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Cottage Grove Commercial Area Descriptions
Below are descriptions of the larger commercial areas within the City of Cottage Grove. For available properties in these locations, please view our property map.
Gateway North
The Gateway North designation was created in 2001 by the Cottage Grove City Council and the Cottage Grove Economic Development Authority. It is a 365 acre district including property on all four quadrants of the Highway 61 / 80th Street interchange. The designation is a signal that the City is interested in pursuing redevelopment and rehabilitation opportunities for this commercial hub.
Since the designation was put into place the Grove Plaza shopping center received substantial rehabilitation including rehabilitation of the small tenant spaces next to Rainbow Foods, rehabilitation of an existing bank building as a new location for Merchants Bank, and construction of the Starbucks building. The Gateway Center, located west of East Point Douglas Road was also constructed including freestanding buildings for TCF Bank and Walgreen's, as well as a 12,706 square foot multi-tenant retail building. North of 80th Street a Kohl's Department store was constructed on a redevelopment site just west of Hardwood Avenue and in 2008 Culvers' restaurant opened. On the east side of this same street are new buildings for the Shoppes at Gateway North, Ruby Tuesday Restaurant, and the Oak Park Commons office retail center. On the east side of the Gateway new projects were constructed for the Park Grove Pet Hospital and a major renovation of an existing building was recently completed for the Oral Surgery Center at 7791 79th Street. At the end of 2006 there was a redevelopment of the Cottage Square shopping center.
Jamaica / Cottage View District
This commercial hub for Cottage Grove has access off Highway 61 from Jamaica Avenue and Keats Avenue (County Road 19). Keats Avenue also serves as the entrance to the 1750 acre 3M Cottage Grove campus on the south side of Highway 61 where Keats becomes Innovation Road. Jamaica Avenue, south of Highway 61 serves as the entrance to the Cottage Grove Business Park. Currently home to about 800,000 square feet of office and retail uses the square footage of commercial offerings is expected to double within the next several years as the City brings an additional 129 acres on line as an expansion to the existing district south to Keats. Infrastructure construction for this expanded commercial district occurred in 2007 with installation of a roundabout roadway redesign providing improved access and traffic flow on Jamaica Avenue from West Point Douglas Road to East Point Douglas Road. Predesign of a new Highway 61 bridge at Keats Avenue, with realignment of area frontage roads is also expected to occur in 2007-2008 for an anticipated reconstruction project within the next several years. Streetscaping improvements are projected throughout the entire district.
In 2007 Washington County opened their 40,000 square foot south service center just east of Keats at 90th Street. Access to the Center is provided by the first leg of an eventual 6.1 mile Ravine Parkway which will run from East Point Douglas Road just west of Keats, north to about 65th Street, thence west to connect to the existing 65th Street at or about Ideal Avenue, continuing west to the City of Newport where the roadway will intersect with 70th Street and Highway 61. The City is considering future construction of local government buildings at this same County government center site which is just northeast of the Jamaica / Cottageview district.
East Ravine Neighborhood
The East Ravine is Cottage Grove's newest upscale development. At 4,000 acres in total this planned community will be home to 6,500 households and 800,000 square feet of commercial activity in addition to an extensive network of parks and open space planned for development over the next ten years along the future Ravine Parkway. Access to shopping is easily available either via Jamaica or Keats Avenues to the Jamaica / Cottageview development or via 80th Street to the Gateway North district. An additional neighborhood shopping destination will be developed at the intersection of 70th Street and Keats currently home to the historic Cedarhurst Mansion and the Shoppes at Almar Village. Upon full development this intersection is expected to support between 100,000 and 200,000 square feet of commercial activity.
West Draw Neighborhood
The West Draw is a 1800 acre neighborhood generally located west of Hinton Avenue, east of the communities of Newport and St. Paul Park, and north of 80th Street to the Woodbury border. Development within this neighborhood has been primarily from 1998 continuing for the next three to five years. Single family housing values generally start in the mid to high $300,000�s up to the mid $600,000's. Upon completion the neighborhood is anticipated to have about 2000 households including attached and empty nester product with about 70% of completed units detached. Access to shopping for the neighborhood would be in either the Gateway North district via Hardwood Avenue or Hinton Avenue or within the district at two neighborhood commercial parcels at 70th Street and Hinton Avenue.
Cottage Grove Business Park
The Cottage Grove Business Park is located 13 miles Southeast of St. Paul and just a 20 minute drive from the Minneapolis-St. Paul international airport. With easy access to a recently upgraded freeway system, 2 Class-1 rail lines, and within a 25 minute drive of over 200,000 workers, Cottage Grove has proven to be a successful location for companies such as 3M, Andersen Windows, and Up North Plastics. And with cost-effective pricing and a one-stop process ensuring simplicity in the development process, the Cottage Grove Business Park is ideally suited to assist growing manufacturers with the next stage in their growth.
The business park development has been a joint venture of the City of Cottage Grove and its Economic Development Authority with the WAG Farms Family Trust, the fee owners of the land. Through this unique partnership the development team has created sites for future growth for TradeHome Shoes, Advance Corporation, American AgCo, the USPS, CCE Technologies, Schmid Packaging, Plastic Resource, Inc., Innovative Chemical Company, Resorts and Lodges LLC, the Hemingway Business Center, Werner Electric MN, Up North Plastics, Inc., and the Andersen Windows Renewal by Andersen facility.
