Shakopee OKs land sale at West Gateway.

Byline: William Morris

Shakopee is making something happen on the land nobody wanted.

The city's Economic Development Authority has been working for several years to spur development in the northeast quadrant of the Highway 69/169 interchange. The city has invested $1.5 million connecting Vierling Drive through the roughly 30-acre site, known as the West Shakopee Gateway area, and divided it into four lots for development.

Shakopee has had some success. A NorthStar Regional men's inpatient treatment center has already opened on one lot, and Doggie Doo's pet spa, which is being displaced by another Shakopee development project, has a new building under construction on a second. On Oct. 15, the EDA voted to approve the sale for $500,000 of a third lot, 3.66 acres in the north quadrant of Vierling and Taylor Street, to Richfield-based MWF Properties for a proposed 102-unit workforce housing project.

"Especially with all the business development going on in the area there, we think it's a great location," MWF Development Associate Matt Yetzer said before the vote.

The Gateway site had long sat vacant, in part because the city had previously zoned it for business, Director of Planning and Development Michael Kerski said at the Oct. 15 meeting.

"No one really wanted this site for a B-1 [highway business] use," he said.

The City Council, which comprises the same members as the EDA, accordingly voted to rezone the site for high-density residential. Both votes were 4-1, with Matt Lehman opposed.

The fourth and largest section of Gateway site, a 16-acre lot south of Vierling, is under contract to The Opus Group, which is seeking tenants for a possible business park development, senior manager Joe Mahoney said in a statement.

"The strength of the southwest industrial submarket coupled with the robust interest we have received from prospective users continue to validate the project," Mahoney said. "We look forward to...