Forest Lake EDA discusses RFP for Headwaters 123 after data-center offer falls through

At a meeting of the Forest Lake Economic Development Authority, staff reported that the potential purchaser who had pursued Headwaters 123 has chosen not to move forward and recommended preparing a request for proposals (RFP) to solicit development partners.

Abby, an EDA staff member, told the authority that an RFP would allow the city to ‘‘go to the development community and say, Hey, is anyone interested at this time in this property?’’ She outlined the typical RFP timeline: public release, a submission period with Q&A and site visits, proposal review and interviews, selection, then negotiation — a process she said generally takes about six months.

Commissioners and county staff discussed alternatives to a city-managed RFP. County representative Chris said the Washington County CDA can assist and pointed to recent local examples — including Lake Elmo's 180-acre RFP for the former 3M site — as models the EDA could adapt. He recommended pursuing a developer-builder partnership that would actively market the site to large regional builders and corporate users.

Members pressed staff on key priorities to include in any RFP. Staff and commissioners said the EDA's top priorities are increasing the tax base and creating jobs; commissioners repeatedly urged preference for business uses over primarily residential development. Several members favored a multi-use approach on the parcel''smaller industrial or business-park lots interior to the site, limited retail along the parkway and residential only along the edge to buffer neighboring homes.

County staff also warned of a near-term constraint on large power loads in the corridor: what had once been described as hundreds of megawatts of available capacity has been revised downward in recent studies to about 2.5 megawatts and then to roughly 1.5 megawatts, a level the county official said is insufficient for a large data center until transmission and substation upgrades are made.

Abby said staff can prepare RFP materials and check consultant costs (naming CBRE and municipal advisors such as Ehlers as likely vendors) and that, with current hiring plans, the city could be ready to issue an RFP by Jan. 1. She told the EDA she would brief the City Council during its strategic planning session and return to the EDA in November with visuals and cost estimates. No formal motion to issue an RFP or to hire a consultant was made at the meeting.

Next steps: staff will collect cost estimates for third-party RFP management, refine RFP priorities with council input, and present a draft RFP and budget options to the EDA at a future meeting.