The Duluth News-Tribune reports today on the practice of public entities building speculative buildings on the Iron Range to attract business. The appeal, according to the stories sources (all governmental), is that these buildings are modern, attractive and can be customized at public expense for any company willing to sign a long term deal that involves new jobs.
Anyone who looks at Hibbing understands that new development has been heavily subsidized at the expense of the existing downtown and commercial property. That hasn’t made Hibbing a better place to live and it hasn’t made it a better place to do business. The result is that property values, both residential and commercial, in Hibbing are depressed. That doesn’t really benefit anyone expect the folks who make money on the new construction.
At the same time, the money spent on empty buildings would be far better spent on updating public infrastucture. Grand Rapids has super-high capacity optical fibre to the doors of every resident. Essential world class communication infrastructure. While the Iron Range is still using copper wire despite having an enourmous amount of public resources available for economic development.
Empty buildings are not a good reason to locate on the range. They are a sign of economic weakness that drives businesses away. For every business it attracts, two are locating elsewhere becaue they want to be in an area with a dynamic economy that attracts lots of other business.
Can we stop dreaming long enough to deal with our realities? There are few areas in the country that put so much stock in dreams, and so little effort into fulfilling them. Let’s get real about what it takes to draw businesses to our (or any) area, and let’s work on that.
Clue: It ain’t buildings – new businesses usually want to build their own rather than have to retrofit something that is sitting empty.