Let me preface this by saying: I love to see North Dakota economic development stories outside the Bakken. There are some huge stories coming out of the eastern side of the state: Grand Forks, Fargo, Jamestown, and Valley City.
For newbies: Fargo is on the eastern border of North Dakota, on the Red River. A BNSF rail line, paralleling I-94, runs to Valley City (about 60 miles) and then to Jamestown (another 40 miles). A straight shot. Lots of industrial development potential along this line. Jamestown to Bismarck, another 100 miles. Again, a straight shot.
Jamestown, North Dakota
Spiritwood Energy Park
[Update, July 25, 2015: up and running.]
Spiritwood Energy Park is a huge project; housing for construction workers will be at a premium; community leaders are even talking about man-camps -- and this has nothing to do with the Bakken in the far west of North Dakota.
A power plant, an ethanol plant, and a rail spur on about a section of land.
Some data points:
- Spiritwood Energy Park: a 500-acre industrial park, 10 miles east of Jamestown
- Dakota Spirit AgEnergy: a 65-million-gallon/year ethanol plant; should break ground in 2013; hopefully completed by 2014/2105; being developed by Great River Energy
- Spiritwood Station, a combined heat and power plant; steam to operate the ethanol plant; also operated by Great River Energy
- CHS, Inc: to built a "massive" $1 billion nitrogen fertilizer plant; construction tentatively planned for 2013; could by operational by 2016 [I think this is the same fertilizer plant reported back in August, 2012; that link will take you to additional information on Great River Energy]
- 100 acres of land still available
- local community has pledged $3.75 million for a rail loop to provide access to the Warrn Buffett's BNSF rail line
John Deere: Fargo, Valley City
Back on November 26, 2012, I posted a story on continued John Deere investment in Valley City, North Dakota: a $20 million expansion of its facility there. Now, from PrairieBizMag.com:
On Nov. 27, John Deere Seeding Group Valley City broke ground on a $20 million expansion project that will provide an additional 100,000 square feet to the company’s manufacturing operations. John Deere initially opened its Valley City facility in 1996 to build tillage and air seeding equipment for customers worldwide. Now, with more than 300 employees, it is the largest employer in the town of about 6,500 people.In a separate story at the linked article, which I had missed earlier, John Deere opened another facility about the same time in Fargo:
John Deere Electronic Solutions held an inauguration event Oct. 9 to celebrate the company’s new $22 million, 90,000-square-foot building in north Fargo. The facility has some manufacturing capabilities but will primarily be used for engineering and product development and testing, according to Tom Budan, general manager of JDES.For the most part, this building will consolidate Deere's 1,000 employees currently in six locations in Fargo at one location.
The amount of economic activity in North Dakota -- outside of the oil patch -- never ceases to amaze me. It really is quite remarkable. It speaks well of the business environment in North Dakota.
It speaks well of the business environment in North Dakota. That is for sure, you got to love a positive pro-growth environment.
ReplyDeleteThe Anhydrous Ammonia plant at Spiritwood is being built by Cenex Harvest States a Twin Cities based farm co-op. I think it is very revealing their choice of location. North Dakota is pro-business, Minnesota is not pro-business.
So many new developments going on in both North and South Dakota because of that pro-growth attitude. Meanwhile Minnesota stagnates and declines. If Minnesota didn't have the Dakotas next door they would be in worse shape than they are.
Someone should do a study or write a book on the two glaring differences between those states and the different policies that create this situation.
Evan a case study at Harvard School of Business would be interesting.
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