Pine Island company purchases former Pepsi site

A Pine Island company specializing in basement waterproofing and foundation repairs is moving its headquarters to Rochester.

American Waterworks recently purchased the former Pepsi building, 1307 Valleyhigh Drive Northwest, for $2.5 million. The company plans to invest another $1-1.2 million to outfit the facility for its operations.

Owner Steve Breland said Friday that the new site will give the company room to grow. The Rochester facility, with 101,630 square feet of space, is more than six times the size of its current location in Pine Island.

American Waterworks has approximately 125 employees. That number, Breland said, could rise to 200 in the next two years. The company serves southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and western Wisconsin.

The build-out of the new space should take 4-6 months. Breland said the goal is to have the building up and running by January 1 of next year.

The industrial complex — located near ABC Ability Building Center and Colonial Lanes — had been on the market since the city agreed to provide financial assistance for Gillette Pepsi Cola to build a new facility on the south side of town, near the interchange of Highway 52 and South Broadway.

Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.