As far as the city goes, only Ecolab's small data center at 88 Empire Dr. will be affected, the letter says.
The locally based maker of industrial cleaners and sanitizers plans to move its research and development operations in the summer of 2005 to the 481,000-sf complex in Eagan from a 141,000-sf research and development facility in Mendota Heights and from a 28,500-sf data center in St. Paul. About 350 employees work in research and development and about 50 work at the data center, says Mike Monahan, an Ecolab spokesman.
Ecolab looked at expanding its research and development facility in Mendota Heights, but found it much less expensive to buy up than build out. In fact, it would have cost about twice the price of the former Cray facility to expand the Mendota Heights building, and Ecolab would have ended up with less than half of the total space.
Besides price, another attraction of the old Cray headquarters is that it's close to Ecolab's pilot plant that develops ways to mass-produce the company's new products.
The company plans to spend "a couple million" dollars to renovate and outfit the complex at 655 Lone Oak Rd., including upgrading utilities and installing wet labs.
The company plans to sell its research and development building in Mendota Heights and the data center in St. Paul.
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