail and office sites and a site for apartments.

Coborn's has nearly 8,000 employees and 53 stores across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois and Wisconsin under the Coborn's, Cash Wise Foods, Marketplace Foods and Save-A-Lot...