The former St. Croix Meadows dog track in Hudson may be the site of a Northwoods League baseball stadium as well as multiple business and housing ventures.
The Hudson City Council on Monday heard an initial presentation plan for the 131-acre site that has been vacant since the greyhound racing track closed in 2001.
St. Paul-based KF Investments indicated preliminary plans call for the baseball field and a mix of office and residential developments, including high-end townhouses and corporate headquarters.
Hudson community development director Dennis Darnold on Tuesday said Monday’s presentation was necessary to give the council “a general concept” of what plans for the site entail.
“The city of Hudson has not received any formal applications,” Darnold said, adding that he and Mayor Rich O’Connor have “had two or three meetings with development groups regarding possible development.”
“One thing, when we heard they had the property under contract, was that we wanted to find out their ideas,” Darnold said. “I think the concept was well received (Monday) night, but everyone realizes it takes time to sort out the details.
“We wanted to make sure the council was aware that there was a developer interested in redeveloping the site,” he said. “Hopefully the details can be worked out. We wanted to make sure the council had the correct facts at this point because there was some information out there on the street. We wanted to head off any rumors.”
The property at 2200 Carmichael Road is listed for sale at $7.9 million. It has not been purchased, but Klint Klaas, a commercial real estate developer with KF, has indicated he hopes to close on the vacant property by the end of January.
Darnold said the property would need to be rezoned, which would allow a “more campuslike development, including corporation headquarters. Getting a job creation tax base there is important.”
Darnold said there have been six weeks of discussions with KF about their plans, which currently call for the baseball park and “corporate possibilities” available for occupancy in 2018.
“There is some immediacy to the project with that time schedule,” Darnold said.
The baseball property would seat 2,000 to 3,000 fans, and four office buildings of two or three stories would range from 75,000 to 150,000 square feet, according to comments Klaas made in a recent Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal article.
Darnold said the existing 150,000-square-foot dog track building may remain if it is deemed structurally sound.
“I think they are looking to retain that building; to gut it if it passes a structural review, and modernize it to have a design to complement other buildings at the site,” Darnold said.
Klaas, who played two years in the Houston Astros’ minor league baseball system in the mid-1990s, would be part of the ownership group hoping to enter the Northwoods League, which includes the Eau Claire Express.
“It’s a great piece of land in a great city that has lot of great features,” Klaas said in the periodical. “My group is focusing on trying to accommodate what the city would like here.”
The dog track opened in 1991 before attendance dwindled and attempts to convert it into a casino site did not get state approval.
