The Crookston Ways & Means Committee held a special meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss state capital investment bonding and the possible issuance of municipal bonds to provide the infrastructure on the Colborn Property. The infrastructure will be necessary for businesses including Epitome Energy, Vertical Malt and the Soy Innovation Campus to build on the property.
The meeting was also attended by Senator Mark Johnson and Representative Deb Kiel. Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority Executive Director Craig Hoiseth explained that the $7 million the city was discussing requesting from the state through the bonding process would be used for the projected earthwork and installation of site utilities on the property. The city had presented that plan to the Senate Financial Investment committee in October and Johnson reiterated that the matching dollars would important as the committee rarely looks at projects without a match.
Johnson went on to say that because the city can’t afford the risk to take on the $7 million match alone, without more than an intent to provide the match from Epitome Energy, he wouldn’t be comfortable carrying a $7 million request at the capital at this point. Johnson said the risk the city would be taking on would be very significant. “This is such a wonderful project that is being proposed right now,” said Johnson. “I think that CHEDA and the City Council have been doing a really good job of trying to get all the players together. Right now, I think it’s not ready for primetime because the risk that the city would end up taking on this if one of those elements went south would be very, very significant and hard to overcome as a city. So, we have to be careful as we move forward on things like this of how do we get those industries it but don’t put the city and the individuals here at risk of carrying a huge burden in the future.”
Johnson said told the committee if he were to walk into Senator Dave Senjem, chair of the Senate Capital Investment Committee, with only intent from the business that would use the infrastructure and no established financial commitments he’d get laughed at and the bonding proposal would end there. Johnson said the commitment needs to be seen before moving forward. “The whole Epitome project right now is I think $220 million,” said Johnson. “So far, the city has put in a significant amount of money for that. The state has put in some money for bringing that in. But we haven’t necessarily seen any commitments in funding from the private sector that normally we would hope to be seeing. I know it’s been a rough year but we haven’t seen the commitment from Epitome and it’s investors into making this a sustainable project. So far, it’s only been government money that’s been going into that. We need to start setting those mile markers or goalposts of we need to see some commitment, money or the balance sheet going forward. We just haven’t seen some of those things we need to see. I’m not against the project but we just want to see it moving forward.”
Both Kiel and Johnson suggested that the Colborn Property be developed in phases starting with businesses more ready to move onto the property such as the expansion of Vertical Malt or the Soy Innovation Campus. Kiel said it’s important to advance the agricultural industry in Crookston but that everything needs to be ready to do so. “It’s important of the Crookston community to be able to advance industry but we need to do it in phases so we can be successful at this rather than being concerned about it,” said Kiel. “It still has some timeframe for everything to be together. We want to make sure we are ready.”
Kiel said she also thinks the air permitting process will be longer than anticipated saying her experience is that the bigger projects take longer. She also said she anticipates the Soy Innovation Campus air permitting will progress much faster adding she is excited about the potential the innovation campus will bring. “I think that’s the more important way to go,” said Kiel. “It’s really exciting to have soy innovation. I don’t think people realize how much research is being done with soybeans. That is a positive way to go and especially lends itself to the University of Minnesota where students are coming out, research is a big thing, and we’re an agricultural district. I think that’s important that we do that.”
The consensus from the committee was to take the legislators’ advice and create a phase one plan for the Colburn Property to present for the bonding bill. Hoiseth said that phase which would likely include Vertical Malt would come in off Ingersoll Avenue. “We’re trying to approach the legislature with a bonding request this year,” said Hoiseth. “We’re trying to have our Senator Mark Johnson and Representative Deb Kiel carry that language for us. Talking with them today they thought it would be a smart idea if we brought this up in phases instead of one big piece. So, we’re going to go back and look at is there a way we can scale back the first phase coming in from Ingersoll with a smaller request to fit some of the businesses that are maybe quicker on the timeline.”
Interim City Administrator and Finance Director Angel Weasner said she believed the city could put together a satisfactory proposal in the next few weeks. “I believe that will be accomplishable,” said Weasner. “We’ve had some recent estimates regarding roads because of Eickhof Blvd. We can possibly talk to the city engineer and architects to see if they can come up with some preliminary numbers and make our case as feasible and positive as we can. We can get that to Mark and Deb to ask them to carry it forward with them.”
Weasner said it would take a lot of coming up with the numbers required for phase one and that they would continue to work on getting everything together to complete the development of the entire Colborn Property. “To get phase one of the project I think we need to see a lot of numbers and some possible development that could occur very quickly,” said Weasner. “With the state legislature, I think they are very excited and want to come in here as soon as possible so that might be an avenue we could look into. We would continue and find out where everything stands on the Epitome side and possibly with another organization that may be willing to go out there. And we can service them, have positivity, and show that we are growing.”
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