The Koochiching Economic Development Authority Board Thursday discussed a delay in an agreement with a new cold weather testing customer that wants to construct a second cold box in International Falls.

KEDA Director Paul Nevanen said he had hoped to release the customer’s name and a final agreement when the board met Thursday, however, the European company added new stipulations to an agreement after consulting with a North American attorney, Nevanen said.

“I thought the terms were pretty simple,” Nevanen explained about the final agreement. “Then last week, they threw in a new wrinkle.”

Last May, the board learned of interest from an undisclosed company looking to consolidate all its cold weather testing in the Falls and to construct an additional cold box at the current cold weather testing facility.

Nevanen said Thursday there has been a lot of discussion on finalizing an agreement with the company during the past year.

KEDA Attorney Steve Shermoen told the board the company “made some real fundamental changes” to the agreement after consulting with its attorney.

Shermoen explained the company wanted a “drop-dead deadline” of Jan. 1, 2013, for the cold box to be constructed. If the construction process was not complete by that date, the company said it could walk away from the agreement.

“I don’t think that’s acceptable,” Shermoen said. “We were shooting for a Nov. 15 occupancy date originally, and that appeared to be doable before all these changes came into play.”

Shermoen and Nevanen noted that with all the agreement changes along the way, a “realistic” occupancy date kept getting pushed back. Shermoen said it would take about eight months from the time an agreement was signed to the time a new building would be ready for occupancy.

Shermoen said he was hoping to reach an agreement with terms that didn’t include fixed dates.

“If we don’t have an agreement by May 31, we’re looking at (the company) starting its testing in 2013 instead of 2012,” he said.

Nevanen described the situation as “frustrating” and was hoping to put some “urgency” on a final agreement.

“These are changes (the customer) has caused, not us,” Nevanen said. “I want to make sure the board and the public know that.”

The board agreed to have Shermoen and Nevanen continue negotiating the agreement and said a special meeting could be called if terms are set before the board’s next meeting.

In other business Thursday, the board discussed an administrative assistant position vacated by Lindsay Frank earlier this month.

The part-time position attracted 11 interested applicants, four of which will be interviewed by a committee of board members Monday. The committee is expected to make a hiring recommendation to the board for a final decision to be made at the May 9 meeting.

During his director’s report, Nevanen told the board that a wetland application for the foreign trade zone, located near Ranier, has been submitted. The FTZ is owned by International Falls and Koochiching County and managed by the KEDA.

“But, we don’t know how long that process will take,” he said.