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Grand Forks Economy


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58 minutes ago, OgieOgilthorpe said:

Is it true the Alerus Center is also a large financial burden? I've heard it's constantly upside down financially. 

It's been doing continuously better over the years and has taken a large step forward with Spectra taking over as the management company.

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Alerus Center 285,000 profit in 2018. 400,000 loss in 2017.

Two year average 115,000 loss (comes out to a dime per person per month in Grand Forks).

But losses can be easily offset by the job, economic activity, and canad  (and other hotels) property taxes. 

Alerus Center complex is one of the crown jewels of the Grand Forks region.

The out of towners gambling at Playmakers (canad inn) probably contribute $100,000 a year to charity organizations. Things like the Blue Line club which helped semirecently opened the nice Icon Sports Center.

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17 minutes ago, Cratter said:

 Minot will be bigger than Grand Forks. Just a matter of time. Grand Forks will go from the second biggest city in ND to the fourth largest.

Nope. Minot is teetering on the brink always. The oil hub business is so fleeting and as more infrastructure is developed and consolidated out west less is needed in Minot.

Minot without the base.... goodnight.... equivalent to Dickinson or jamestown.

GF without the base, huge blow, but the University, better location on trade routes and in the farm rich valley put it in a better situation IMHO.

Both are fanatically opposed to anything that intrudes on the GOBCs of the respective towns.

 

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31 minutes ago, Cratter said:

 Minot will be bigger than Grand Forks. Just a matter of time. Grand Forks will go from the second biggest city in ND to the fourth largest.

3rd to 4th you mean? Unless you're talking about way back into the 1970s when Grand Forks was larger than Bismarck. Plus Minot has actually seen a population decline since 2015, but is starting to turn around again. Still over 10,000 behind Grand Forks. 

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28 minutes ago, Cratter said:

Alerus Center 285,000 profit in 2018. 400,000 loss in 2017.

Two year average 115,000 loss (comes out to a dime per person per month in Grand Forks).

Two year average is actually $57,500 loss. Take those profit/loss numbers with a grain of salt though. 
 

28 minutes ago, Cratter said:

The out of towers gambling at Playmakers (canad inn) probably contribute $100,000 a year to the perspective nonprofit organizations the profits go to. Things like the Blue Line club which helped recently opened the nice Icon Ice Center.

LISTEN Center runs the gaming at the Canad Inn. I'm sure the actual gaming report is available from the AG's website somewhere but it's an overall net contribution.

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4 hours ago, jdub27 said:

Two year average is actually $57,500 loss. Take those profit/loss numbers with a grain of salt though. 
 

LISTEN Center runs the gaming at the Canad Inn. I'm sure the actual gaming report is available from the AG's website somewhere but it's an overall net contribution.

There's a .25 cent lodging tax that subsidizes it too.  

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Outside of ag and oil the two things that cities should concentrate on are education and medical.

most people bypass Trinity in minot and go to bismarck for specialty work.  Trinity is building a new hospital but people in NW ND don’t have much faith in that Institution

 

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Some entities are investing more than $1 B in downtown development.  That is a very bullish sign, regardless of Columbia Mall and the Alerus Center.  Agree that Brown needs to go, as the city can use different leadership.

https://www.kvrr.com/2019/02/13/mayor-michael-brown-discusses-issues-affecting-grand-forks-in-state-of-the-city-address/

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12 hours ago, OgieOgilthorpe said:

Between the very tough times at UND, the downfall of Altru, the undeniable closure of the mall and other failed businesses in Grand Forks, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the Minot community might be looking stronger than GF for the first time in a LONG time. UND and Altru are pillars of that community, and when they're failing everything else in the community eventually feels the burn as well, and it's showing. The mess at the Herald and the closure of WDAZ are smaller issues but just add to the pile. Is it true the Alerus Center is also a large financial burden? I've heard it's constantly upside down financially. 

I'd add agriculture as having it's challenges in last few years. Lots of Ag stuff in GF (more than people realize) and through out the state for that matter. Every time a load of wheat, potatoes, sugar, corn, beans, livestock and etc. leave the state for sale, I call it, "new $ come back in". This process does a lot of good for our economy.  Completely different than recycling of our same old money.  Every time we buy an auto, machinery, electronics, clothing, and etc. those dollars spent to bring that product in have left our state, and therefor are not available to recycle so to speak. 

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Minot assumed it hit the big time with a mega rail port for oil, oil drilling supplies, and AG, like pulse and AG supplies, but that rail port hasn’t exactly panned out with mega jobs and facilities.

http://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2017/10/minot-poised-to-re-examine-economic-development-efforts/

UAV’s seems to be their new emphasis, but even Minot officials say they will never be a UAS center like Grand Forks.

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2 hours ago, Kab said:

Malls are a thing of the past

need retail that consumers need and not online

water and ice store will be more successful than clothes stores

 

Malls need to evolve so to include distributor ships for digital brands, to quickly mimic the online world.

That simply hasn’t happened in Grand Forks yet, and requires a closer relationship with the online brands.

https://grandforksherald.com/business/retail/4572623-digital-brands-are-booming-can-they-save-malls

Make a center with kiosks for online brands, and a mall would become much more responsive to trends.

People like to lat hands on merchandise at least once before buying, and malls neeed to provide that.  In my area, some malls are thriving and others are almost dead.  The mall business has changed so much and they need to get with the times.  Most malls don’t have management that can survive in its past form.

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