LITCHFIELD -- The former Litchfield Woolen Mills building has been sold to a Litchfield company in the wind energy business.
Scottish 6 Properties has purchased the former mill for $1.35 million, said Suzanne Hedtke, Meeker County Economic Development Corp. director. Scottish 6 will lease the building to TRICO TCWIND Inc., formerly Tri-County Electric Motor Service. The company and county Economic Development Authority finalized the sale last week, she said.
Scottish 6 is made up of the six owners of TRICO TCWIND, said Brice McDonald, company co-owner.
The Meeker County Board was told of the sale at its Tuesday meeting, Hedtke said.
The purchase is funded through bank financing and a $448,000 loan from the county EDA, Southwest Minnesota Foundation and Mid-Minnesota Development Corp., Hedtke said. That loan is the amount Litchfield Woolen Mills owed the county and those organizations before foreclosure proceedings began on the property in 2004.
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Litchfield Woolen Mills closed last spring after being unable to redeem the property from the county. Forty people were left out of work.
A Rhode Island woolen mill was leasing the building from the county but did not take its option to purchase the building when TRICO made its offer last year.
TRICO TCWIND is estimated to receive tax breaks of up to $534,000 through the Job Opportunity Building Zones program, Hedtke said. Job Opportunity Building Zones is a state program that gives qualifying businesses certain tax breaks until 2015.
TRICO TCWIND specializes in electric motor and wind turbine generator service and repair. It is currently located on U.S. Highway 12 and hopes to be set up in the former woolen mills building in May, Hedtke said.
The company employs 31 people, McDonald said.
The company is required to add seven jobs by the end of 2007 as a part of the terms in a business subsidy agreement with the city of Litchfield. Six of those jobs must be added by the end of this year, according to the agreement. All jobs must have a wage of at least $10.50 an hour, the agreement states.
Also at the meeting Tuesday, the County Board terminated a tax abatement agreement with a Cosmos company.
The county had agreed to tax abatement for Koch Industries in Cosmos last year in connection with the construction of a 50,000-square-foot warehouse. The expansion was supposed to add at least four jobs.
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The company has decided not to proceed with the expansion, and it and the county have decided to terminate the agreement, according to a resolution the County Board approved Tuesday.
Hedtke said the company would have had to complete the building by July 1 to qualify for the abatement. If the company decides to construct the warehouse later, it can reapply for tax abatement, she said.
A manager at Koch in Cosmos said he didn't know why the warehouse wasn't going to be built. The plant employs 15 people, he said.
"We're still going," warehouse manager Marvin Schreiner said. "But the building apparently isn't going to be built as of now."
He referred questions to Craig Arko at the corporate office in Minneapolis. Arko would not comment when reached by telephone Wednesday afternoon.
Under the agreement, the county would have abated up to $84,414 of the company's county property taxes, starting in 2007 and ending in 2013. The agreement also had required Koch to create at least four full-time equivalent jobs. The Cosmos facility sells chains, cable, rope and related accessories to wholesale retailers.
The County Board also set an informational meeting about a proposed pedestrian and bicycle trail plan for 9:30 a.m. May 9 at the Meeker County Courthouse.
