Cottage Grove Mayor Myron Bailey is lashing out at Home Depot — the company he says is crippling city development for the next 15 years.

In hopes of pressuring the home improvement retailer to sell its vacant building to the city, Bailey is calling on Cottage Grove residents to skip Home Depot.

“I am not going to shop at Home Depot. I am encouraging our citizens to not shop at Home Depot,” Bailey fumed Wednesday. “But I am not literally calling for a boycott.

He said that after leaving the building empty for seven years, Home Depot is demanding a ban on neighboring businesses that sell anything it sells.

Even though the city would own the property, it would have to agree to keep any Home Depot competition out of the entire mall for 15 years.

Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes confirmed the mayor’s account of the company’s position. Holmes said the non-compete agreement is standard — even extended for years after a business closes.

“It’s common for any real estate agreement out there,” he said. “The bottom line is that we are as anxious to sell as anyone. I feel confident that we will be able to work something out.”

Bailey isn’t so optimistic.

“I can’t tell you how angry and frustrated I am,” the mayor said.

“Menards is in my community,” he added. “I am going to shop at Menards.”

Other officials are weighing in, too.

“I am more than frustrated by this ongoing stranglehold on our community by people who don’t live here,” state Rep. Dan Schoen, DFL-St. Paul Park, wrote on Twitter.

The Home Depot issue is all the more sensitive because it’s next to another store left empty when a Rainbow Foods closed last fall. The two closings leave acres of unused parking in the Gateway North mall.

Originally, Home Depot was the anchor for the mall and negotiated an agreement with the city barring any competing stores nearby. This was a common stipulation, Bailey said.

But officials didn’t realize the ban would be pushed after the Home Depot closed. And Bailey was stunned to learn about the company’s new position: It would sell to the city only if the ban continues for another 15 years.

“I could see no Lowe’s, Menards or Fleet Farm there — that’s perfect,” Bailey said. But he said Home Depot wants to keep out any business that sells what it does, which is a huge range of products including lamps, lumber, plants, carpet and appliances.

“This is their way of improving market share,” Bailey said.

Asked why Home Depot would want to extend the ban, spokesman Holmes said competition “was a part of it.”

But that ban has kept the mall empty for years, Bailey said.

Since 2007, a parade of developers has been spooked by the tough conditions. Interested buyers included LA Fitness and Hobby Lobby, the mayor said.

Instead, they moved to other suburbs — LA Fitness recently built a facility in Lake Elmo, and Hobby Lobby added a store in Woodbury in 2014.

“Goodwill looked at it, too, but they couldn’t wait,” Bailey said. “They built their own building.”

The nearest Home Depots nearest to Cottage Grove appear to be in Woodbury and Inver Grove Heights.

Bob Shaw can be reached at 651-228-5433. Follow him at twitter.com/BshawPP.