The project is estimated to cost about $5 million, according toCity of Woodbury officials. The firm is owned by the WeschckeFamily Partnership headed by founder Carl Llewellyn and his wife,Sandra. It has about 100 employees and sales of $16.5 million lastyear.

The facility will be an office, warehouse, manufacturingfacility as part of the Wooddale Business Center. The partnershipwill lease the facility to Llewellyn Worldwide, which is owned bymembers of the partnership. Llewellyn, which has a long history inSt. Paul, wanted to combine its warehouse, which is in St. Paul'sMidway area, with its office and manufacturing facility, which nowis on Wabasha just across the Mississippi River from Downtown St.Paul. Also, the company's current landowner, Minneapolis-basedSherman Associates, wants to redevelop the Wabasha Street propertyinto multifamily housing units.

In 2002, the City of Woodbury approved tax increment financingfor United Properties, the Bloomington-based commercial real estatefirm that had proposed to build a 100,000-sfmanufacturing/office/warehouse building. But United wanted to waituntil they had a major tenant before they would begin construction,especially with the industrial market sector in a slump. TheWeschcke Family Partnership has agreed to buy the site fromUnited.