Sept. 13 Groundbreaking Set for MISO Operations Center in Eagan

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The groundbreaking on a more than 60,000-square-foot office and data center in northeastern Eagan is set to begin on Sept. 13, according to Greg Miller, the president of developer Interstate Partners.

On Tuesday night, the Eagan City Council unanimously approved a planned development amendment and final platting for the property, clearing the way for construction to begin on the new facility.

Once built, the facility will serve as the operations center for Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, or MISO, a regional electrical transmission operator serving 13 states and the Canadian province of Manitoba.

. The new facility could be occupied and fully operational as early as the first quarter of  2014, according to planning documents provided by the developer.

MISO plans use the building as a general office space, a conference and training center, data center and control room for regional transmission operations. The company will likely move as many as 90 jobs from its current facilty in St. Paul to the new location in Eagan once the project is completed.

The developer's decision to include canopies over a portion of the facility's parking lot was the subject of discussion at an Eagan Advisory Planning Commission meeting last week. Worried that the canopies could restrict access in case of an emergency, the recommended 10-foot-wide parking stalls be installed underneath the canopy, as opposed to the standard nine-foot-wide stalls, to give firefighters greater access in case of a car fire.

But the expanded stalls, Miller said, would lead to a net loss of 10 much-needed parking spaces for the facility. At the council meeting on Tuesday, city staff and the developer settled on 9.5-foot-wide stalls, which would result in the loss of only four lost parking spaces.

"This is an integral facility to the operations of the electric grid in the United States," Miller said. "We're excited to get back at it, and bring some more employers into the city."