News + Announcements

By Joshua Schuetz

The City of Spring Grove was awarded $312,990 through an application to Minnesota DEED’s Redevelopment Grant, authored by CEDA. The award, which was announced in September, is the largest amount awarded to any community in greater Minnesota through the program.

The funding will be used to rebuild a mixed-use property in Spring Grove, which burned down last year, displacing one business and several residents.

“Right after that happened, we immediately went for state aid, and then we started writing this grant,” said CEDA team member Rebecca Charles, who authored the grant.

Following the fire, the property was purchased by the Spring Grove Real Estate Fund, a private, nonprofit investment organization in the city. The Spring Grove Real Estate Fund was formed through a partnership with SMIF led by CEDA team member Courtney Bergey-Swanson.

“They immediately began working on some ideas on what to do with the space, and what they came up with was a mixed use building,” Charles said. “We hope to have another hardware store in it, but we don’t have a tenant at this time.”

Six two bedroom apartments, four studio apartments and six one bedroom apartments will be included in the new building. A disaster for the city has transformed into a project that will add a new business and sixteen much-needed housing units to the community.

Charles said the community has fully supported the project and that residents are glad to know that something will be done with the property.

“As soon as the EDA knew we were doing something with it, they had a local artist create a mural on the plywood covering parts of the property, and everyone was very excited about the project,” Charles said. “DEED will inform us of the next steps and we will use this funding to move the project forward.”

The new building’s name is appropriate to its story: Føniks, which is the Norwegian word for phoenix-the bird that rises from the ashes.

By Joshua Schuetz

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack paid a significant visit to Lime Springs in Howard County, Iowa, where he emphasized the importance of rural economic development. During his visit, Vilsack toured Upper Iowa Beef, a meatpacking plant in Lime Springs that expanded its facilities through a USDA grant. Following the tour, Vilsack held a roundtable discussion with local farmers, business leaders, and economic development professionals, including CEDA team members Jason Passmore, Spiff Slifka, Chris Giesen and CEDA Board member Brian Krambeer.

Slifka said one point of discussion was the income disparity between farmers, something Vilsack said the USDA has not been active enough in addressing in recent years. Since 1981, 437,000 small farms have been lost in the United States, and a smaller share of corporate farms collects more income.

“We know that 7 percent of farms are owned by large corporations. Last year, we had record income from farmers, but that 7 percent of corporate farming took 89 percent of the income, which left 93 percent of the farmers with 11 percent of the income” she said.

Investing in rural America and helping make rural prosperity more widespread were discussed at the roundtable. Passmore said Vilsack announced additional funding for farmers, with programs aimed at helping them monetize animal waste by turning it into SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) among other things. These programs help farmers in two ways: first, they can make them more sustainable, and second, they can help farmers make financially unproductive
parts of the farming cycle profitable.

“One challenge he had for us is not just tied to our investments with the USDA but with the growing industries in the energy fields and other agricultural related fields that are coming up. How do we position ourselves as communities to possibly recruit some of these new business startups? How do we align ourselves that way similar to a supply chain?” he said.

Passmore said CEDA’s work in Howard County aligns with that challenge, as the county’s revolving loan funds have provided funding to startups, transitions and established businesses across a diverse range of local industries. “Right now, we have more than $1 million in USDA revolving loan funding currently assisting 36 businesses in Howard County.”

Giesen added “Brian Krambeer from MiEnergy Cooperative spoke of their USDA REDLG program that has provided millions to area businesses as well. It’s great to see CEDA working on the front lines engaged with USDA to elevate our rural communities and improve their sustainability.”

By Joshua Schuetz

One year ago, CEDA team member Hillary Tweed was approached by a group of women in Benson who had an idea: to revive the Benson’s Quilt and Garden Tour, which was last held more than thirty years ago.

“They wanted to get the event going again in Benson, so we started meeting monthly to begin planning,” Tweed said. “This was all done because members of the community wanted to contribute, so the quilters and gardeners donated their materials and space.”

A quilt and garden tour is exactly what it sounds like: gardens from around the community were chosen, and quilts were placed around them, along with refreshments, offering attendees the chance to enjoy local art, crafts, ambience and food.

When Tweed and the group began recruiting quilters, they discovered more interest in
quilting—and the event—than they had expected. “We had so many quilts submitted that we had to cap it at 120,” Tweed said. “As we started receiving positive feedback from people in Benson, other organizations jumped on board.”
The Zetetic Study Group provided the refreshments served at the event, and Thrivent Financial also offered monetary support. The Benson Golf Club, meanwhile, donated the use of the clubhouse to sell tickets for the event.

Tweed said the reason she was contacted was that the local organizers were aware of the economic development office’s work on other area events and its use of social media to promote local activities.

“We have a music in the market event, and I help with managing the Benson Facebook Page, so they knew our office was involved in organizing and promoting events,” Tweed said. “It also helps that I like to quilt, too!”

When all was said and done, the event, held on June 28th, was more successful than its organizers had expected, with over a hundred quilts on display across several gardens in the community and attendees.

“We had a lot of people whom I didn’t expect to see there—it wasn’t just quilters and gardeners, and we were able to have local artists come and paint landscape scenes at the event, which people really liked.” Tweed said. “It truly was something for the entire Benson community, and it was great that we were able to revive it.”

By Joshua Schuetz

Residents and visitors to Hayfield now have a new way to take trips ‘round the town. The city’s new bike share service, work on which has been underway throughout this year, is now open to the public as of August 23.

Hayfield’s bike share service is free. Six new bikes were purchased through the funding from The Hayfield EDA, with the help of CEDA team member Rebecca Charles, led the way on the project, which was funded in part by a $10,000 grant from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF). A bike rodeo was held last year to raise awareness and additional community support for the project.

Bike shares, which allow residents and visitors to rent bikes for free or a small fee, are growing in popularity throughout Minnesota and the United States as cities look to promote physical exercise, reduce car dependency and give residents more opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there are 2,655 bike share stations in 65 cities across the United States.
SMIF, and work on the pergolas and bike racks was also funded through the grant. In order to make the service accessible and inclusive to all residents, the city chose to purchase bikes of varying sizes, including youth to adult frames.

The new bike share racks are located under two pergolas by city hall. In addition to sheltering the bicycles from rain, the pergolas will offer residents a place to rest in the shade when walking downtown, checking one of the bikes out, or bringing a bike in after a ride. Bicycles will be stored indoors during the winter months.

Residents and visitors are welcome to check out bikes from the city, which can be done at city hall. Weekend rentals are also available but must be checked out by 3:30 p.m. on Thursdays.

By Joshua Schuetz

CEDA’s Rural Business Innovation Lab (RBIL) launched in late spring 2023, and the inaugural cohort is now halfway through the 8-month technical assistance program. RBIL, which is funded in part by a grant from Compeer Financial, is led by CEDA team members Robert Harris III and Cameron Payne.

Since the kickoff event in Red Wing in June, CEDA’s RBIL team has been meeting weekly with the eight companies in the inaugural cohort, working with them on a customized plan to scale their businesses. CEDA has also been building capacity for future cohorts, integrating new learnings and creating programming that caters to the needs of these rural companies. Here are a few highlights of the past few months:

● To support businesses as they embark on marketing campaigns, pitch competitions, and seeking capital, CEDA developed a “storyboarding sprint” curriculum that utilized sprint and agile brainstorming methodologies to organize big ideas into actionable steps forward.

● One of RBIL’s major goals is to create a denser, more well-connected ecosystem of innovative rural businesses. One exciting example of RBIL’s collaborative nature is a new partnership between two RBIL businesses: Perennial Pantry recently featured 3Cricketeers products in their subscription box! These entrepreneurs share a unified vision for environmental change and improved sustainable business practices.

● Access to startup capital is a common need for businesses, but it’s even harder in rural places which often have fewer banking institutions and angel investors. CEDA has been working to bridge that gap by hosting virtual events for the RBIL cohort to connect directly with investors and lenders, learning about venture capital, angel investment, traditional business lending, and other creative ways to approach financing as they scale.

● To assist the RBIL cohort in the day-to-day operational challenges and knowledge gaps, CEDA has also partnered with several industry experts for consulting on topics such as human resources, CPG consumer testing, legislative engagement, and accounting.

Stay tuned for more updates on the Rural Business Innovation Lab, including information on how to apply for the next cohort (applications will open in early 2024). To learn more about the current businesses involved in the RBIL program, please visit CEDA’s website or reach out to Director of Strategic Initiatives Robert Harris III (robert.harris@cedausa.com).