Burgum to tour state-aided redevelopment in Grand Forks

Oct. 4—Grand Forks officials are set to present to North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Tuesday, Oct. 5, a series of emerging redevelopments in the city's downtown that were either subsidized with state money or the recipient of a state tax break.

The governor and city leaders are set to speak to one another at 11 a.m. that day in the community room in the Grand Forks Herald building, then head to a series of "sneak peeks," ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings nearby.

"There's nothing better than face-to-face communications and relationship building," City Administrator Todd Feland told the Herald, "and demonstrating progress."

The tour of downtown is set to include a ribbon-cutting at the intersection of North Third Street and DeMers Avenue, both of which the city has rebuilt — or nearly finished rebuilding — in the past two years, plus a groundbreaking at the new Beacon redevelopment on First Avenue North.

It'll also encompass "sneak peeks" at Harry's steakhouse, which recently held a soft opening; "Pure Development," a project that's nearly done reforming a city block to include a Hugo's grocery store, apartments, and an Alerus bank branch; the Argyle apartment and office building on Fourth Street and DeMers; the Selkirk condos around the corner, and remade "Mill Square" commercial space and apartments along Third Street.

Each of those redevelopments has been the recipient of at least one state tax incentive: the grocery store, apartment, and bank branch project received low- and moderate-income housing credits, according to Feland. The Argyle, Selkirk, and Third Street mixed use projects all received tax breaks via a state "Renaissance Zone" program that aims to revitalize North Dakota downtown, and the bulk of both roadway projects was paid for by the North Dakota Department of Transportation.

At the roundtable, state and city officials are set to update one another on industrial development, the "Career Impact Academy" the city and Grand Forks Public Schools hope to build at a former hotel site with a multi-million state grant, and the governor's "Main Street initiative," via which Grand Forks programs have been recognized three of the previous four years.

Staff at Burgum's office did not immediately return a Herald request for comment.