Best Buy announced plans earlier this year to become the latestlarge Twin Cities corporation to build its own corporate campus.The consumer-electronics retailer plans to leave its currentheadquarters complex here and will spend $150 million to build 1.5million sf of office space on the redevelopment site in Richfieldat I-494 between I-35W and Penn Avenue. Construction is slated tobegin in the spring of 2001, and the new corporate headquarterswill be complete by summer of 2002.

But the proposed project, which requires assistance from thecity of Richfield to relocate several businesses and dozens ofhomes, has drawn opposition from some neighborhood businesses andresidents. Partly in response, the company hired Anton, Lubov &Associates of Minneapolis to study the economic impact of thecampus. According to the study, the campus will generate about $7.3million in property taxes beginning in 2003. Some of that moneywill go to build a new bridge over Penn Avenue, while some of itwill go to fund new housing construction and remodelingprograms.

The study also notes that when Best Buy relocates, there will be5,500 more employees in the city, a 35% increase. Moreover, the$150-million development will generated $187 million in economicactivity, creating 3,800 full-time construction jobs during thebuilding phases.Public-Private Partnership Formed to BoostBurnsville DevelopmentSeventeen real estate firms band together inan alliance to fill local buildings.Jim McCartney BURNSVILLE, MN—Aspart of an effort to expand and market development opportunities inthe Twin Cities suburb of Burnsville, the city and its chamber ofcommerce recently formed an alliance with a group of some 17 localcommercial real estate firms. "Everyone benefits from boostingoccupancy in existing buildings, putting commercial property tobetter uses and encouraging new development," says Gary Lally,senior vice president of Hoyt Properties, one of the partners. Thealliance, which has a three-year plan of promotional activities andan annual budget of $50,000, is called the Burnsville CommercialReal Estate Council.University of St. Thomas Buys BuildingNew assetmay be renovated or torn down o make way for new law buildings.ByJim McCartneyMINNEAPOLIS—As part of its effort to expand itsDowntown Minneapolis campus, the St. Paul-based University of St.Thomas recently bought the MacPhail Center for the Arts building at1128 Lasalle Ave. St. Thomas runs a Graduate School of Business onits campus a block north of MacPhail at 1000 LaSalle Ave. and plansto build a new law school near the site.