3.0. SR 04-02-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

"We've been fortunate to have people in our community who are aggressive in those areas, and we got together with our friendly competitor, the Bank of Elk River, for some of the financing. We wanted to make Elk River a shopping area, a desti- nation area as opposed to a drive-through town." Mission accomplished. Gongoll and others got their growth, and then some. "I believe the growth happened a little faster than we projected," Gongoll said. "Our residential growth has precipitated our retail sector, and now we're working on stimulat- ing our industrial base. But overall, I'm very pleased with our strong and vibrant econ- omy." Besides his bank duties, Gongoll is one of five governors of the Elk River Investment Club, an LLC of 22 members. One of the chief goals of the club is to work with the City of Elk River in getting new companies into the city's incubator program. "We try to coordinate," Gongoll said, "our efforts with the city to help emerging busi- nesses get out of the garage, so to speak, and into the incubator program. Currently the club is working with four or five businesses at this time. Our club gets a commitment from the proprietor that his or her business will remain in the incubator or at some loca- tion in Elk River. It's venture capital that's for businesses looking to grow in Elk River." When the city did take overthe business park, there were approximately half a dozen lots still available. That park was fully built- out in 1999 and is home to companies such as the Tescom Corporation (high purity and industrial controls), Alltool Manufacturing (metal fabrication), E&O Tool & Plastics (plas- tics) and the Custom Conveyor Corporation (conveyor equipment). And there's the Cretex Companies Incorporated, makers of concrete girders for bridges and culverts, a com- pany that has stayed in Elk River and has thrived, and a variety of other industries. East on U.S. 10 is the Horizon Thermoform Plastics Company that moved to Elk River in August of 1998: In two years it has ex- panded its workforce to 30 and projected sales are at two million dollars. Horizon is national in scope, serving customers from coast to coast. Horizon Thermoform and ~ ~ I companies such as Elk River Machinp Company and Metal Craft Machine & EI gineering are strong representations of what the city is trying to bring to its indus- trial base. Workforce issues are a concern for all businesses in today's economy. However, the Elk River area appears to have a high concentration of skilled labor. "We seem to have a large pool of people in the area with trade skills," Nevinski said. He also noted that Elk River firms pull people from the Twin Cites, St. Cloud, and even from more rural areas of the state. The breakdown of the city's industrial base bears this out. The number of Industrial machinery-related companies has reached 18 while the mineral and rubber-plastic in- dustries take a distant second with four com- panies each. The industrial-machinery cat- egory also leads in the employee category with 28 percent of the industrial workforce, followed by the fabricated metal and elec- tronic equipment sectors with 22 percent each. Mineral employment accounts for 15 percent of the workforce while rubber-plastic employs nine percent. But those numbers will soon turn old. Tv balance residential and retail growth, the city created two new industrial parks, appropri- ately dubbed the East and West Business Parks. Phase I of the East Park, a 40-acre tract that will include a 50,000-square-foot multi-tenant building, will have access to a four-lane industrial grade road. The park is also bordered by U.S. 169 and the Burlington Northern Railway. Adjacent to the 40 acres lies another 90 acres which will be Phase II of the East Business Park. Just to the south of Phase II, across 173rd Street, is the site of the proposed North Star Corri- dor Station, a depot that will run from Rice (north of St. Cloud) all the way into the Twin Cities. "The commuter line will connect with the light rail system in the Twin Cities," Nevinski said, "and run down to the air- port, eventually going into St. Paul and the outlying suburbs. Right now we have a double track that runs through town that averages 50 to 60 trains a day. We do have a rail spur downtown, and some busi- nesses have taken advantage of that." V ElkrRiver