Greater Bemidji Believes City Is in Great Economic Position for 2024

Greater Bemidji, a local non-profit economic development agency, gave its annual report to the Bemidji City Council on Monday. Despite a small economic downtrend last year, Dave Hengel, Executive Director of Greater Bemidji, believes that puts the city in a great position for 2024.

2023 was filled with economic worries for many people, with interest rates, inflation, and a recession buzz were the main causes for a slowdown in the city of Bemidji. Despite that slowdown, though, Hengel says the Council should look at the long-term.

“If you look at the short period of time of last year, it’s been a relatively slow economy over 2023,” explained Hengel. “But if you look at the longer-term trend, our region has done very, very well and we’ve sustained growth of about 12 to 14% over the last decade. Our labor force is growing, our unemployment rates are dropping. All those are very good signs.”

Hengel also reported a tight labor market across Bemidji. Despite a major decrease in unemployment over the last 10 years, that number was up slightly for the year 2023, currently at around 3.6%. Dave believes there are multiples barriers to break in order to solve this issue.

“Economic developments has become a concern for people and workers because every company is looking for workers right now, right? And so you have to make sure you try and remove all the barriers you can for people to work,” said Hengel. “What are those barriers? Childcare. And so we invest in childcare. Housing is another one of those barriers that prevent people from entering the workforce fully.”

Housing has been a big issue for the City of Bemidji for quite some time now. Councilwoman Emelie Rivera brought up concerns from residents “losing a sense of community” and believes the growing rate of renters over homeowners in the area has something to do with it.

“Yeah, I think there’s a little bit of a concern of all the development that’s occurring, what I would consider outside the city limits. And that’s not all that untypical,” explained Hengel. “For a city that captures tax capacity within the city limits and makes it difficult to provide the regional center services when some of the developments occurring outside that city limits are not participating in helping pay for those things.”

He continued, “And so as I thought about that for the city, I challenge the city council just to keep an eye on that. They think about it because what you don’t want to have is a tale of two cities or three cities or four cities. Rather, you want to be one community.”

Dave ended his report to the City Council with a strong belief that 2024 will be a great year economically for the city, but had a few calls-to-action he believes the city should take in order for 2024 to be successful.

“The city is in a unique position right now because with the dissolution of the Joint Planning Board, it allows them to recreate the comprehensive plan, their zoning ordinance, the permitting processes, those things,” said Hengel. “And what I challenge them to do is think about the economic impact of the decisions they make. Doesn’t mean that they change, but rather keep an eye on jobs and the economy as they make the decisions on what to allow and what not to allow and where in our community.”

Hengel also said that following 10 months of the Bemidji Wellness Center Project being put on pause after Sanford Health pulled out of owning and operating the center, Greater Bemidji will be announcing an operation partner in just a few weeks.