Commercial inspection in Maple Grove, MN.

By the Closer Look Inspectors team · Facts checked October 2026 against the sources listed below · About our inspectors

In Maple Grove, a commercial property inspection helps a buyer, owner or lender learn how first-generation buildings are holding up. The city's plan says phased urban development in the former gravel mining area began in 1998, so the earliest buildings there are now in their third decade.

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Commercial buildings in and around Maple Grove

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Arbor Lakes and the former gravel pit

Maple Grove's 2040 comprehensive plan describes a Gravel Mining Area of about 2,000 acres along the north side of I-694. A rich deposit of gravel was discovered in eastern Maple Grove in the 1930s, and phased urban development began in 1998. The plan says development in the area has combined retail, office, residential and institutional/public uses totaling over 1,200 acres.

A developer's project page describes the first phase of Arbor Lakes as more than 500,000 square feet of retail in a street-grid design, with two-story retail and office buildings along the roads, and lists September 2003 as the completion date of the Arbor Lakes Lifestyle Center project. The city's brochure calls The Shoppes at Arbor Lakes Minnesota's first lifestyle center, and the plan counts the Arbor Lakes and The Grove areas as having or planned to have more than 2.4 and 1.4 million square feet of retail and service uses.

Industrial and office bands

Industrial land is confined to the eastern part of the city in a band from 77th Avenue to 97th Avenue, the plan says, and that corridor includes a variety of light manufacturing and office-warehouse operations. The plan adds that industrial and warehouse uses there have benefited from railway access at the eastern edge of the city. Office development sits primarily along the I-494 corridor and Maple Grove Parkway. The city's brochure names a regional research, development and manufacturing facility and a pharmaceutical company among local employers.

Warehouse and light-manufacturing buildings tend to have large roofs, heavy electrical service and equipment the tenant cannot do without, which is where infrared imaging of roofs and switchgear applies most naturally. The city's draft master plan for the southern gravel area says mining activities in some areas are winding down and some land has been reclaimed; on reclaimed ground, how a foundation and paving were designed is a fair question.

A young city with older roots

Maple Grove's roots are older than its malls. The plan notes that a commercial center existed in northwest Maple Grove along Territorial Road in 1915, with general stores and a train depot, and that the city incorporated as a village in 1954. Its population table runs from 2,213 in 1960 to 20,525 in 1980, 38,756 in 1990 and 50,365 in 2000, and the plan says most of the growth has occurred since the Second World War.

Growth that recent means much of the commercial stock is relatively young, but the earliest Arbor Lakes buildings are now in their third decade of service, an age when original membrane roofs and rooftop heating and cooling units can be nearing the end of their lives. The brochure reports over 5.3 million square feet of retail space in 25 retail centers and calls the city a health technology and medical office hub, and medical buildings can carry specialized systems that make their condition matter more.

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Quick answers

Sources

• City of Maple Grove: 2040 Comprehensive Plan
• City of Maple Grove: Economic Development brochure
• Opus Group: Arbor Lakes Lifestyle Center
• City of Maple Grove: Gravel Mining Area South Master Plan (draft document posted by the city)

Nearby towns

Commercial property inspection in Minnesota and Iowa · Home inspection in Maple Grove