Steve Mahle, executive vice president and president of Medtronic's CRM business, said Tuesday that the council's decision "moves us one giant step closer to our new home."The facility will be master planned to allow expansion up to 1.5 million sf, housing approximately 6,000 employees, Medtronic officials said Tuesday. The first phase of the project will house 3,000 employees with an array of jobs including research and development, marketing, sales, accounting, tax and legal departments and all their support functions.

Medtronic officials plan to break ground this fall and anticipate that the $65-million facility will be completed in late 2007. When complete, it will be the largest Medtronic facility in the world.

As part of the agreement, Medtronic will pay $865,000 to the city as a park dedication fee of which about $150,000 will be used to build a 35-acre city park with nature trails on public property adjacent to the Medtronic site, with the remaining $715,000 available to the city's park and recreation department. The company also will donate $100,000 to the Mounds View school district.

Medtronic operates 13 facilities in Minnesota with about 6,900 employees. The CRM expansion marks the second major expansion project in the past seven years for the company. The 460,000-sf corporate headquarters complex opened four years ago.