Article by: Cris Gastner
Last Tuesday, the St. Charles, MN City Council unanimously approved a purchase agreement to sell a 6.83-acre lot in the Chattanooga Innovation Park along the north side of I-90 to Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc. for $683,000.
“I am very excited about this project,” said St. Charles City Administrator Nick Koverman. “It is a $14 million-plus project for our community.”
The company plans to build a truck stop and travel convenience store at the site. The project will likely include at least one national fast food chain restaurant within the travel plaza as well.
CEDA Sr. Vice President Cris Gastner and Koverman have been working with the company for several months on the details of the project and the agreement. “When they first approached us, we definitely did our due diligence,” Gastner said. “We talked to several other communities about travel plaza projects and got favorable comments back.”
Gastner noted that the 45-50 full-time equivalent positions it will take to run the business would likely make it the city’s third-largest employer after the school district and the city itself.
The lot purchased by Love’s is on the south side of the business park closest to Minnesota Highway 74 and Interstate 90. Construction on the project is projected to start in the spring of 2019.