Answering Impossible Questions: How PAR Systems Creates Solutions in Shoreview

At PAR Systems, the impossible happens on a regular basis. For 65 years, the company has been working across industries from life science to automotive to nuclear and building everything from equipment that automates the manufacture of miniscule medical devices to tools that allowed the safe dismantling of Chernobyl. 

“Our clients come to us looking for a machine that’s never been built before, and it’s our job to figure out how to do it,” said Pete Dankwerth, PAR’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Quality and Risk Officer. “Some of them will come to us after they’ve gone to five other companies who said it can’t be done, and we’ll find a way. We’re creating solutions that have never been imagined before.” 

Since it spun out of General Mills in 1961, PAR Systems has been doing that work in Shoreview. The company operates another facility in Georgia that focuses on work with the U.S. Navy, but Shoreview has always been home. 

The demands placed upon the company’s local facility are uniquely specialized. Some of the systems PAR creates are meant to facilitate micro-scale precision, while others involve massive cranes. PAR needs facilities that can handle projects of all sizes, and that allow easy access to transportation that can get huge pieces of equipment to their destination. 

The company recently built a new facility in the city. And while there were opportunities to build  in nearby Arden Hills, both Dankwerth and Karla Leis, PAR’s President and CEO, said their preference was to stay in Shoreview. Available space and access to transportation helped with that decision. So did financial incentives from the city. But Leis and Dankwerth said staying in the city also felt like a way to do right by their employees.

“Shoreview has so much to offer, and people who know that really embrace it,” said Leis. “Because we have such specialized needs, we bring employees in from all over the country, and sometimes all they know about Minnesota is the cold winters. Once they get here, though, very few want to leave.” 

A strong partnership  

PAR’s relationship with the city goes well beyond financial incentives. Both Leis and Dankwerth said the city has been a valuable partner. City staff have been responsive and been willing to work with the company on projects with unique demands. When there was pressure from some in the company’s ownership group to relocate at least some of the workforce to Minneapolis or St. Paul, that relationship made it easier to push for keeping the operation in Shoreview. 

“City employees have always been incredibly helpful,” Leis said. “Usually when we go to them with a question or a request, they have a response for us either the same day or the next day.” 

In a business where the focus is so strongly on addressing specific needs, it’s hard to pin down exactly what the future will look like for PAR Systems. What’s easy to see is that the company is happy to call Shoreview its home.

For more about what makes Shoreview an appealing home for so many businesses, contact the city today.