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Coborn’s Superstore on the drawing board
The Pipestone City Council is negotiating the sale of city-owned land in Harmon Park at the corner of Eighth Ave. SE and Hwy. 30/Seventh St. SE to bring a Coborn’s Superstore to town.
Coborn’s is, “very interested in this site as anyone may be; it’s obvious it’s a prime retail corner,” said Troy Hoekstra, vice president of development for Cornerstone Construction, Inc. out of St. Cloud, the same developer who brought the new hotel to the city.
Hoekstra presented a preliminary site plan showing a 38,419 square-foot Coborn’s Superstore with 222 parking spaces, a gas station and a car wash to the council during a special work session Monday, Oct. 5.
The $4.5-to-$5 million project would generate, conservatively Hoekstra said, $150,000 or more in annual taxes and add 41 new jobs to Pipestone (24 full-time, 17 part-time) in addition to the employees who currently work at Coborn’s existing store in space the grocery chain leases in downtown Pipestone.
In addition to the negotiated sales price, Coborn’s would also be willing to donate $100,000 to the city to create a new park to replace Harmon Park, Hoekstra said.
Jeff Jones, city administrator, expressed a concern that may arise as negotiations continue.
“We’re taking a corner that’s trees and grass and turning it into a parking lot and a store,” Jones said.
“You’ll get a better park and more park through this process,” Hoekstra said. “Long-term, I like the idea of something that spits out $150,000 every year to help maintain park lands — but I could be biased.”
Some residential properties exist where the car wash would be located on the north side of the property. Hoekstra said that with the exception of the land sale with the city, “everything we need is under contract.”
The backside of the building would abut the city-owned water park, but the separation would contain a berm and tree plantings, Hoekstra said.
“It won’t be pool, sidewalk, wall,” he said.
Hoekstra said Coborn’s would like ideally to start the project in late November but at this stage, stressed several times the preliminary nature of the site plan.
“Keep in mind, this site plan is purely speculative and for conversation only,” Hoekstra said, adding later, “Nothing in this site plan should be construed as anything other than ‘Let’s have a conversation.’”
The council continued that conversation Monday evening when it convened a closed session to discuss the sale of the land during the regular council meeting that followed Hoekstra’s presentation. No decisions were made when the council reconvened, but the councilors did direct Jones, before adjourning, to continue negotiations with Cornerstone.
The two parties came together after Coborn’s has been looking around Pipestone for a spot for a superstore and after the city Finance Committee, earlier this year, directed Jones to consider buyers for city-owned land to help alleviate the financial strain of state unallotments and a depleted reserve fund.
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