“The property as it sits today really doesn’t have much value because of what needs to go into it,” said Blaine Community Development Director Erik Thorvig.
The state also has to buy wetland credits, to offset the wetlands that will be filled in for the build.
“If you fill in one acre, you have to buy two acres of [wetland] credit.”
These wetland credits can vary in price, but Blaine’s EDA normally sells them for $2.50/sf. In this case, the city and the state negotiated a lower price for the bulk purchase. The state agreed to pay $1.50/sf, netting Blaine more than $1.1 million. At this week’s EDA meeting, the sale was approved.
“With the EDA wetland bank, our policy is we try to sell those credits for economic development projects within the community,” said Thorvig.
The state will build a new emergency operations center and an office for the state division of Homeland Security on the site. It will be a two-story 50,000 square foot facility. It will bring dozens of state employees to Blaine every day, hopefully creating more economic growth.
“When we look at projects like this, we want to understand ‘what will these employees be doing?’ It’s likely that some of the employees will buy a house in Blaine. It’s likely these employees will eat lunch in Blaine,” said Thorvig. “We look at this type of project globally for the other impacts that it can have with development in our community.
Construction on the site will begin next year.
