Northwest Minnesota cities add amenities to lure scarce workers
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The foundation for economic growth in northwestern Minnesota starts with strong anchor businesses, such as Digi-Key and Marvin Windows.
But future growth hinges as much on meeting employees’ desire for a good latte and a night at the theater as it does on creating more job perks. That's why area business and civic leaders have embraced an economic development strategy that includes boosting the quality of life in the region.
“I think collectively everybody just said, ‘We got to prepare for the next generation, and how do we do that?’” said Brenda Baumann, director of the Discovery and Development Hub in Warroad. It's a coworking and entrepreneurial resource space for startups.
City leaders combined forces with the town's biggest employer, Marvin Windows, to create the Hub as a way to attract young entrepreneurs to the community.
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The idea is to give a boost to business startups that fill in some of the community’s lifestyle needs. The hub is housed in a building owned by Marvin.
On a cold January day, Baumann pointed to a row of historic buildings from the warmth of her minivan. The buildings are undergoing a major renovation.
“It's a transformational project,” she said. “There are additionally seven market-rate really funky loft apartments up above, some commercial retail space of different sizes.”
The timing of projects like this may be ideal for small communities like Warroad, said Richard Florida, a professor of management and the author of “The Rise of the Creative Class.”
“I think you're going to see more people who want to make things and build things decamp to these rural, and not-all-rural areas,” he said. “They have to have some level of amenities.”
Hockey and the arts
Warroad already has a college campus — the Advanced Resource Center for Innovation and Education — which Florida said is a plus for any small community.
“If they have a little college or university, if they have some kind of arts nonprofit, those are all the factors that seem to be associated with why some of these rural areas take off and others don't,” he said.
A folk school opened in 2019. The city is currently developing Warroad River Place, a 20,000-square-foot arts, culture and events center.
“What excited me about this opportunity was a vision for adding arts and creativity and innovation to a community that's already known for the outdoors for fishing, you know, for Marvin Windows, and especially for hockey,” said John Davis, executive director of the center.
“I'm a sports fanatic,” he added. “Sometimes people think, ‘Well, arts and sports don't go together, or the outdoors.’ And I'm like, 'Well, that's just ridiculous. They all go together.'“
Davis has a track record. He was the founder and former executive director of Lanesboro Arts. He held a similar position at New York Mills Arts Retreat and Cultural Center.
Davis came out of retirement to take the job in Warroad.
Revitalizing momentum
About 85 miles to the south, Thief River Falls is also transforming itself. The city of around 9,000 is home to the global electronics distributor Digi-Key and its 3,600 employees.
The city’s small downtown has very few empty storefronts. That’s a recent change.
"In the last 10 years, we've really, really fought to make our downtown better and more full and more accommodating,” said Kelly Thygeson, owner of local art store Tonnabells.
Although she started her business on her own, she says there's plenty of community support for entrepreneurs to tap. And the momentum behind revitalizing the city's downtown has been contagious.
“First one building gets renovated. And then the next building [owner] says, ‘Well, I can do better than that. I'm going to redo this one,’” said Thygeson. “And then it's just been this huge chain reaction of ‘Yeah, I can do that.’”
It's unclear if these efforts to improve the quality of life in northwestern Minnesota will be enough to attract new workers to the region in an increasingly competitive labor market.
But employers and community leaders say they would rather be doing what they can to write their own future, than sitting back and waiting to see what happens.
