CEDA

Article by: Cris Gastner

The City of St. Charles and CEDA Senior Vice President, Cris Gastner worked with Chadwick Real Estate Services to negotiate the sale of 9.11 acres of land on Enterprise Drive in the city St. Charles, Minnesota.  Chadwick is representing Danmar Properties, LLC in its purchase of four (4) platted commercial lots located within the City’s Chattanooga Business Park, along Interstate 90 and Minnesota Highway 74.

Danmar is part of the family that owns Dodge of Burnsville, a large volume south metro dealer located on Interstate 35W and Cliff Road in Burnsville, MN. Danmar acquired the land to build a new, state of the art automotive dealership catering to families in the community and Interstate customers from surrounding states.  The first store, on the site, will feature Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram brands and include a Ram truck service center.

Chadwick Real Estate was enlisted by the Fiat Chrysler Automotive dealership group to perform development services, including a location search, which yielded the St. Charles site. “The City of St. Charles team did a great job of communicating with us, working with our requirements, and helping us bring the project through the City’s planning process quickly”. – Chad R. Wiech, Principal

Site work will likely begin in early July, 2018, with plans for the dealership to open within the year.

Article by: Mary Kennedy

Blue Earth, MN was among the five communities with populations of 5,000 or less selected to participate in the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation’s Rural Entrepreneurial Venture (REV). The REV model is based on The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship’s Energized Communities (e2) framework. REV is a unique, long-term commitment that focuses on developing processes and systems for sustainable economic growth. The program focuses on finding and igniting existing entrepreneurs within communities which helps the community grow from within.

Blue Earth’s REV program has been renamed BEA Rev’d Up and consists of a core team that is made up of City staff, local business owners, Chamber of Commerce representatives, EDA board members, a Community Coordinator, and CEDA team member Mary Kennedy who serves the City of Blue Earth. The structure of the program encourages the core group to identify the various businesses in the community to determine which definition of entrepreneur is most relevant to Blue Earth. Kennedy put together and organized an updated business inventory list in order for the group to have a clear idea of what businesses were in operation in Blue Earth. With that list, the group was able to identify five transitional businesses and five growth oriented businesses to target as the program moves forward. The core group is also tasked with planning a community event which will provide a chance to engage the public and inform local entrepreneurs of this exciting new opportunity. While the core group is still in the process of planning that event, the group realized an extra outreach opportunity.

With so many existing community groups and local networks such as Kiwanis and Lions, the group thought that having a representative attend those meetings would provide a great platform to begin informing the community and spreading the word about BEA Rev’d Up! Representatives of the core group are working to organize dates to attend monthly meetings and speak with the various local community groups. Additionally, the core group is working to form a Resource Team and an Outreach Team to assist in the implementation of the program. One of the strategies Kennedy has been tasked with is to attend a Blue Earth Area School Board meeting. This is with the intention to inform the board of the REV program as well as to share her experience meeting with the neighboring City of Fairmont’s Superintendent of Schools, Joe Brown. Kennedy met with Brown to discuss the emphasis his district has put on vocational education. Kennedy was able to tour Fairmont’s Saturday Welding Academy and share her thoughts with the Blue Earth EDA and REV core group. Many Blue Earth Area students head to Fairmont on Saturdays to take advantage of their welding class and facilities, however they are responsible for their own transportation. The EDA and REV program would like to partner to come up with a solution to sponsor the transportation. Both boards see the value in educating local youth for vocational sector jobs with the intention of connecting students with the necessary resources to keep them in the area for work and business start-up opportunities.

Article by: Marty Walsh

March 9th was the culmination of a month-long project by the Houston County, MN Economic Development Authority in partnership with important entities such as: Perkins Consortium; Caledonia, MN; La Crescent, MN; Lewiston-Altura schools, Rushford-Peterson schools, Fillmore County, MN Economic Development and Workforce Development, Inc. These organizations, including the CEDA team members serving the affected areas, worked together to bring  career readiness information to senior students. Also importantly, the event helped local businesses get exposure among the students for job opportunities as well as giving the businesses a better understanding of what the emerging workforce looks like.

CEDA team member Courtney Bergey Swanson aided Perkins Consortium Director Brian Cashman in coordinating the initial group of schools after coming to understand that there was a disconnect between school and employers that could be remedied with increased communication. Area schools then dedicated themselves to developing curriculum that better connected the two critical components of the community and additional partnerships, including CEDA, brought in Fillmore County Economic Development and Workforce Development, Inc. The working group determined a senior career day to be a worthwhile goal that could be accomplished within the school year, and something that can grow into job shadowing, apprenticeships, and general career awareness for local students. Connecting students early to the wide variety of workforce opportunities in the community increases the probability that they will seek and find fulfilling employment in the region, something that was attractive to the nearly two dozen businesses who participated in the career day by sending volunteers from their Human Resource and Business Development departments to conduct mock interviews and answer questions about their communities. Businesses attended from 5 counties representing fields from logistics to banking to advanced manufacturing.

“Many of our business participants felt they gained great insight getting to talk to students one on one,” said Marty Walsh, the CEDA team member serving the Fillmore County EDA, “And many realized even if there wasn’t a student who lived in the same town as their business, they may have relatives seeking career opportunities for whom it’s a better fit. Many also recognize anyone from the region is more likely to move back here after seeking a degree or certificate program if they know there are opportunities, and they are more likely to do it than someone with no roots here. These are the perfect long-term candidates for our employers.”

With the excitement generated in the schools as well as among employers, CEDA staff hope that they will be able to replicate the program with more school districts over the next several years and continue to provide this unique connection between education, workforce and community.

Today, many communities across Greater Minnesota and Iowa are challenged with fulfilling their housing needs.  In an effort to remain proactive and strategic, many CEDA communities are taking steps to conduct comprehensive housing studies.  The primary objective of these studies is to assist in determining each community’s housing deficits.  They will provide a detailed analysis that will identify current and future housing needs in the community and help decision makers develop a greater understanding of the housing market.

Communities are often provided with recommendations and action plans for housing development (both short and long-term), as well as, tools and policies that will assist in implementation based on an examination of the demographics, economic characteristics and trends, and current housing market conditions.  The studies will deliver valuable information that community leaders, stakeholders, and decision-makers can use to promote development activity and investment as it shows those potential developers and investors the needs and viability of targeted projects within their communities.

Some CEDA communities are currently undergoing this process with the assistance of their CEDA representatives.  Dodge County, MN has commissioned a study which will be completed by Maxfield Research and Consulting. The County is hoping that the study will analyze and ascertain the housing needs county-wide as well as the specific needs of each of the six individual communities within the county.  CEDA team member Stephanie Lawson who serves the Dodge County EDA is excited to begin the process and is looking forward to the results of the study. “This housing study is the first step in securing the necessary residential options for those individuals living, working or considering relocation to Dodge County.” Lawson said, “Once complete, the study’s results will provide County officials with data that can effectively market the community to appropriate developers as well as aid the County in its planning process.” Dodge County’s housing study is being primarily funded by donations from community stakeholders.  CEDA staff also authored and received a $5,000 Feasibility Study grant from Compeer Financial.  The study is expected to be complete by the end of 2018.

Lewiston, MN is also working on a study which is being conducted by Widseth Smith Nolting. CEDA team member Rebecca Charles works with the City’s EDA and has guided the community’s project efforts. Charles wrote and was approved for a $2,500 grant from Compeer Financial to complete the study. “The Lewiston EDA Board is anticipating our results within the next month.” Charles shared, “The City plans to utilize the information on current inventory, market trends and predicted growth to thoughtfully plan for the future by attracting relevant developers and employers.”

Other CEDA counties currently looking into housing study research include Fillmore County, MN and Howard County, IA.

Article by: Courtney Bergey

This year, students from Houston County will have the exciting opportunity to be part of the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street program called Stories: YES Houston (Youth + Engagement + Skillbuilding). Stories: YES Houston is presented as part of the 2018 Smithsonian traveling exhibition, “The Way We Worked,” exploring how work became a central element in American culture, and tracing the many changes that have affected the workforce and work environments over the past 150 years.

The selected youth applicants will develop skills in local and oral history research, interviewing, media production, exhibit design, narrative writing, public speaking, and more. By the end of the project, the participants will have produced a series of multimedia stories that will inspire local conversations on economic sustainability and regional identity.

Houston County CEDA representative Courtney Bergey assisted with the program planning and will be an active partner in the project, which received $10,000 in funding from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation Small Town Grant program. Project coordinator is Erin Dorbin, a Houston, MN-based historian and multimedia producer.

For more information on the program, visit http://www.storiesyeshouston.com/ or check out this article http://www.bluffcountrynews.com/Content/Bluff-Country-Reader/Bluff-Country-News/Article/City-of-Houston-receives-Small-Town-Grant-award/14/23/70130