Moventas plans St. Paul facility

The Finnish wind gear manufacturer Moventas plans to start a gear-rebuilding facility in the Saint Paul Port Authority’s Beacon Bluff Business Center, according to the agency.

The Port Authority and Interstate Partners have formed a joint venture — the port’s fifth joint venture — to build a $5 million, 58,000-square-foot industrial building on a four-acre site near Phalen Boulevard and Forest Street, said Tom Collins, the Port Authority’s senior vice president of marketing and communications.

Moventas will occupy 28,000 square feet of the building under a five-year lease when the facility is ready for occupancy in February, Collins said. The company plans to have 20 employees at the site in its first year of operation.

There is no other tenant for the rest of the space at this time, he said.

“Moventas is an international leader in alternative energy production. We’re absolutely thrilled that this Finnish company has chosen Saint Paul’s East Side for their facility,” Port Authority President Louie Jambois said in a news release.

The Port Authority and Moventas started talking as far back as 2008, when the company considered building a sales and service operation in the state.

The recession brought those talks to a halt, but Moventas approached the Port Authority again in early 2014. It’s investing in the Midwest, where many original equipment manufacturers are located, as part of a strategy to localize operations and minimize costs.

“This investment will place Moventas at the epicenter of wind energy and allow us to serve our key customers in the largest growing region in the U.S.,” Moventas North American General Manager Steve Casey said in a news release. “This underscores our position as a leading wind gear service provider and our commitment to serve our global customers locally.”