New business pulls out of Southside Industrial Park

The first possible tenant of city's Southside Industrial Park has pulled out.

The city announced in February that Winona Pattern & Mold had asked for 1.8 acres of land at the southwest corner of DeKoven and Hamilton avenues. The company had planned to build a 25x80-foot building on the site.

Brian O'Connell, the city's development director, said Thursday during a Joint Review Board meeting that the company had pulled out of a purchase agreement with the city sometime in the past two weeks.

An employee with the company said Friday that Winona had bought a building in Sturtevant and was planning on moving its Raymond business there. The company employs 14 people in a leased building in the Blackhawk Industrial Park just west of I-94.

Winona Pattern and Mold makes tools for foundries and other industrial customers. It had plans to move to a new building and expand to 30-35 employees.

The company is based in Winona, Min. It opened locally in 2003.

The Southside Industrial Park is the former home of the Jacobsen/Textron property. The city tore down the old building and created a tax incremental district on the site in 2003. It has invested $10.8 million preparing the site for industrial development, though much of the cost was covered by state and federal grants.

The city recently purchased a building adjacent to the industrial park and is planning to expand the district across Phillips Avenue to include the purchased site, plus an existing site of Burt Jensen & Son.

The purchase brings the total buildable area in the industrial park to 11 acres. It's being marketed as an upscale business park with restrictions on steel buildings and requirements for landscaping and decorative masonry on the buildings.