Prairie Business February 2020

Banking and Finance

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KARNA LOYLAND, DIRECTOR OF DEPOSITS AT ALERUS FINANCIAL, AND CHRIS MOEN, LEAD FINANCIAL GUIDE, POSE FOR A PHOTO AT THEIR OFFICE IN GRAND FORKS, N.D. OUR STORY ON PAGE 16 DISCUSSES WHAT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ARE DOING WITH DIGITAL IDENTITIES AND ONLINE SECURITY.

IMAGE: ERIC HYLDEN/PRAIRIE BUSINESS

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STARION BANK PROMOTES THREE PEOPLE IN ITS CREDIT, FINANCE DEPARTMENTS

BISMARCK, N.D. – STARION BANK RECENTLY PROMOTED MEMBERS OF ITS CREDIT AND FINANCE TEAMS.

LADAWN SCHMITT HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO CHIEF CREDIT OFFICER (CCO). AS CCO, SCHMITT WILL JOIN THE BANK’S EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, WHICH IS RESPONSIBLE FOR INITIATING KEY ACTIONS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION, REVIEWING FINANCIAL DATA AND SETTING MAJOR PROJECT PRIORITIES.

SCHMITT BEGAN HER CAREER WITH STARION IN 2006 AS A BUSINESS BANKING REPRESENTATIVE. IN THE PAST 13 YEARS, SHE HAS SERVED IN ROLES WITHIN CREDIT ANALYSIS AND LOAN REVIEW, AND AS BUSINESS BANKING OFFICER. IN MID2018 SHE WAS NAMED ASSISTANT CHIEF CREDIT OFFICER/SVP. SCHMITT HOLDS A BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION FROM MINNESOTA STATE UNIVERSITY MOORHEAD.

RICK GELOFF HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO CONTROLLER. GELOFF FIRST JOINED STARION IN 2013 AS A CREDIT ANALYST. HE HAS ALSO SERVED IN THE ROLES OF BUSINESS BANKING OFFICER AND SPECIAL ASSETS OFFICER, PRIOR TO BEING PROMOTED TO FINANCIAL REPORTING MANAGER/VP IN MAY 2018. GELOFF IS A CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT AND A MEMBER OF THE BISMARCK SCHOOL BOARD, CURRENTLY SERVING AS ITS PRESIDENT. HE EARNED BACHELOR’S DEGREES IN GENERAL STUDIES AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT FROM MINOT STATE UNIVERSITY.

RACHAEL ERICKSON HAS BEEN PROMOTED TO CREDIT MANAGER/VP. ERICKSON JOINED STARION 10 YEARS AGO AS CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE/RECEPTIONIST IN MANDAN AND MOVED TO BISMARCK WHEN SHE WAS PROMOTED TO PERSONAL BANKING OFFICER. SINCE 2012, SHE HAS BEEN IN THE CREDIT DEPARTMENT SERVING AS CREDIT ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, CREDIT ANALYST AND MOST RECENTLY CREDIT LEAD. ERICKSON EARNED A BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT FROM DICKINSON STATE UNIVERSITY.

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Tame Your Lion

Ilike learning about people, past and present, and enjoy reading their memoirs and biographies.

One person I have learned a little more about recently is Winston Churchill, a historic figure and writer. He had experienced enough of life’s challenges and failures to learn something about its successes.

“You must put your head into the lion’s mouth if the performance is to be a success,” he said on Feb. 19, 1900, while in South Africa. That was long before he became the United Kingdom’s prime minister and joined forces with the Allied powers to fight Hitler’s Third Reich. But by 1900 Churchill already knew something about what it was like to be in the lion’s mouth, and over the ensuing decades he would be scarred by its teeth more than once.

In late 1899, for instance, 25-year-old Winston, while working as a foriegn correspondent for the London Morning Post, escaped after being taken prisoner during the Boer War in South Africa. When he scaled the fence while guards weren’t looking, he didn’t have any map with him, didn’t speak the local language, and barely had any food. Some 300 miles of enemy territory lay before him. Despite the odds – or perhaps in spite of them – Churchill believed he could somehow navigate the landscape safely and reach freedom on the other side of it.

He made it, of course, and that indomitable spirit served him well again when he helped lead the allies to victory during World War II.

Churchill achieved success because he knew about failure. Even when confronted with the dark aspects of failure, however, such as being held captive in a foreign land, he persevered, sometimes clawing and grasping, to achieve the successes he knew was in his power to reach.

Today’s successful business leaders may never experience the challenges that Churchill tackled, but they have their own lions to confront.

A few of those lions are discussed in this issue: trends in the finance world as banks and other institutions adjust in an age of digital identities and online security; efforts of businesses, schools and architect and engineering companies to make buildings more safe in an age of mass violence; and tax law changes that affect a particular business sector and changes to retirement savings laws.

I’m not sure what their bite will be for you in the new year, but I’m confident success can be achieved with each of them in 2020. No matter your lion, often the scariest part is willingly putting your head into its mouth, not knowing the outcome. But you just might find the lion is tamer than you thought, its bite not so tough.

In case you’re feeling too ambitious, Churchill also said: “It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.”

Don’t be discouraged if you find your lion bites. It’s not fatal, and you just put another link in the chain of your success. My advice is to continue to confront the lion and tame it yourself.

I am rooting for your success.

Until next time, Andrew Weeks

I look forward to hearing from you at aweeks@prairiebusinessmagazine.com or 701-780-1276.

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Prairie Business magazine is published monthly by the Grand Forks Herald and Forum Communications Company with offices at 375 2nd Avenue North, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Subscriptions are available free of charge. Back issue quantities are limited and subject to availability ($2/copy prepaid). The opinions of writers featured in Prairie Business are their own. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork are encouraged but will not be returned without a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

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Designed for Safety

A look at what some upper Midwest architecture and engineering companies are doing to build safer schools and businesses

By Andrew Weeks | Prairie Business Editor

After gunshots were reported at Columbine High School in 1999 in Littleton, Colo., Don Moseman was one of many law enforcement officers called to the scene.

It was the first school shooting that Moseman responded to, but it would not be the last. He responded to another school shooting and workplace shooting before retiring from law enforcement. His heart breaks, as does the heart of a country, every time he hears of another mass shooting. When will such senseless tragedy end?

Moseman, who now lives in North Dakota, knows he cannot passively wait for an answer that likely will never come, and so he is proactively doing what he can to bring more awareness to people about what they can do to protect themselves and those around them.

As a master instructor with the North Dakota Safety Council in Bismarck, he leads safety initiatives and the training of his team. But there’s another way he is trying to help: by partnering with a North Dakota-based architecture and engineering company.

CREATING SAFER BUILDINGS

EAPC Architects Engineers, based in Grand Forks, N.D., but which has offices in several upper Midwest locations as well as in Fort Collins, Colo., and Phoenix, Ariz., works with many different businesses and organizations, but through its Design for School Safety initiative one of its priorities is partnering with school districts in an effort to make buildings more safe in the event of an active shooter.

It’s an effort that seems to be trending across the architectural landscape, as other firms also are doing their part to make buildings safer.

Partnering with the North Dakota Safety Council, EAPC’s initiative focuses on educating school administrators and staff about how design considerations can bring added safety to their schools. Several educational workshops about the company’s initiative have been held at schools, according to marketing director Lori Bakken, and additional presentations have been given to business professionals.

The initiative started about two years ago when Fargo-based senior architect Sean Sugden approached a member of his church’s safety team who happened also to be on the Safety Council. He said he wanted to toss around ideas about what could be done from an

architectural standpoint to make the building more safe. That discussion turned into one about schools and businesses.

“I was just wondering what we could proactively do as architects to make sure that our schools are safer for students and staff and not vulnerable to events that may happen,” he said.

The company is starting to see the fruits of the initiative with new, safer schools that the company designed in Williston, N.D., and Bemidji, Minn.

Before each of the schools were finished, Sugden invited the Safety Council to tour the buildings and give its input and recommendations.

Enter Moseman, who during a walk-through of the Williston building critiqued the school with a 95% ranking. He offered some additional suggestions, however, and school administrators were invited to tour the building next so they could physically see what Moseman had recommended.

Sugden said it’s important to get the perspective and input from professionals outside of architecture.

“I know design but I don’t necessarily look at architecture from

continued on page 14

SEAN SUGDEN, A FARGO, N.D..-BASED ARCHITECT FOR EAPC, ADDRESSES AN AUDIENCE IN MINOT, N.D., ABOUT THE COMPANY’S DESIGN FOR SCHOOL SAFETY, AN INITIATIVE TO MAKE BUILDINGS MORE SAFE IN AN AGE OF MASS VIOLENCE. IMAGE: COURTESY OF EAPC

ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING

continued from page 13

the security and safety standpoint,” he said. “We have mechanical engineers, structural engineers, electrical engineers that we hire. You always need a second look because they’re the experts in their fields and we don’t know their stuff.”

REINFORCING EXISTING BUILDINGS

Sugden said more businesses nowadays are thinking about upgrading their buildings’ features to make them safer places to work. But as with school districts, what features are incorporated into a building depends on the particular company’s finances and how much it can afford.

“Money is always a big driver,” he said. “But then again, what is that to the cost of a life?”

It’s easier to incorporate safety features into a new building during the design phase than an existing building for the obvious reasons, he said, but there usually are several things that can still be improved at an older facility.

Paul Breiner, project architect with Ackerman-Estvold, said the Minot-based company also is focused on developing safer buildings. One of the more popular features is making sure buildings have controlled access, usually involving two sets of doors. The first set of doors will get a person to the administration counter; the second door is unlocked once the visitor has been vetted to enter the building beyond that point.

“We look at multiple things … and may incorporate other aspects into a design,” Breiner said, “but that’s a pretty straightforward approach.”

He said a lot of schools have come on board with a two-door entry feature, especially when funding for larger projects may be difficult.

Moseman said it’s important nowadays to also have locked entrances at businesses, depending on the service they provide.

“If you have a retail establishment where you sell a good or you have a situation where multiple customers come into your building all the time, that’s one thing,” Moseman said. “But if you’re a standard business where you have a few visitors and maybe some contractors that come into the building from time to time, our recommendation is every single one of those businesses have locked entrances … that’s kind of like a standard protocol that we recommend now, not just in schools, but with businesses.”

Moseman, who has been invited to give his input on several renovation projects, has seen firsthand what some options are for buildings whose owners might have tighter pocketbooks. Even with smaller budgets he said there usually is something that can be done to improve safety features. He gives one example of how walls may be reinforced.

“It’s part of the design process we look at – which walls are masonry, which walls are drywall, and can those things be adjusted to make the rooms safer. Sometimes they can,” he said. School districts, for instance, “can put other things like cabinets on the inside of a classroom that can give protection from ballistic threats. … Those are the types of things we look at, and then EAPC and its architects give schools options from a budgetary standpoint.”

He continued: “The idea is that if there’s a threat inside the building, you can isolate the threat and make it harder for them to access where students are by electronically closing doors within a building. And by the way, almost all of these applications we also recommend for businesses.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF SPACE

JLG Architects, which does project work in both the Dakotas and Minnesota, also works on designs to make buildings safer, but with a caveat: In the end any building is only as safe as its occupants, according to architect Dan Miller.

He said the company focuses on designing buildings in an effort to foster safety and camaraderie, which some people might believe are contradictory terms: how can you have an open social environment and still be safe?

Miller, who leads the firm’s K-12 projects in Alexandria, Minn., explains why: “It’s not just those one time-big events that we have to consider but the day-to-day small things are just as important,” he said, meaning relationship building among peers. It’s in relationship building that hopefully such things as bullying is lessened and which may avoid conflict in the future.

For him, designing a safe building is incorporating a balance between two philosophies: the bunker mentality and the social mentality.

In the event of an active shooter incident the first rule of thumb is to run or hide, if possible. “Escape and evade is important,” Miller said, “but those aspects of what you would design into a building to do that, where you create more of a bunker mentality to protect and escape, to put separation between you and the active shooter, is exactly the opposite of what you would want to foster good relations between individuals and creating a healthy environment, whether it’s a learning environment at school or work environment.”

He said, however, that incorporating features to keep students and employees more safe are top of mind on any project at JLG and has been since Columbine, though that awareness has heightened over the years with the increased number of mass violence incidents.

“It’s a prerequisite on every job at this point,” he said of that awareness, noting that even buildings his firm designs with open floor plans incorporate safety features such as secure access points and common areas visible to the administration office.

The upper Midwest is known for extreme weather, and being prepared for Mother Nature’s fury is something else designers have to consider when making building plans.

A SAD REALITY

In the late 1970s actor Dick Van Dyke went on television to demonstrate “stop, drop and roll,” a national safety campaign that taught what to do in the event of a building fire. The motto was heard and rehearsed by school-age children across the country for years.

Moseman asks: When was the last time you heard of a student dying from a fire at a school?

He notes that over the years buildings were enhanced with fire alarms and people were better educated about what to do in the event of unexpected flames or smoke.

The world is a different place now, with critical dangers lurking from other people bent on violence. It’s a sad reality of the times, he said, and people must be educated on a different level.

Moseman believes that the better educated people are in terms of preventative measures, including what design features can enhance safety in their buildings and incorporating those features, the better off businesses, churches and schools will be.

And, he said, you don’t have to give up artistic design for safety. “I think with a little forethought you can take care of both needs,” he said. “You can make a building that is aesthetically pleasing both inside and out, but also make it functional when it comes to safety. And that’s a keyword – you want to make it functional.”

Finance Security in the Age of the Neobank

By Sam Easter

Brian Johnson is the CEO of Choice Financial. He’s been with the company since 1999 – just as the age of the internet was dawning –and he’s been CEO since 2011. That’s enough time to watch an awful lot of change unfold.

Case in point: fewer than five years ago, Johnson said, Choice’s total assets were somewhere around $600 million. Now it’s surpassed $2.5 billion, he said, a surge in scale helping them compete in a banking world transformed by the last two decades – and one that continues to shift under everyone’s feet.

There are plenty of reasons for a business to push boundaries and conquer new lands, but for banks in particular, the drive to survive is just as important. As Johnson points out, Choice’s growing scale helps them afford the kinds of technology services that help them operate online, where the advent of the smartphone is allowing

mobile banks – nimble operators seeded with venture capital and unencumbered by brick-and-mortar buildings – to nip at traditional banks’ heels.

“If we were just along Interstate 29 or back up in just northeast North Dakota, we couldn’t have done the things in this technology space or fintech partnerships, because the economics of it just don’t work,” Johnson said, pointing out Choice’s expansion into Dickinson in the west and into the Twin Cities in the southeast. It’s helped them with “six or seven” partnerships with financial technology groups, one of which Johnson said is in Australia.

“It’s the same as having a half a million dollar combine and a $300,000 tractor and trying to farm (only) 500 acres,” he added. “Those economics don’t work at that point in time, right?”

The total number of chartered, U.S. commercial banks has been

KARNA LOYLAND, DIRECTOR OF DEPOSITS AT ALERUS FINANCIAL, AND CHRIS MOEN, LEAD FINANCIAL GUIDE, POSE FOR A PHOTO AT THEIR OFFICE IN GRAND FORKS, N.D. IMAGE: ERIC HYLDEN/PRAIRIE BUSINESS

steadily falling for decades. But the number of American brick-andmortar bank branches has only started falling in the late 2000s. Julie Stackhouse, an executive vice president with the St. Louis Federal Reserve, said in a 2018 brief that the phenomenon is tightly bound up in both shockwaves from the 2008 financial crisis as well as shifts in consumer preference.

The latter is unfolding as a mass migration to the digital world, where customers can find their bank online or through a smartphone app. Already, there’s an army of exactly those kinds of apps that have no brick-and-mortar locations at all. Companies like MoneyLion, with millions of users on its app, are unbound from the pesky, dayto-day expenses of running physical locations, and they’re growing in a remarkable way. A recent A.T. Kearney analysis claims that “neobanks” – the term for the nimble start-ups free from corporeal concerns – have grown their European customer base by 15 million since 2011, while traditional retail banks have dropped 2 million customers in the same span.

“Although it is unlikely that the U.S. will end up resembling other countries with relatively few bank charters, it seems certain that consumers and businesses will increasingly access services with technology, no matter the size or location of bank offices,” Stackhouse wrote.

Dan Flaningan, chief strategy officer at Bremer Bank, points out that these changes are unfolding alongside an analogous change in the retail market. Amazon, for example, has taught customers that they can press a few buttons from a phone or home computer, and that a box with whatever they’ve ordered will soon appear on their doorstep. That’s raising the bar in banking, too.

Flaningan references the common movie sequence where the hero applies for a loan at a brick-and mortar building, makes a heartfelt case to a bank official, but winds up with a big red ‘denied’ stamp across their paperwork. Those days – when banks could rely on customers coming to them, creating a kind of home-court, analog-world advantage – are eroding, he said.

“We have preferences changing,” Flaningan said. “And I think what’s important for the industry as well is that we’re now being held to a different standard, just financial services in general.”

In the upper Midwest, banks are already adapting to the reality of a

brave new world – not only because of the rise of the neobank, but because the internet is forcing them to build new digital infrastructures.

Jessica Ebeling, an executive vice president with Gate City Bank, said branches have been outfitted with a palm-scanning device that tracks vein structure in the hand and lets customers seamlessly bring up their account information. The only thing more secure, Ebeling said, would be eye-scanning, though that’s something perhaps a bit more invasive than the average customer would prefer – illustrating the increasingly futuristic tug-of-war banks must manage between security and customer experience.

By the same token, banks’ own cybersecurity measures have grown to become increasingly important. The Center for Strategic and International Studies keeps a lengthy list of “significant cyber incidents” in recent years, among them numerous attacks on banks, including an April incident against British financial and government networks, undertaken by Iranian hackers. The threat is real and ever-present.

Johnson points out that in his near-decade tenure as Choice’s CEO, those kinds of matters were “touched on once in a while.” Nowadays, though, it dominates the boardroom all the time. The same is true at Alerus Financial, where Karna Loyland, director of deposits, points out that she’d never thought she’d be worried about Russian hackers coming after her customers.

“I guess it kind of goes back to the initial question of being a small bank in the upper Midwest,” she said. “That doesn’t make us any safer in terms of where the threats come from.”

But there’s one key advantage that banks still feel they have above many neobanks: face-to-face discussions with customers. Officials at upper Midwest banks point out that it’s far easier to have a conversation about a big financial decision with someone from your own community whose hand you can shake, instead of having a conversation through a web app or on the phone.

“To me it’s one of the most exciting times in finance, really,” said Chris Moen, lead financial guide with Alerus. “Because while there are all these changes, and things are going more digital, it also provides our clients with probably much better service and experience than they maybe ever had in the past, because everything’s faster and more seamless.”

FOR ADDED CUSTOMER SECURITY GATE CITY BANK USES PALM-SCANNING DEVICES THAT TRACK VEIN STRUCTURE IN THE HAND. IMAGE: COURTESY OF GATE CITY BANK

Taxes and Retirement

Homebuilders and real estate developers may benefit from new tax incentives, while the SECURE Act aims at employees’ financial future

By Andrew Weeks | Prairie Business Editor

In his years as a public accountant, Steve Ruda knows his numbers. He deals with tax laws on a daily basis, has seen some changes over the years, and knows it’s a rare find when a new law makes people happy.

But there are at least a couple of tax law changes this year that should make homebuilders and real estate developers smile.

The provisions – 45L tax credit for construction of energy-efficient homes and 179D tax deduction for energy-efficient commercial buildings – fall under the Omnibus Appropriations Bill HR 1865, according to Ruda, director of client relations at ICS Tax LLC in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“I think it’s a good thing,” he said of provisions in the tax extenders section of the bill, which aim to promote more energy efficiency in buildings. Both expired at the end of 2017. “This bill extends them for 2020 but also makes them retroactive for 2018 and 2019, so now we can go back to those years and buildings.”

The first provision, 45L, extends the energy efficient home credit to developers, Ruda said. It offers up to $2,000 per unit that uses energy consumption significantly less than national energy standards.

The second provision, 179D – sister act to 45L, Ruda said – allows a tax deduction instead of a tax credit. Developers can get a deduction based on the area of a building and not its dollar amount, Ruda said.

SECURE THE FUTURE

Mel Schwarz is happy about his future, in part because of changes to retirement laws.

The SECURE Act – “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” – was signed by President Donald Trump in December as part of the government’s spending bill. Its aim is to make planning for retirement easier by allowing more employers to offer annuities as investment options within 401(k) plans.

“Mostly it’s an attempt to make it easier for people to access retirement, and to put money away for retirement savings and keeping it there,” said Schwarz, director of tax legislative affairs for Eide Bailly. The company is headquartered in Fargo, N.D.. with offices throughout the upper Midwest, but Schwarz works out of Washington, D.C.

As many know it’s a good idea to supplement Social Security with personal savings, he said, such as IRAs and 401(k) plans. But not all businesses offer retirement programs and not everyone is saving

Tenants may also be eligible if they make construction expenditures, according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. The tax deduction is $1.80 per square foot for owners of new or existing buildings who install features that help reduce the building’s total energy and power cost by 50% or more than certain national energy standards. Features may include interior lighting, building envelopes, and heating, cooling, ventilation or hot-water systems. Sixty cents per square foot is available to building owners who install lighting, building envelopes, or heating and cooling systems that meet certain target levels or through the interim lighting rule, according to the department.

Ruda said it may be worth the time and effort for homebuilders and developers to go back a couple of years to see if they qualify for the deduction.

According to the energy office, other real estate tax benefits extended through 2020 are tax exclusion for home mortgage debt forgiveness; tax deduction for mortgage insurance premiums; and a New Markets Tax Credit.

Another tax change highlighted by professionals that Prairie Business reached out to include one that looks at employees’ financial future.

for the future. According to the Pension Rights Center, in fact, only about 55% of the adult population participate in a workplace retirement plan and, according to Investopedia, many of those who do are “woefully behind.”

Employers currently hold fiduciary responsibility to ensure what retirement plans are appropriate for employees’ portfolios, according to a report by Market Watch, “but under the new rules, the onus falls on insurance companies, which sell annuities, to offer proper investment choices.”

Schwarz said in a phone interview with Prairie Business that the SECURE Act, which is technically a revamped bill but is treated like a new one, cleared out barriers that previously made it difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to offer retirement programs. Now it allows them to access plans that are both less expensive and easier to administer.

Schwarz said he believes the act is a positive, especially for the

small- to medium-sized markets.

“I don’t see this as a tax break for big business,” he said. “The big boys will do what they want anyway, so let them do it. But this will benefit the small and medium business.”

More importantly, he said “the true beneficiary is the individual worker.” That may include the part-time worker, who now could be eligible to participate in an employer retirement plan.

Other things the act does is push back the age, from 70.5 to 72, at which retirement plan participants need to take required minimum distributions (RMDs). They also can make contributions past the age of 70.5.

Eric DeHann, a CPA with the Woltman Group in Sioux Falls, S.D., said the maximum 401(k) contribution is $19,500, but those born before 1971 can put in an additional $6,500. “The caps apply to 403(b) and 457 plans as well,” he said. “The cap on SIMPLEs is $13,500 plus $3,000 extra for people age 50 and up.”

The bill also eliminates the 10% fine formerly incurred by owners who take money out of their IRAs before they turn 59.5. They now are allowed to take up to $5,000 payouts from IRAs and 401(k)s for having babies or adopting children. There also is a tightening on inherited IRAs and workplace retirement accounts

He said the act not only applies to minimum distributions, but benefits those who are saving for retirement as well.

TIME TO SAVE

It’s never too late to start a retirement plan, according to one South Dakota-based financial planner. “I do see people who start saving and playing catch-up later in life,” said Gabe Nelson, of Sioux Falls.

ANDREW WEEKS PRAIRIE BUSINESS EDITOR AWEEKS@PRAIRIEBUSINESSMAGAZINE.COM 701-780-1276

The way people do that and how much they save, however, “depends upon the individual’s goals and objectives, and when they would like to retire, and how long they would like to work.”

Some people may choose to do a partial retirement, where they continue to work and save. “Every situation is different,” he said.

Nelson, who owns Gabe Nelson Financial Inc., offers some suggestions for people and businesses: If a company that has fewer than 100 people does not offer a 401(k) plan, for instance, it could look at offering a SIMPLE IRA or even a small business 401(k).

“With the SECURE Act coming out with additional tax credits, it makes it so the cost of setting up those plans is not quite so expensive,” he said. “What they would want to do, those employers would want to take a look at bringing in an adviser, a financial adviser that understands retirement planning for small businesses, and consult with them as to what type of plan would be the best for their employees, as well as what those costs and benefits would be to the employer.”

He said 401(k) plans are still “very relevant for the foreseeable future because of the higher contribution amounts that are available to the owners as well as the employees.”

There may be some additional expenses that come as a result of filing a tax return for the retirement plan, as well as other compliance costs, “but the simple piece is the contribution amounts, the tax deductions and the benefits far outweigh the costs of those,” Nelson said. “With the new tax deductions that the SECURE Act has increased for the first three years of adopting plans, this allows for it still to be a very viable option in my opinion, for small businesses and businesses of all sizes.”

RENDERINGS OF THE FUTURE MERCANTILE BUILDING, A MIXED-USE FACILITY TO BE BUILT AT THE CORNER OF FOURTH AVENUE NORTH AND BROADWAY IN DOWNTOWN FARGO.

A SIX-STORY GARAGE IS THE FIRST PHASE OF THE PROJECT, WHICH WILL ADD 369 PARKING STALLS TO THE AREA. IMAGE: COURTESY OF JLG ARCHITECTS

Mixed-use project gets underway in downtown Fargo

By andrew weeks | Prairie Business Editor

FARGO, N.D. – A $40 million mixed-use project, funded by a public and private partnership, aims to add more residential and commercial activity – as well as parking space – to downtown Fargo.

The project, dubbed the Mercantile, will add nearly 400 additional parking stalls once the six-story garage is completed. That won’t be until sometime next fall, but a groundbreaking ceremony for the future facility happened on Dec. 18 at the corner of Fourth Avenue North and Broadway.

The garage is the first of two phases of the mixed-use facility, a joint partnership between the city of Fargo, Kilbourne Group, and Tom and Kari Smith, owners of the historic Great Northern Depot that sits adjacent to the site. Other phases will include residential and commercial space.

The city’s portion of the $40 million project is $13 million, said Ty Filley, the city’s public affairs coordinator. He said one of the things the city is excited about is the extra parking space the garage will provide downtown.

The garage will replace a surface parking lot and, when finished, have 369 vehicle stalls. That’s in addition to 455 parking stalls created when Roberts Commons, a mixed-use facility developed by the Kilbourne Group at 625 2nd Ave. N., was completed in 2017. The new garage also will have 50 ground-floor parking slots for bicycles.

Filley said the city started looking at parking opportunities downtown in 2015 and decided additional space was needed, in part to

meet future needs. In short, he said, the city wanted to stay ahead of the game as it continues to grow.

“What this does is it keeps us ahead of demand,” he said.

When the garage is finished, and with the addition of parking at Roberts Commons and stalls created by private businesses, Fargo will have added more than 1,200 parking spaces since 2015.

The Mercantile is named for the four-story brick structure that was built at the site in 1909 for Fargo Mercantile Co. That building was demolished in 1966 to make room for the Goodyear Service Center, built two years later in 1968. The Goodyear Building, as it came to be known, Philly said, closed in 2016.

Besides creating more parking downtown, another goal of the Mercantile is to inject new residential and retail experiences in the area, according to the Kilbourne Group. The mixed-use portion of the project will include space for a substation of the Fargo Police Department, public restrooms, about 100 apartments, and 16,922 square feet of ground floor commercial space.

The garage is expected to be finished by November 2020, with the second commercial and residential phase slated for completion in fall 2021.

The Smiths said in a statement they also plan to add nine owner-occupied housing units, called “The Great Northern Block,” which will be located north of the garage.

Planning to Save with Taxes

By Matthew Mohr

Good tax planning is an art that few seem to be able to master. Unfortunately, we live in an unstable tax environment. Our government seeks to create economic growth, stability and enhanced income but constantly changing tax policy works against all of these goals.

Effective tax planning is essential for anyone wishing to build wealth and every business owner must have a good understanding of general tax laws. Making decisions solely based on the tax consequences is not intelligent.

Many people do make decisions based on how some action will immediately impact their annual taxes. The tax consequences of an investment, expenditure or other decision should be taken into account but deciding based on how much you might save in taxes may not lead to a very good choice.

I overheard a father say to his son one year at tax time, “You pay too much in taxes, so you should get a bigger mortgage on your home to deduct the interest and cut your tax bill.”

Presumably, the money received from the mortgage would be invested at a rate of return greater than the mortgage interest rate. If not, such advice would be a net loss for the son’s total income. A mortgage at 3% interest under a 30% tax rate could create up to a $300 tax savings for every $1,000 in interest cost, to make up the $700 lost cash ($1,000 interest paid less $300 tax savings). The

investment would only need to earn a rate of return equal to the mortgage.

Earning $1,000 cash return would cost $300 in taxes netting $700, which creates a break-even. Such advice seems sensible, and in a way, a possible money-making opportunity, but to be successful the mortgage money needs to be invested and not spent, otherwise it’s a losing proposition.

Businesses can fall victim to the same faulty reasoning. Towards the end of the year, savvy sales pitches include assumed tax savings in an asset purchase cost. If an asset makes sense to purchase, the special tax breaks should be an added savings or a way to make the investment return more favorable.

Tax breaks alone should not be the motivation behind buying an asset.

A friend of mine runs a very successful family farm. Near the end of a tax year a while back, he decided to purchase a piece of equipment based on his need and by determining the equipment would help his operation prosper. His tax professional informed him the equipment qualified for bonus tax depreciation, saving the farmer taxes.

My farmer friend was ecstatic; he made the decision based on a complete understanding of his needs and the tax benefit became an unexpected windfall. He is a great agri-businessman and knows his operation well. He purposely does what is best for his operation and is not driven only by saving taxes. Conversely, he will check the tax aspects of a decision to determine if there will be any impact to his taxes, good or bad, which could change his course of action.

Around the Office and on the Road in North Dakota

A simulation-in-motion program brings synergy to medical professionals across the state

By andrew weeks | Prairie Business Editor

This month’s Around the Office has a unique twist. We’re taking you on the road, so to speak, with a medical bus that is part of a statewide mobile education program.

Called SIM-ND – for Simulation in Motion-North Dakota – the program has four buses that provide onsite training to critical access hospitals, EMS agencies, and other medical providers across the state. The bus can serve as both an ambulance and mobile hospital and is equipped with medical equipment, computers, and high-fidelity computerized manikins “that talk, breathe, have heartbeats, and can react to medications and other actions of the learners,” said Jessi Nicola, program administrator at the University of North Dakota. The university partners with hospitals to make the bus a unique experience in North Dakota.

“Our mission is to improve patient care by the educational enrichment of rural and frontier healthcare providers,” she said. “Our vision is to enhance, support, promote, and facilitate healthcare education through the use of simulation.”

In early December, Nicola, Simulation Education Specialist Andrew Lundstrom, and Tom Tomaino, one of the program’s drivers, were at a safety and health conference in Fargo, where they gave Prairie Business a tour of one of the buses.

Nicola, who is based in Fargo, answered additional questions for Prairie Business about the program:

Q. A.

HOW LONG HAS THIS PROGRAM BEEN AROUND AND HOW DID IT START?

SIM-ND came into existence in August 2012, when the University of North Dakota’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences was awarded a grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Foundation for the purpose of creating a statewide resource that could be used to bring healthcare education to rural EMS agencies and emergency departments. Before we could begin offering education, our trucks had to be built and outfitted with all of the equipment that you can find in an ambulance or emergency department. We also needed to develop our educational offerings and train our educators. All of this took almost a year and we began offering training in June 2013.

DRIVER TOM TOMAINO, LEFT, PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR JESSI NICOLA, AND SIMULATION EDUCATION SPECIALIST ANDREW LUNDSTROM VISIT INSIDE A MEDICAL BUS ON DEC. 3 IN FARGO. IMAGE: ANDREW WEEKS/PRAIRIE BUSINESS

Q. A.

HOW MANY MEDICAL BUSES ARE THERE IN THE PROGRAM AND WHERE ARE THEY LOCATED?

We have four identical trucks located throughout the state that cover each of the regions. The truck in Grand Forks covers mainly the northeast and is operated by Altru Health System staff. The truck in Fargo covers the southeast region and is operated by both the Essentia and Sanford staff. The truck in Minot covers the northwest region and is operated by Trinity Health Staff. The truck in Bismarck covers the southwest region and is operated by CHI St. Alexius Staff. For larger events our trucks and staff will help out each of the regions. SIM leadership at UND oversees and manages the operations.

Q. A.

WHO ARE ALL THE PARTNERS AND PLAYERS OF THE PROGRAM?

This program is a partnership between Altru Health System, CHI St. Alexius Health, Essentia Health, SanfordFargo, Trinity Health, the ND Department of Health, and the leadership of the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences Simulation Center. Each of the hospitals has a coordinator and staff who teach and facilitate the events.

Q. A. IN WHAT WAYS DOES THE SYNERGY BETWEEN THE PARTNERS HELP THE PROGRAM ACCOMPLISH ITS MISSION?

This program is unique in that the five hospitals throughout the state would be considered a competitor in the business world, yet they have come together to support and provide education to our rural areas within the state. I believe and have heard that each of the hospitals share the same vision with this program to help educate staff in hopes to provide better outcomes for patients who need care.

Q. A.

HOW IS THE MEDICAL BUS PROGRAM FUNDED?

This program was originally funded by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, along with the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the North Dakota Department of Health. This grant provided funding for the purchase of the four trucks, including supplies and manikins, the development of the educational curriculum, and operating expenses for the first three years. The program is currently funded through financial and in-kind contributions from each of the five partner hospitals, the University, and the Department of Health.

Q. A.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH THE PROGRAM AND WHAT IS YOUR ROLE?

I’m the program administrator for the simulation center and the program director for SIM-ND. I oversee all of the operations, which includes financial, marketing, scheduling, human resources, and instructional delivery methods. I have only been with this program since the end of August. I have a background in healthcare, previously working as a radiology manager at Altru Health System.

Q. A.

THE BUS SERVES AS AN OFFICE, TECH CENTER, AMBULANCE AND HOSPITAL, IS THAT RIGHT? WHAT IS THE BUS EQUIPPED WITH? TELL US ABOUT SOME OF ITS UNIQUE FEATURES.

The truck is 44 feet long by 8 feet wide and about 13 feet tall. It is equipped with slide outs that allow for the truck to expand and provide more space. The front of the truck is set up as an emergency room and the back of the truck is set up as an ambulance. This allows for training to occur simultaneously or to simulate care in different spaces. The set up of this truck will also allow for training to occur from the ambulance to the ER trauma room, by moving the manikin from one side of the truck to the other. Between the two spaces is a control room that allows for controlling audio and visual operations. A facilitator can control the patient within the control room. This includes things like voice control, the manikin’s blood pressure, and heart rate.

Q. A.

HOW MANY PEOPLE STAFF THE BUS WHEN ON ASSIGNMENT OR MEDICAL CALL?

Staffing is dependent upon the number of learners and types of scenarios. Each of the five hospitals has a coordinator who coordinates the learning requests and staffs each event according to needs.

Q. A. HOW OFTEN IS THE BUS USED?

This is used mainly for rural outreach education. It is much harder for rural areas to send staff for training, and cost for training and continuing education can be expensive. This allows us to come and train onsite and sometimes within the environment of their work. The hope is to make the training feel as real as possible. One of the benefits that our partner hospitals receive is that they are able to use the equipment internally when it is not scheduled elsewhere. This saves them the costs of purchasing the simulation equipment, developing or purchasing the educational curriculum and training educators.…We have conducted over 300 training events for 4,200 learners in 2019.

Q. A. WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE PROGRAM?

Currently our four trucks have been able to manage the workload throughout the state. I see a future of growth with this program as we continue to expand our service requests and needs. I see opportunities to partner with other non-medical facilities. We have worked with military bases, nursing homes, and industrial businesses. I see lots of opportunity to grow.

Q. A. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT THE PROGRAM?

My favorite thing about this program is that we are helping to improve patient care and outcomes. My teams are passionate about what they do and provide high quality education to the learners throughout the state. We have worked with military bases, nursing homes, and industrial businesses. I see lots of opportunity to grow.

A SIM-ND BUS, ONE OF FOUR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA’S SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES PROGRAM, IS SEEN ON DEC. 3 IN FARGO. THE BUS, WHICH CAN SERVE AS EITHER AN AMBULANCE OR MOBILE HOSPITAL, IS EQUIPPED WITH MEDICAL EQUIPMENT, COMPUTERS, AND HIGH-FIDELITY COMPUTERIZED MANIKINS. IMAGE: ANDREW WEEKS/PRAIRIE BUSINESS

Bill Heegaard

ESSENTIA HEALTH HIRES NEW WEST MARKET PRESIDENT

FARGO, N.D. – Essentia has hired Dr. Bill Heegaard to serve as president for Essentia Health’s West Market, which includes eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. He will start work this spring.

Most recently, Heegaard served as chief medical officer and chief clinical officer at Hennepin Health System in Minneapolis. He is a professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, and has been practicing the full spectrum of adult and pediatric emergency medicine at Hennepin Health since 1994.

Heegaard, who received his medical degree and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University in Illinois, currently serves on the Minnesota chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians Board of Directors, the American College of Emergency Physicians Council, and the American Board of Emergency Medicine as an oral examiner. He also is a former chair of the LifeLink III Board.

ENCLAVE HIRES NEW VICE PRESIDENT OF CONSTRUCTION

Fargo, N.D. – Enclave Companies has hired a new vice president of construction.

Derek Hoeschen brings more than 20 years of experience to the position, including having worked as a project manager, superintendent, project engineer, office engineer and field engineer.

Most recently he served as general manager at McGough Construction. In his new role, Hoeschen, a graduate of North Dakota State University, will apply his knowledge and expertise to provide executive leadership to Enclave Construction while supporting the organization’s mission of creating spaces where people are inspired to do their best work and live their best life.

VALLEY CITY STATE UNIV. HAS NEW CAREER SERVICES DIRECTOR

VALLEY CITY, N.D. – Kari Klettke has joined Valley City State University staff as director for career services. She will provide career counseling services and direct internship and other experiential education programs, such as job shadowing and mentoring. She will also work with area and regional employers to assess workforce needs and assist students with employment opportunities.

Most recently Klettke served as director of accessibility resources at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Her higher education experience includes roles in counseling, career development, disability services, teaching and advising at several institutions.

Klettke resides in West Fargo.

Kari Klettke

FLINT GROUP HIRES NEW JUNIOR COPYWRITER

FARGO, N.D. – Flint Group, a full-service communication and marketing agency, has hired Mia Duncan as a junior copywriter.

Duncan earned a bachelor’s degree in English and mass communications, with minors in writing, public relations, and a certificate in publishing from Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Prior to joining Flint, she worked as an operations coordinator for a nationwide nonprofit.

Derek Hoeschen

Mia Duncan

NEW CEO ANNOUNCED AT RR46

FARGO, N.D. – Andy Reierson has been promoted to CEO of RR46, a family of nine companies established to serve and solve the marketing communications needs of clients in several industries. He succeeds Roger Reierson, who has served in the role since 1983. Roger will move to executive chairman.

Andy joined Flint Group, a business unit of RR46, in 2006. He was promoted to COO of RR46 in 2016. He has been an account manager with Flint Group in Fargo, N.D., and Duluth, Minn., and as president of Flint Group’s Duluth office and digital marketing business.

Roger will remain active as RR46 board chair, working on client projects and building community and industry relations.

STARION BANK NAMES NEW PRESIDENT

BISMARCK, N.D. – Starion Bank has named Don Morgan president, with Craig Larson continuing in the roles of CEO and chairman of the board for the bank. As president, Morgan manages the day-to-day operations of the bank, while Larson focuses on the overall strategy and vision for the company. Morgan, a certified public accountant, has been with Starion since 2012 when he joined the bank as vice president for credit administration. In this new role, Morgan will partner with and develop high-performance leadership teams, focusing on all operational aspects of the bank and building relationships within the bank, with customers and in communities.

Andy Reierson

Don Morgan

Q.

INSIGHTs & INTUITION

What are your top priorities - and whyfor your employees and staff in 2020?

As we move into 2020, Flint Group will focus on several priorities.

For the 70-plus years Flint has been in business, we have always made taking care of clients our number one priority. In 2020, we will continue to make clients our top priority. The most significant change to what that means now, versus when Flint originated, is that we are much more data-driven. Part of our client-focused approach is making sure we are results-driven, while all in for our client’s success. Our business is truly defined by art plus science.

Jodi Duncan President Flint Group Fargo, N.D.

In 2020 we will continue to explore ways to enhance messaging that speaks strongly to the endcustomer. Messaging is a key strategy to building strong brands that attract customers and attract employees in an ever-increasingly competitive market.

New message channels are constantly being introduced, and message by channel becomes more complete. This is true for all the businesses we work with. We help our clients in every industry determine the right message at the right time in the right medium.

We are kicking off 2020 by asking our team what things we are doing well and what we can continue to improve upon in the coming year. We encourage open lines of communication and want everyone to help shape the office culture, either by sharing their ideas or by directly participating in one of our planning committees.

This process is invaluable because it leads to buy-in at all levels and allows us to focus on the opportunities that matter most to our people – our most vital resource.

At Architecture Incorporated, we encourage professional growth and lifelong learning. As we transition into the new year, we will continue to invest in building a strong, collaborative team by helping each person grow and develop in their careers. By continually reviewing and updating our internal processes to improve efficiencies we ultimately improve our service to our clients.

We recognize that things are always changing and that it is important to stay ahead of industry trends.

These things are not unique to 2020, but will remain a priority so that we can continue to be named one of the 50 Best Places to Work by our incredible team of professionals.

Steve Jastram, AIA President and Principal Architect Architecture Incorporated Sioux Falls, SD

At Banner, we recognize that our staff is the most valuable part of our organization. If we want to achieve organizational goals, we need to have staff that believe in our purpose. We aim to be the best in our industry and a vital component of that goal is to demonstrate a strong commitment to our staff by providing them the necessary resources to be successful and by supporting their professional and personal development goals.

In 2020, we will focus on development and engagement. This will involve a renewed emphasis on growth and collaboration within our organization as well as client relationships.

Although we have a mentorship program for our newest staff members, we are planning to expand this program to develop our mid-level staff so that they are positioned well for taking on future management and leadership roles. We are increasing overall training opportunities to our staff and are implementing internal certification programs that will support our organizational core values and purpose.

We want our staff to always strive to be the best version of themselves, and the same is true for us as an organization. We recognize our strengths and celebrate our wins but are always looking for ways to keep improving.

Sarah Meusburger, Human Resources Director Banner Associates Inc. Brookings, S.D.

At Cornerstone Bank, we value what we do, where we work and the people we work with. One of our “Big 5” initiatives for 2020 is further embracing our culture of peer-to-peer communication, positivity, and empowerment along with team-member development and retention.

Employee empowerment is nothing new to Cornerstone Bank. It is important for our team members to feel empowered with the authority and confidence to make decisions. The same goes for positivity and peer-to-peer communication. Those are values we live each day, but in 2020 we will keep them in the forefront as we grow.

Team members are our greatest asset so development and retention is very important. Development plans are a great tool to helping team members get to where they aspire to be. In 2020, our leaders are prioritizing working with team members to further their development plans. We will also continue to use our internal leadership skills development, mentorship, and walk-a-day programs for team member development and retention.

Gary Petersen Chairman Cornerstone Bank Bismarck, N.D.

CIVILIAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE, SEASONALLY ADJUSTED

Shaded area represents a recession as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Lantino may be of any race.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Men, 20 years & over

Women, 20 years & over

16 to 19 years old White Black ir African American

REAL AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS

Over-the-month percent change in a real average hourly earnings for all employees, seasonally adjusted, December 2018-December 2019

Real average hourly earnings increased 0.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, from December 2018 to December 2019. The change in a real average hourly earnings combined with a 0.6-percent decrease in the average workweek resulted in essentially no change in real average weekly earnings over this period.

CIVILIAN LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE: WOMEN

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | fred.stlouisfed.org

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | fred.stlouisfed.org