CHS seeks to expand operations in Claremont

CHS, which currently operates the grain elevator and a liquid fertilizer plant in Claremont, is hoping to expand operations to include storage space for dry fertilizer.
The company originally presented preliminary information to the city’s EDA committee and council saying they would like to purchase Westside Park and use it for the expansion.
At a special city council meeting last week the two sides went back and forth over a fair price for the property located on Front Street, adjacent to property already owned by CHS, which is the former Greenway Co-op.
Ken Garness, the interim general manager, told council members that the company, which has facilities throughout southeastern Minnesota, wanted to expand to build a dry fertilizer facility. Currently it operates a grain elevator on the east end of the city and owns the property adjacent to the park.
Garness said that the company is trying to consolidate several locations into one new facility. CHS now has the elevator and liquid fertilizer locations in Claremont and is hoping to add dry fertilizer capacity. An advantage to the Claremont site, he said, is its proximity to the railroad tracks and the fact CHS already has a spur track.
“We want to stay in Claremont,” Garness said several times during the discussions. “We do plan on proceeding with the project (to consolidate operations) and having it completed in the fall of 2016.”
The project will be built somewhere, he said, if not Claremont in some other rural part of the area.
City Clerk Liz Sorg said at the initial meeting on the project that she would obtain details on the land value.
She provided those figures at last week’s meeting and listed the park’s 2.732 acres, valued at $29,300. That figure, she said, is a bare minimum because it is used as a park. It also did not include an adjacent parcel that the city uses for a swing set/bathroom area although county records are unclear about the exact ownership of the second parcel.
As a commercial property, she said, the city parcel could be sold at a higher price. She said Dodge County’s selling prices range from a minimum of .50 per sq. ft. to $1 or $2 per sq. ft.
After a short closed session to discuss a fair price, council members returned to open session with a $193,468 purchase price.
“That’s considerably higher than we were thinking,” Garness responded. With the property valued at approximately $30,000, Garness said, CHS was initially prepared to increase that base price by 10% and offer $33,000.
“We’d like to stay in town,” he said, “but for that kind of money we could buy in another location and get more acres.”
CHS officials stressed that the city would get back more than the purchase price through the increased taxes that the new facility would pay. The company currently pays more than $50,000 in taxes, they said. If the company had to build in another location it would still consolidate its operations, leaving only the elevator in Claremont.
At that point, council members went back into closed session to discuss the CHS offer, returning with a counter offer of $70,609.
Garness and several other CHS officials who were at the meeting said they did not have the authority to accept that offer without input from their board that was meeting Friday.
An additional special council meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, March 3, at which time it was anticipated that additional discussion and negotiations would take place.
Even after any sale of the property is agreed to there will still be discussions on other issues including the need to run water and sewer lines to the location.