This SuperTarget layout, proposed for Waconia along Highway 5 and the new Main Street Extension, is scheduled to be ready for business by July 2008. This store is much larger than the original Target that had been proposed earlier this year. That store was an estimated 127,000 square feet in size. The SuperTarget will be 177,000 square feet.

Within two years, the face of Waconia will change dramatically when a new SuperTarget opens on the east side of town.

This gateway section to Waconia is still under construction, but the changes that are afoot have been in place for years.

The new SuperTarget will clearly be the largest retail store in Waconia, boasting 177,000 square feet of space. It is much larger than the original 127,000 square foot store that was proposed earlier this year. Target officials pulled that plan to replace it with a larger store that will include groceries.

Last Wednesday the Waconia City Council gave final approval to the project after seeing the final site plan.

Early grading work could start this year, but the store is not scheduled to open until July 2008.

On Wednesday, the city heard from several officials connected to the project, including Dave Callister who works for Ehlers and Associates, the city's financial advisors.

According to Callister, one of the concerns the city faced when Target came forward with this plan was the financial impact it might have on the city, including extra public safety and public works concerns, and general administrative expenses.

After sudying those area, Ehlers is projecting that the city could incur an extra $16,000 in public safety costs because of the Target development, $3,400 more in public works costs, mostly due to maintenance of extra streets in that area, and $13,000 more in general administrative costs. In total this amounts to about $34,000 in extra annual costs because of the development. But there is also a payback to the city for a development of this scope, largely in the form of captured taxes. The city alone should benefit from an additional $48,000 in property taxes per year because of the new store. The county will net $62,000 per year, Waconia Schools about $42,000 and another $110,000 for the state education tax. That is all based on a market value of $11 million for the new SuperTarget. Purely from a tax standpoint, it means the SuperTarget store will have a net impact on the city of $14,900, according to Ehlers estimates.

As for the impact on other retail businesses in town, the jury is still out. It's no secret that there is a concern among some of the smaller retailers in town that Target could have a negative impact on their businesses.

Ten key Waconia business owners were contacted earlier this year by a consultant working for the developer on the SuperTarget project to determine their thoughts on the project and its potential impact to downtown.

Those 10 included Cal Butteris of The Sports Locker, Chuck Dueber of Dueber's Variety Store, Dale Haider of Muller Theaters, Kim Mackenthun of Mackenthun's County Market, Gary Radel of Klein Bank, Louise Rashleger of Milltronics Manufacturing, Bob Stevens of Ridgeview Medical Center, Dick Weinzierl of Weinzierl Jewelry, Steve Yetzer of Yetzer's Furniture and Flooring and Brian Albright of the former Kitchen Sync.

When asked what negative or positive impact the SuperTarget store would have on their businesses, the responses were varied.

Nearly half of the 10 respondents said they thought the arrival of a SuperTarget would enhance Waconia's appeal to consumers. About one third of the respondents felt there would be “no positives” to their business from the construction of a SuperTarget. More than half felt there would be no negative impact to their business, but some of them felt it would affect others, particularly Dueber's. Others felt they might lose some sales and that consumers might have a new perception on prices.

When asked what impact Target would have on Waconia as a whole, the respondents said there could be a decrease in “downtown traffic, downtown blight, more retailers (competition), quality of life, don't see the advantages, Waconia will become too big.”

Other questions or concerns raised by the 10 respondents:

“Businesses need to grow and adjust or the world will pass them by.

“Keep big box out of Waconia.

“I'm glad Target chose us. I think it will put Waconia on the map, like Stillwater-quaint downtown with bustling retail area.

“Glad to see that the city is being proactive on this.”

The respondents to this survey are absolutely correct on one issue, there will definitely be more people coming to Waconia as a result of the new SuperTarget. In fact, the SuperTarget store by itself will nearly double the trade area of Waconia. In other words the Waconia trade area today represents an estimated 27,000 people. The trade area will balloon to more than 48,000 people once the SuperTarget opens its doors. Most of those new consumers will hail from points west of here, as far away as Glencoe, according to a McComb Group survey.

Jim McComb noted that initially some people may have thought that Mackenthun's County Market would be adversely affected by a SuperTarget coming to town, because it will offer groceries. But in reality, he said, Mackenthun's may be positioned to actually see its sales increase. He said the SuperTarget store will not offer a complete lineup of food products, like a County Market, and by virtue of the trade area being expanded because of the SuperTarget, Mackenthun's may experience a tick upward in its customer base.

The reality of a SuperTarget coming to town probably won't hit most people until the store is actually under construction. That won't start in full force until 2007.

But the rumors of one coming here have been floating for more than a decade. Actually the discussion of a Target coming to Waconia has been interchangeable with other big box retailers such as Cub Foods and Wal-Mart. But it's Target that has struck first.

The road reconfigurations that have been occurring along Highway 5 near Main Street have, in part, been done to accommodate some of the anticipated growth that will occur with the east side of Waconia, where a new SuperTarget will be located.

The Target store is not the only retail project that will be associated with the development on the south side of Highway 5. There are other detached retail businesses that are expected to announce their interest in Waconia, once the SuperTarget is constructed.

Mayor Mark Schiffman noted that the council was justifiably skeptical of the detached retail businesses, based solely on what has not transpired over the past four years at the Marketplace Development project in front of Mackenthun's County Market on Highway 5. That development is also supposed to have several detached retail businesses between Highway 5 and Mackenthun's, but only Snyder's has built a store so far. The rest of those available lots remain vacant.

But officials with the Avalon Group, developers of the SuperTarget project, have assured the city that they are not going to be “sitting” on any available retail spots. Once the SuperTarget is constructed, they expect those lots to be developed.

The project will include massive landscaping, including tree plantings, the creation of holding ponds, and trails that will connect this area to the rest of the city's trail system.

The main access to the project will be off Main Street Extension (still under construction on the south side of Highway 5). That entrance will include a traffic signal. Main Street will continue southward where it will eventually connect with the new County Road 10.

It should be noted that there will be a grade decline from where the SuperTarget is positioned to the retail businesses at the north end of the development, closer to Highway 5. The grade drops about 30 feet from the south end (which is positioned higher) to the north end.