Area continues to grow

“Look what happened in the last 12-18 months. You had Chocolate Moose change hands ... you’ve got Chris Mostad now building, you’ve got The Spot changing hands, you’ve got Sha~Sha changing hands. Snap Fitness has come into the area. It isn’t all doom and gloom. There has been some real investment in our area,” Nevanen said. “The hospital, it looks like that’s going to move forward. Backus, a lot of investment there.

“Northland Distributing, that’s exciting. A lot of credit to the Hornes and, man, I tell you, the success that they’ve had and the confidence to move forward based one what they’ve done there ... He (owner Keith Horne) and his staff, I commend them, they’re fearless.

“The city’s done some real good things I think in terms of making that riverfront and getting some projects going,” he added. “The Border Patrol, in this economy, again, take it where ever you can. Federal project, doesn’t matter, it’s creating jobs, it’s creating some investment in our community and success breeds other success, activity breeds other activity.

“People drive by and they get kinda excited when they see dirt moving and walls going up ... the new Customs facility that they’re talking about, the new (Voyageurs National) park headquarters, now you’ve got a corridor along that river there with some activity and some investment and it’s long-term. And that’s going to shape our future and it’s exciting to see it.”

“Independently you look and it might not seem impressive but you start adding some of that up and I think especially given the economy, there have been some really good things,” Nevanen said of local projects. “But we have a lot of work ahead of us especially in job creation and diversification. It’s a long, ongoing slog and it takes time and it takes commitment.”

He pointed to the Renewable Energy Clean Air Project plasma gasification facility as an example of such a project that takes time and persistence. However, after the announcement in January of another federal grant of almost $1 million, he said that the project started getting national attention.

“RECAP, we’re up front on that and we’re progressing and I’m encouraged by not only how far we’ve come but what we’ve learned in the process. People are looking at us now from other parts of the country and asking us, ‘How’d you do that? How did little International Falls/Kooch County ... What the hell are you guys doing up there?’”

He said that progress on RECAP will take a noticeable upturn in 2010-2011. A feasibility study for the project is near completion.

Nevanen explained that the No. 1 priority for the KEDA is job creation.

“We want to get beyond timber and tourism ... And as Congressman (Jim) Oberstar alluded to when he was here, we have some challenges here and one of them is our geography. In this environment, to try to get someone to look at our part of the world as a place to come and create a business, move a business or expand here, it’s got its challenges and we’re fully aware of that,” he said.

Nevanen said one industry that the KEDA has been looking at is logistics providers, because with a logistics company comes the ability to work with multiple customers.

“We want to approach this from a very realistic standpoint ... We’re going to focus on things that would be successful because of our geography. Our location is strategic,” he said. He noted that the crossing in Ranier is second-busiest rail port in the nation, which is one of the reasons the KEDA is interested in developing the foreign trade zone just east of Ranier.

Nevanen said the KEDA has begun an initial investigation into biomass companies.

“That’s kind of a natural, too, because we have an abundance of it here. We’ve already got people who know how to handle it, ship it, procure it, process it. It’s just taking it in a different direction from where it’s going now. There’s a lot of people looking at biomass now,” he said.

At the last KEDA Board meeting, he noted that he wanted to put a working group together to further investigate the topic.

Other good businesses for this area would be a call center or data entry company — businesses that are not dependent on geography, he said.

Nevanen said that now is a good time to do “messaging” — such as national advertising in site-selection publications, and get sites — such as the FTZ and business parks — ready for customers in the future. He said the KEDA continues to look at companies that could locate in the Northome business park; and hope that in the future the park along Highway 53 in International Falls will again be used.

“It’s a big world out there. It’s very competitive, not only in the region, we’re competing with other counties, other communities in the state and our neighbors, South Dakota with no state taxes. Look at the business climate in South Dakota, North Dakota ... All around us our neighbors have a better business climate, they’re pulling businesses away from Minnesota.”

The FTZ? “It’s been around for a while and still, still not a slam dunk that just because you build it people will come there,” Nevanen said.

“Realize that with the economy now, everybody’s hanging on. There’s not too many people making big announcements about expanding right now.”

Nevanen said that bringing the Small Business Development Center and its consultant Jenny Dougherty into the KEDA fold has been a good move in terms of business retention.

“Jenny’s done a great job helping companies stay more competitive, cut costs, just run smoother. Obviously it’s easier, they’re captive, they’re here, to work with those folks and help them in any way you can and it’s been a very good investment, a smart move, to bring her in house and make her full time.”

Nevanen explained that having a capable work force in the area is also very important. He pointed to Rainy River Community College as a good place to prepare workers for the types of jobs that the area hopes to attract.

“Some of the initiatives coming out of the college we’re very interested in,” he said, specifically noting the green and sustainable construction and industrial technology programs.

But again, he noted, choosing the right projects for this area is important. For example, housing a facility that needs 500 new workers immediately may not be feasible here, he said.

“Going after these great big smokestack operations, well realistically that’s not where we’re going to put focus, just because I think these smaller operations fit our work force here,” he said.

“I think if you look at the whole picture, to be honest, everybody wants the same thing,” Nevanen said. “We all want livable jobs, to keep our young people here; we want to provide job opportunities and to have a healthy, prosperous community and county. We’ve got different philosophies and we have local units here that don’t always agree on how to get there.

“We’re not historically thought of automatically as a place where people think, ‘Oh geez, I’ll go to I. Falls and locate this business.’ We’ve got to be very thoughtful and very deliberate about how we get there and that means working together and it sounds kinda simplistic and it is, but it’s critical. You can’t ask someone to come to an area that’s in constant conflict.”