Crystal Valley will have a new home in Mankato for its main office headquarters in 2020.
After Eide Bailly moves into their new facilities in downtown Mankato in November, Crystal Valley will purchase their former office building at 1911 Excel Drive and move the main office staff there in early 2020.
Crystal Valley’s growth, both organic and via mergers, over the last ten-plus years has resulted in a shortage of physical space at our main office in Lake Crystal. The original office building (40’x 68’, two levels) was completed in 1989, with an addition (approximately 40’x 80’, two levels) completed in 2009.
In January of 2018 we began studying the options of adding on (again) to our main office and engaged an architect to design possible single-level and two-level additions. As we looked at the construction costs ($200 – 250/SF) for a finished and furnished 10-15,000 square foot facility addition, we decided to look into options for available office space in Mankato.
Just over a year ago we came across the possibility of the Eide Bailly office building in northeast Mankato. This facility is nearly twice the size (25,000 SF) as our current office and is all on one level, entirely handicap accessible with no steps or stairs. (The lower levels of our current office are NOT handicap accessible.) And, it comes at a price tag that is half the cost of new construction.
Since we anticipate that Crystal Valley will continue to grow and prosper into the future, we (the Board of Directors, and management) believe that the Mankato location will best serve us for the long term.
One of the key benefits of being located in a regional hub like Mankato is the greater ability to attract and retain key employee/ leadership/management talent in the future. And, the future resale value of this office in Mankato would be far greater than that of a similar-sized building in Lake Crystal, if ever the company’s headquarters location were to move in the future.
As for the existing Lake Crystal office, we have reached an agreement to sell the building to the Little Lakers Child Care Center for conversion and use as a daycare facility. The timing of that sale is tentatively set for February 1, 2020, and the Little Lakers hope to be operational by June of next year. This would fill a tremendous void as there is a severe shortage of daycare options in the Lake Crystal and surrounding area.
While the main office staff will be moving to Mankato, Crystal Valley will maintain its Agronomy, Energy, and seasonal Grain operations in Lake Crystal. Patrons will still be able to stop in the Agronomy office to transact business, make payments or inquire on their accounts. We will continue to use the grain offices on the west end of the main office for receiving grain.
View News