Bemidji receives 2nd cleanup grant for rail corridor, future YMCA home

BEMIDJI — The state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development awarded another grant to clean up Bemidji’s rail corridor.

The more than $900,000 grant is part of nearly $7 million DEED awarded in contamination cleanup grants, designed to clean up contaminated sites while also creating jobs and increasing local tax bases.

Bemidji’s Rail Corridor project is led by local economic development nonprofit Greater Bemidji — partnering with the Fargo-based YMCA of Cass and Clay Counties to create an indoor recreation center near Bemidji’s downtown. The city of Bemidji owns the roughly 19-acre land parcel and will provide a 25% match for this grant.

This award announced Tuesday, Jan. 21, comes months after DEED announced a nearly $600,000 redevelopment grant for the same site. Mayor Jorge Prince said this latest announcement is a step in the right direction for getting this project shovel ready, with a council work session scheduled before the end of the month.

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Greater Bemidji

"We will be discussing what exactly is the footprint going to be here, 'cause we're also talking about creating two additional pads for other business development there," Prince said in a phone interview Wednesday.

"We are also talking about the infrastructure side of it, from the city's point of view. Do we do just enough infrastructure to support the YMCA, or do we do more than that to prepare the other portion of the railroad corridor, the east side for future development?"

The 60,000-square-foot community wellness center will be operated by the YMCA, and the project is anticipated to create 77 jobs, increase the tax base by $30,000 and leverage $35 million in private investment.

The city of Bemidji purchased most of the rail corridor from the BNSF Railroad in the early 2000s, acquiring an additional 4 acres recently as the YMCA plan began to take shape last year. The city has done extensive site testing and evaluation over the last decade, contracting technical support from the St. Paul Port Authority.

The council created a $2 million tax-increment financing district for its eventual development. The historically industrial site has known petroleum and other contaminants in the soil, with this latest grant covering costs like contaminated soil mitigation and environmental consulting fees.