Bemidji City Council Hears Update on Rail Corridor Project from Development Firm

The Bemidji City Council heard an update about the Rail Corridor Development Project during a committee meeting on Thursday.

The development firm overseeing the project, Marco McLane Development, told the council that the redevelopment grant application was submitted by the August 1st deadline.

They are also working to secure a cleanup grant that will hopefully cover the cost for the cleanup of the rail corridor site. That application is due by November 1st.

The firm also discussed some design changes to the proposed YMCA facility.

“Currently, it’s just a proposed building. It doesn’t have any definition,” explained Tim Marco of Marco McLane Development. “As we were toggling the potential locations for the building, what we found was pushing it closer to the bridge side helps with that larger span and the height of that building to blend more into the backside of that site while bringing that kind of front entrance still in. And this is very much a concept plan still, but I thought it – Mark [McLane] and I thought it would be nice to have something to start to look at as we’ve continued these conversations on where things have landed.”

Marco McLane Development said they were hopeful the cleanup process would start sometime next year and are optimistically hoping to start construction in 2026.