Port considers CRL sale to Osemi

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Red Wing Port Authority is considering selling the former Central Research Laboratories building at Highways 61 and 19 to the current tenant.

The Port Board agreed Monday to draft a purchase agreement to sell the building and roughly 4.5 surrounding acres to Osemi. The manufacturer of semiconductors and other high-tech equipment has been in the building since 2007.

The price of the sale is undetermined.

"Someone like me, a high-tech person, is attracted to that building," Osemi owner David Braddock told the Port Authority Board Monday.

Osemi currently employs 10 full-time workers, four part-time workers and three international workers. The company has sites in Red Wing, Canada and China.

Braddock says he intends to expand the company. Osemi has $20 million in new equipment that he wants to install, he said, which could create 20 new jobs.

"I think he's got an incredible potential up there," said Port Board member Ralph Rauterkus, who works in a similar field to Braddock.

Braddock wants to own the building before he installs the equipment, which he says will cost $1 million, and he hopes he can work out a deal with the port quickly.

If not, he'll have to consider an offer to move the business to River Falls, although he says he'd prefer to stay in Red Wing.

Osemi has made roughly $200,000 in improvements to the building in the three years it's been housed there. In exchange, the company did not have to pay rent. Osemi did pay the utilities.

Braddock said Osemi will have to spend roughly $750,000 on a new roof if it buys the building.

If a deal is struck, Braddock said he'd like to attract similar businesses to Red Wing.

"I'd like to play an active role in advertising Red Wing as a place for high-tech companies," he said. He later told the R-E, "I want Red Wing to be smart town, where the smart people come."

Tags: local government, red wing port authority, red wing