KEDA committee recommends preparing potential FTZ site designs that would be used for marketing, financial planning
A small group of interested area officials has made a recommendation to the Koochiching Economic Development Authority committee charged with developing a foreign trade zone.
“Absent a tenant, it’s difficult to move forward,” summed KEDA Director Paul Nevanen Wednesday during the KEDA Board meeting of the group’s discussion.
The committee recommended creating several conceptual plans for the foreign trade zone site and marking the site before moving forward with further site clearing.
“We have to balance getting it ready to market to somebody,” Nevanen said. “And yet not put in a tremendous amount of money without having that tenant.”
“Their recommendation was, ‘We’re still conceptual, let’s keep it conceptual,’” Nevanen said.
Participants in the smaller group include KEDA staff; Gary Skallman from International Falls; Doug Grindall and Will Hoyt from Koochiching County; Dave Serrano of Arro of the North; and Ed Oerichbauer and Teddy Pearson from Ranier.
“It’s a good group and I think it’s a good plan,” Nevanen said.
The foreign trade zone is jointly owned by International Falls and Koochiching County and managed by the KEDA. In October, Ranier annexed the foreign trade zone land. The FTZ has long been a topic of discussion by the KEDA, but development discussions intensified in April when a private developer presented a proposal for blasting rock on the site. Later, county officials identified using the rock itself as a cash saver for the gravel-strapped county.
During the January KEDA Board meeting, Nevanen brought the idea of the conceptual plans to the board. At that time, it decided to reconvene an FTZ committee to research the various options impacting the future of the tax-incentivized zone.
The official’s plan will be considered by the KEDA’s FTZ committee as it makes recommendations to the board as a whole.
The KEDA could use the conceptual plans for marketing efforts, as well as to determine the approximate costs of various options. Having this information in place would be attractive to clients, according to information previously discussed at KEDA by former Target Corp. site selector and FTZ advisor Jim Theusch, who recently addressed the KEDA Board.
“You could see the representations of buildings, infrastructure,” Nevanen explained of the magazine-quality final product.
Some of the items that would be identified in these conceptual plans would be a road to the FTZ, wetland mitigation and utilities. Serrano explained that they would develop about three of these computer-drafted designs that would provide options for future tenants, while still allowing the flexibility for decisions that work best for the future tenant’s specific business.
Important to the conversation, they said, would be contact with Canadian National Railway, which could provide rail access at the FTZ.
Serrano discussed how much wetland mitigation would be necessary, ranging from tiny slivers and pockets in upland areas to more significant acreage.
“I would hope we could get as much mitigated as soon as possible,” said Allen Rasmussen, who was elected the board chair during the meeting.
Serrano and Nevanen agreed that having stages of mitigation may be the best way to get the zone developed without causing a large financial burden at once. Nevanen said the northern and southern wetlands would likely remain buffers to the site, using mostly the rail-adjacent and non-wetland areas for development.
