What We’re Reading

Minnesota's electric cooperatives continue to seek practical ways to diversify local economies, attract new capital and foreign direct investment, and connect rural regions with new international partners.A recent trade mission to Ireland – supported by Great River Energy, Greater Mankato Growth and LITTUS – provided new insight into how Irish...Continue Reading

St. Cloud welcomed several major development projects to the area in 2025.The area's biggest projects of the year spanned areas from health care to manufacturing and commercial space, excluding restaurants and housing, bringing in tens of millions of dollars in new developments.CentraCareThe CentraCare system brought in a total of over...Continue Reading

Roots & Wings Early Learning Center, LLC, affectionately called “The Mustard Seed” by owners Rob and Krista Sjostrand, is set to open spring of 2026.The project was planted in their hearts a little over 3 years ago. After COVID, when the world went a little sideways, the Sjostrands felt the...Continue Reading

New survey data indicates a likely surge in Opportunity Zone investing in 2027. What else is coming down the pike? Plus, the long-awaited 2025 OZ Holiday Gift Guide!In this episode of OZ NewsHour, Andy Hagans and Jimmy Atkinson deliver their end-of-year program, covering brand-new proprietary survey data, OZ 2.0 policy...Continue Reading

Governor Tim Walz and the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) today announced the recipients of $8.8 million in grants to grow Minnesota's workforce through the Drive for 5 Workforce initiative. Drive for 5 is the state's program for preparing Minnesotans for high-demand jobs in five occupational categories: the...Continue Reading

Each year, Area Development partners with Chmura Economics & Analytics to evaluate the performance of U.S. metropolitan areas based on the fundamentals that matter most to business expansion: workforce, economic strength, and adaptability. Using Chmura’s data-driven model — which equally weights Prime Workforce and Economic Strength — the Leading Metro...Continue Reading

St. Cloud Sky Central Airport boasted its increased passenger count and improvement projects in its comprehensive community report, released Dec. 17.Since 2022, the St. Cloud Regional Airport Authority worked on improvement projects worth nearly $10.9 million, of which nearly 93% was funded by state and federal grants, according to a...Continue Reading

The Northland Foundation is pleased to share that 14 individuals were awarded $66,500 in Maada’ookiing grants this past summer which include awards made through a special “pop-up” Maada'ookiing grant opportunity that was announced in the spring. Another six grants totaling $29,450 were awarded in the fall grantmaking round.“The Maada’ookiing Advisory...Continue Reading

Northeast MN and Tribal Nation Lands—The Northland Foundation awarded 29 grants totaling $728,750 through its Quarterly Grant program during July, August, and September. A large share of the grants went to organizations addressing food insecurity in communities throughout northeastern Minnesota, including food banks, food shelves, and other food distribution programs.“Food...Continue Reading

A critical shortage of development-ready industrial sites is pushing states to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in product development. These proactive efforts aim to enhance the developability and speed-to-market of industrial property, ultimately attracting capital investment and job creation. Site Selection Group regularly monitors these investments, and this article...Continue Reading

Planned data center construction is surging to meet demand for cloud applications, cryptocurrency, streaming services and artificial intelligence. Electric co-ops are at the center of that development, with some fielding multiple new requests at a time to serve data centers.These large loads can benefit co-ops and the communities they serve...Continue Reading

United States cold storage is a specialized sector representing less than 2% of the overall industrial market, yet it is mission-critical infrastructure for U.S. consumption. Today, the property type is in a period of generational change. Average rents have grown more than 100% since 2020, yet vacancy has climbed to...Continue Reading

As economic developers look for new ways to promote their communities online, adapting to an AI-driven search landscape has become essential. At Golden Shovel Agency, we’re helping organizations rethink their 2026 content strategies to ensure their communities stand out—both to people and to artificial intelligence.Economic Developers Must Adapt to the...Continue Reading

Anyone planning to make a location decision in the coming years should be paying attention to Opportunity Zones, the federal capital gains tax incentive designed to drive productive investment into low-income areas across the country.The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) made Opportunity Zones (OZs) a permanent feature of the...Continue Reading