From the Ground Up

Minnkota Power is building an entirely new Grand Forks, N.D., campus

BY KAYLA PRASEK

When Minnkota Power Cooperative Inc. opens its new campus in Grand Forks, N.D., it will bring all of the company’s Grand Forks employees and equipment under one roof while providing much-needed storage, training and office space.

“The new facility will allow employees to work from a single location with more efficiency and will meet increased security and compliance obligations,” says Kevin Fee, communications supervisor for Minnkota.

Minnkota staff and board members started working with EAPC Architects Engineers of Grand Forks in September 2013 to determine Minnkota’s future infrastructure needs, and ultimately decided investing in a renovation didn’t make sense, Fee says. It was the organization’s first master plan since 1978, and the existing campus has facilities dating back to the 1940s, says Wayne Dietrich, EAPC chief operations officer and principal architect for the project. The newest building was built in 1994. “When we started this process, we probably wouldn’t have thought we’d end up designing a whole new campus, but the existing facilities were fairly old and undersized. It also lacked the large equipment storage space they needed,” Dietrich says.

Construction on the new campus, designed by EAPC and led by Grand Forks-based ICS Inc., started in fall 2015 and is projected to be complete by fall 2017. The main building will feature a two-story 78,000-square-foot corporate office, 58,000-square-foot electrical operations facility and 28,000-square-foot warehouse. The 89,000-square-foot large equipment and maintenance facility will be a separate building. All facilities have been designed to allow for future expansion.

The facilities, including the office building, will be built completely of precast concrete, which Dietrich says was the “most economical but durable” option. The office building is designed in a prairie style, with natural brick color, a large metal roof and overhangs on the exterior, while the interior features an atrium through the center, tying the public and employee entrances together. The design also focuses on natural light and collaborative spaces, Dietrich says. “The spaces are meant to be collaborative but still functional and flexible. We’ve planned for future staffing growth.”

The office building will also feature a 10,000-square-foot conference center that can be split into three smaller conference rooms. The second level of the office building will have a dedicated boardroom.

“We really tried to meet all of their office needs,” Dietrich says. “There will also be a lot of dedicated training space, as they were very short of that type of space on the current site.”

The utility buildings will boast the look of the office building, for consistency, Dietrich says. “Sometimes on a campus like this, you’ll have a beautiful office building and the rest of the buildings will have been done cheaply and don’t match,” he says. “We wanted one continuous look that was still cost effective.”

Dietrich says the scale of the project alone makes it unique for the region, along with its 646-well geothermal system. In addition to the facilities, which total about 29.5 acres, the site will have an 11.3-acre secure storage area. An additional 13.1 acres are available to expand the storage yard in the future.

Footings and foundations have been erected for the large equipment and maintenance building, warehouse and electrical operations facility. All of the utilities are also in the ground and protected for winter. Precast will start at the end of January. PB

Kayla Prasek Staff Writer, Prairie Business 701.780.1187

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Data provided by David Flynn, chair of the University of North Dakota Department of Economics. Reach him at david.flynn@business.und.edu.

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