News + Announcements

Article by Chris Giesen

The City of Elgin formally welcomed its newest business and latest economic development project at a ribbon cutting ceremony on January 30, 2012.  Dr. Julee Kingsley and her three employees opened Elgin Family Dentistry’s doors in mid 2011, but January’s ribbon cutting was a big celebration for a rural community with big plans.  In attendance at the ceremony was USDA Rural Development state director Colleen Landkamer, a representative from U.S. Senator Klobuchar’s office, a representative from U.S. Congressman Tim Walz’s office, MN DEED representatives, local elected officials, CEDA staff, and many others that made this project possible.

The City of Elgin, with the help of CEDA, secured a $396,000 Community Facility loan from the USDA to purchase the building Dr. Kingsley needed to open her practice.  Having the city purchase the building and having Dr. Kingsley as a tenant was the key to making this project affordable so it could get off the ground.  “We started looking at this project in early 2010,” said CEDA President/CEO Ron Zeigler, who also led the CEDA team for this project.  “This was quite a unique project that involved not only many of our team members, but the Elgin EDA and city council, financial advisors, DEED, USDA, People’s Energy Cooperative, and even Congressman Walz himself.  Without all of these people working together for Elgin, this project wouldn’t have happened.” he continued.  “A special thanks to Mayor Rich Hall and city clerk Sue Cain who tirelessly championed for Dr. Kingsley’s project from the beginning; there were many scenarios to discuss and hurdles to overcome but with their leadership Dr. Kingsley was able to move forward.”

Article by Cris Gastner

City and EDA see infrastructure completed in new business park and assist with completion of infrastructure in existing industrial park.

The City of St. Charles has seen the completion of two major infrastructure projects that provides several options for business looking to expand or relocate to the community.  With the completion of the water booster station this spring, the infrastructure in the new Chattanooga Innovation Park is now complete.  The new park encompasses around thirty acres of developable land in the first phase. City and EDA staff has been contacted by several prospective businesses about the park spanning several industries from retail and hospitality to manufacturing and light industry and are “cautiously optimistic” about seeing some construction in the park this summer.

The City and EDA also assisted in an infrastructure project in its existing Whitewater Industrial Park that will allow an existing business in the park explore a major expansion project as well as make available two really attractive industrial lots for future development.  With the entire infrastructure now in place in phase one of the park, these to lots become extremely marketable to prospective new businesses as well as existing businesses looking to expand.

With these two infrastructure projects now complete, the City of St. Charles is most definitely “Ready for Business”.

Article by Erin Sparks

At the 2010 Goodhue County Economic Development Summit there was a tremendous amount of discussion on continuing to develop and enhance connections between our leisure and hospitality businesses throughout the County.  In order to further this discussion and increase opportunity for cooperation within this industry sector, the Goodhue County Economic Development Authority conducted a business retention and expansion (BR&E) survey of the County’s leisure and hospitality businesses.  A BR&E survey is designed to “take the pulse” of a sector of business, as well as, identify any red-flag issues affecting the retention or expansion of the businesses within that sector.  The results of the survey, as reported at the 2011 Goodhue County Economic Development Summit, identified the difficulties facing Goodhue County’s leisure and hospitality businesses, and outlined a strategy to promote stability and growth in that sector now and into the future.

A major part of the strategy identified the need to create a county-wide marketing plan to promote the County’s key tourist attractions and the area as a whole. So in 2011 the Goodhue County EDA enlisted the help of Community and Economic Development Associates (CEDA) to create the Goodhue County Tourism Marketing Strategy. The plan, which focuses on three key elements – collaboration, education and promotion, was sent out to city and county leaders in 2011 for review and discussion.

Article by Ron Zeigler

The Chatfield Center for the Arts, owned by the Chatfield Economic Development Authority and in partnership with many groups, continues to develop and once again become a facility of regional and economic significance.  Ownership of the property was transferred in February 2010.  Since that time, progress has been made to restore the facility.  19 major improvements to the facility have been made to date.

These improvements would not have been possible without the support and vision of the Chatfield Center for the Arts Advisory Committee.  To date, the Chatfield Center for the Arts has secured $3,212,171 in funding from 20 separate entities through grants and generous donations.  Additionally, there have been countless significant hours of labor donated by at least 11 community organizations.

The Center has also secured the services of a lobbyist to assist the project in gaining support at the Minnesota Capitol for state bonding dollars.  The Chatfield Center for the Arts sought funding in 2010 but was narrowly left of out the final conference bill due to political negotiations.  At the time this article was written, the Chatfield Center for the Arts was included in a final Senate bill for $2.2 million in state bonding dollars.  These dollars will be used for major updates and renovations to facility systems such as electrical, HVAC, plumbing, weatherization, and also general renovations to the various rooms and grounds.

Improvements made to date have allowed for 68 individual events, including 21 individual performers.  Individual performers range from local artists such as the Chatfield Brass Band to international musicians such as Lorie Line.  16 other notable groups have also used the facility including U.S. President Barack Obama.

A broad array of users of the property has developed, resulting in approximately 10,000 people in Potter Auditorium and approximately 3,300 people in the American Legion Room in 2011.  Project dollars to date injected into the economy are just short of $700,000.  Utilizing a jobs factor of one job is created for every $20,000 worth of injection, the Center has assisted to create over 34 jobs in this short period of time.   Using a multiplier of a dollar turning over seven times, almost $5 million has been inject into the economy.

The economic impact to the local economy is real, as caterers, printers, advertisers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, concrete contractors, restaurants, boiler operators, garbage haulers, bakeries, liquor stores, grocers, motels, bed & breakfasts, and others have benefited from the Center.

The economic impact to the state’s economy is real, as contractors, musicians, and other professionals from St. Cloud, North Branch, Minneapolis, Rochester, Spring Grove, Edina, Oakdale, St. Paul, Lino Lakes, Plymouth, Pine River and others have benefited from the Center.

The Chatfield Center for the Arts is truly a significant economic, historic and arts project that will not only help to revitalize a community’s downtown, but a region as well.

Article by Chris Giesen

The City of Stewartville, led by the city Economic Development Authority recently sold the downtown property located at 102 Main Street, commonly known as the “Start Building” to Rochester developers Nels and Nicole Pierson.  The building is home to the Stewartville Star newspaper, has had residential tenants in the second floor apartment, and provides some storage for a third renter.

The City purchased the building nearly ten years ago as part of a downtown revitalization project.  There was another adjacent building to the south which was demolished.  The “Star Building” was to meet the same fate allowing for additional green space downtown.  For various reasons the plan did materialize and the city kept leasing the building to the Stewartville Star and other tenants.  After advertising the building for sale without any buyers, the EDA began to discuss options.

“The EDA really thought outside of the box to complete this project,” said Chris Giesen CEDA Business Development Specialist and EDA representative to Stewartville.  “The amount of TLC needed to fix this building and pay the purchase price seemed to be a little too much for most buyers,” he continued.  “But the EDA started talking about what the goals were concerning the building, and they decided that they had an opportunity to do something very positive with a highly visible building downtown.”

The EDA decided last October to advertise the property for sale “for as low as $1,” and requested any interested parties submit proposals to the EDA by the deadline.  Their goal was to reduce the purchase price so that a private developer could restore the building to its historical character and encourage similar investments from neighboring building owners.

After reviewing proposals, the EDA recommended that the City accept the proposal from the Pierson’s.  The City and Pierson’s negotiated various securities and the sale for $1 was complete in early March.  The Pierson’s plan for the building includes restoring the exterior’s historical appearance including replacing windows and restoring the front and side façade.  On the interior, they look forward to working with the existing tenants, while making improvements to the office space and restoring the historical detail that had been previously covered up.  The Pierson’s plan to remodel the residential space into an upscale loft while using the historically significant aspects of the building.  The Pierson’s recently completed a similar historic commercial property renovation with a similar building in downtown Rochester.