The Northome Industrial Park broke ground as the newest industrial park in Koochiching County in 2000.
It recently upgraded with 10 shovel-ready acres with potential expansion for 40 more. The park is located two miles east of Northome on Minnesota Highway 1. It is zoned for manufacturing, has utilities and is ready for tenants. Twenty acres of the park are designated as JOBZ, making tenents potentially eligible for state benefits.
A one-year-old Northome Industrial Park Planning Group recently completed training and developed strategies to attract a variety of businesses from wood based to manufacturing to data storage.
The group is beginning a direct contact and mailing campaign to targeted businesses, letting them know of the park’s existing three-phase electrical capacity with lines already installed by North Itasca Electric Cooperative.
Tom Bonar, Northome city clerk and treasurer, said the group has around 50 participants that have met since last fall to learn how to better market the assets with transportation, communications and energy on par to compete with larger communities.
“They decided the push has to be more local than just KEDA (Koochiching Economic Development Authority),” said Bonar.
The planning group conducted an inventory of the park’s assets and developed a preliminary plan to attract new and growing businesses.
In addition, members attended a Blandin Foundation Community Leadership program. Blandin trainers worked with participants at a Grand Rapids lodge retreat. They went over experiential learning, conflict management, communications and analysis skills, sustaining social capital and mobilizing on a community level.
Becky Adams, a Blandin recruiter, said the participants included residents as well as leaders of Northome, Big Falls and Kelliher. She said a prerequisite is planning for community support and to show they understood the potential for growth and the need for change.
“They have a declining population and want to be proactive in the effort to revitalize the town,” said Adams.
Malissa Bahr, Blandin recruitment manager, said the group is already making things happen and has three follow up meetings before the training is completed.
“They were excited about taking it to the next level and it is an ideal time to get involved with the people of Northome,” said Bahr. “We give people the skills and processes to take things where they want to go.”
“The planning group has accepted the challenge of continuing a long term effort to bring industries into an impoverished area,” said Koochiching County Commissioner Mike Hanson, a group member. “Blandin has funded that effort to this point and has been very generous and paid a lot of the expenses so that the taxpayers haven’t had to do that.”
Hanson also credited North Itasca Electric for its support and presence at the training meetings to discus power related issues.
The city of Squaw Lake is in Itasca County, but its mayor, Toni Wilcox, and Itasca County Commissioner Lori Dowling are in the group because Northome is the business and educational center for the northern portion of the county.
Wilcox said the park is an ideal site for a data storage facility. She contacted the Department of Defense along with financial, medical and insurance centers.
“We found that we could reach further than we thought,” said Wilcox.
“We are not just after high tech,” she added. “This is a two-pronged effort and we want to attract companies that will use the natural resources.”
Northome’s existing Internet service has “diverse path” capacity with redundant multi-direction lines to avoid outages should one line be broken, she added. In the event of natural or manmade disturbances to lines, she said data storage centers still need to maintain 100 percent online access.
“The DOD facility is dependent on federal funding,” said Wilcox. “But we have our bait in the water.”
Hanson noted that “Northome meets every criteria” on the checklist of stipulations needed for a data storage facility. It is centrally, remotely located in a cooler climate area of North America, is devoid of natural disasters, and has major airports nearby, with power and communications utilities already in place.
The group is working with local entrepreneurs to possibly create spin off supplier industries to new Iron Range projects. It also seeks proprietors that would use utilize the local wood industry to make hand-craft items and home furnishings.
“Today’s successful small town manufacturing firms, with good wages and working conditions, grow when someone has a tie to the community,” said Paul Nevanen, director of the Koochiching Economic Development Authority.
Nevanen said communities need to be positioned for opportunities, and that this group has already developed good marketing packets about the park and the community.
Northome’s proximity to logging should entice manufacturers of wood product’s he added. He said the group is also looking to attract light manufacturing and fabrication. It is a matter of time before this overall effort of a dedicated group will find the right match for their park, he added.
