‘A Big-City Feel’

Neighboring communities Fargo and West Fargo in North Dakota and Moorhead, Minn., share a passion for driving innovative business, solving their workforce shortage issue and spurring economic development

BY KAYLA PRASEK

Fargo, West Fargo and Moorhead are focused on increasing the workforce, bolstering economic development and encouraging entrepreneurialism and startups. The three cities — Fargo and West Fargo in North Dakota and Moorhead in Minnesota — are the focus of this year’s second Community Profile. Prairie Business held a roundtable discussion with city, business and organization leaders in the communities, and discovered the elements about their goals, trends and cultures that make them unique in our readership area. The discussion touched on the cities’ rapid growth, and discussion attendees didn’t mask their excitement.

“This is the best time to be mayor in Moorhead,” says Moorhead Mayor Del Rae Williams. She says Moorhead will double its valuations in building permits from 2015 thanks to building projects within the school district and at Concordia College as well as residential buildings. “Housing has ramped up really early. It’s going to be a really, really hot year. It will depend on how much people can do,” Williams says.

In West Fargo, Mayor Rich Mattern says it will be a good year for his city as well. “We thought it’d take awhile for growth along that corridor (where the new Sanford Medical Center is being built), but it’s going to happen much earlier,” Mattern says. “We keep going at a record pace. The whole metro area is doing well. We spend too much time talking about negatives, but life is pretty good. We’re growing at a record pace, there are jobs that need to be filled and companies want to come here.”

With several upcoming projects in Fargo, including a few developments in the downtown area to help drive tourism, that city is poised for a great year, too.

Throughout the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo area, evidence of that growth can be seen in the number of hotels that have popped up in the past three years, especially around the new Sanford hospital, says Charley Johnson, president and CEO of the Fargo-Moorhead Convention & Visitors Bureau. Two hotels are under construction and will open yet this year.

The growth is also noticeable in the expansion of certain industries, such as technology, which have helped breathe an entrepreneurial spirit into the region.

Entrepreneurs and Startups

That entrepreneurial spirit in the Fargo area starts with the programs available in Minnesota and North Dakota. “There are a lot of initiatives and programs for primary sectors through the two states,” says Lisa Gulland-Nelson, vice president of marketing and public relations for the Greater Fargo/Moorhead Economic Development Corp. “Once a business gets primary sector certified, credits and tax incentives are available. The technology grant has been very popular.”

Still, while Gulland-Nelson says incentive programs are helpful, “it’s really the ability to meet with a lot of people, tap into some of that knowledge and having mentors here that has encouraged this growth. We have all the parts coming together in one package and are able to feed the ecosystem.”

Fargo is the No. 1 location for 1 Million Cups, a free, weekly national program that brings together entrepreneurs, says Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney. “We have the right mixture to get all of this to happen,” Mahoney says. “The only thing we’re missing is more venture capital and angel funds.”

Moorhead is in the process of setting up a startup incubator, Williams says. “We’ve had people come in with great ideas but had no idea how to be a business, so we want to make sure they have the resources. Minnesota has a lot of really good resources we haven’t been tapping into, but we’re ready to start doing more connection with that as well.”

Blaine Booher, owner of Clifton Labs and a Fargo transplant, says as people move from larger cities to the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo area, they’re doing more than starting businesses. “As these people move here, they see niches that they were used to in their cities and are bringing them to Fargo, so that expands dining, entertainment and activities to give it more of a big-city feel. They’re bringing an interest to create things.”

Workforce

One of the main issues facing the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo area is a workforce gap. “As far as workforce development, we’ve talked about how do we get there, how do we get people who want to do that, and we don’t quite know how we’re going to get there,” Mahoney says. “The universities have recognized those needs and started the programs we need.”

While it’s an issue in nearly all industries, health care possibly feels the pinch the worst. “It’s a big deal,” says Tim Sayler, chief operating officer for Essentia Health West Region. “It’s gotten a little better recently but it’s still a significant issue for us.” Essentia has about 75 registered nurse positions open, and of all positions, only about 77 percent are filled.

“We’ve built a whole strategy around how to fill those positions to be able to still serve patients,” Sayler says. “It’s not just recruiting new staff but retaining what we have. There are other things around the organization that are longer-term strategies to build the pipeline and grow our own. It’s gotten better more recently, but it’s an ongoing issue that we think we’re going to have for a longer period of time.”

Sanford Health is also doing all it can to retain its employees, says Paul Richard, president of Sanford Medical Center Fargo. “No matter how we look at it, the pipeline is too small,” Richard says. “We didn’t get here overnight.” He says the universities have been very responsive, but the health care system is also focused on growing its own employees. Sanford recently started its own sonography program and is starting a family medicine residency. “We’re finding creative ways to increase the pipeline. You have to do it yourself but also partner with the education community,” Richard says.

In response to the region’s health care workforce needs, Minnesota State Community & Technical College, which has a Moorhead campus, added a licensed practical nurse program and a surgical technology program, while North Dakota State University doubled the number of students accepted into its nursing program