Category: <span>Businesses</span>
Ross was asked to give an update to the Northfield Chamber of Commerce board regarding the status of the Comprehensive Plan revision process. The Chamber, as you might expect, seemed most concerned with the Economic Development and Transportation chapters of the Comp Plan. Since I was fresh off the previous day’s meeting with the Land Development Code advisory group, I offered to tag along and report on that as well.
It came as a surprise to me to learn that the Chamber is proposing a 320-acre business park rather than the 120 acres recommended by TIP Strategies in the Economic Development Plan.
As an EDA member during the process, I was able to watch TIP Strategies in action, and they did an excellent job of viewing our economic development situation in both a regional and global context. I believe their recommendations are solid. From the Plan:
Once again, another week goes by and I’m not sure where it went. I attended or participated in several meetings of various City and civic orgs this week, and I thought some of you would find this information both interesting and helpful.
On Tuesday, the NDDC had a meeting of the Retail Strategies group at the Grand, where they presented an overview of their Work Plan. The first slide presented the list of opportunities identified in the EDA’s Economic Development Plan, some of which are clearly within the purview of the NDDC’s:
Retail Support Strategies
Summary 1 – Economic Development Plan
Opportunity 1: Diversifying the Economic Base
1a: Land for Business Expansion
1b: Concentrate on Needs of Existing Businesses
1c: Implement a Targeted Recruitment Strategy
1d: Raise Awareness of Northfield within the Region
1e: Explore Options for Leveraging Existing Fiber Networks
Opportunity 2: Maintaining Northfield’s Quality of Place
2a: Maintain and Enhance the Existing Downtown
2b: Develop Coordinated Retail Strategy
2c: Redefine Northfield’s Relationship to its Neighbors
Opportunity 3: Attracting and Retaining Talent
3a: Increase Connections with Current and Former Students
3b: Continue to Engage the Leadership of the Colleges in Economic Development
3c: Increase the range of Housing Options
3d: Create Entrepreneurial and Innovative Start-Up Opportunities
3e: Take Steps to Integrate City’s Growing Latino Population
The Strib is evidently trying to provide balance to its coverage of Northfield. This article appeared in Sunday’s Travel section. Reporter Kerri Westenberg wrote: What did strike me was the…
Northfield residents and businesses are lucky to have a multiplicity of choices for getting broadband access to the internet. Cable (Charter) DSL (Qwest and via several ISPs, eg, Local Link)…
Stonyhill has opened in downtown Northfield, on the west side of Division St. between the Ragstock and Antiques of Northfield stores. My wife Robbie and I stopped by for…
Landscapers near me were spreading black dirt around The Crossing yesterday. Decorative bricks/blocks were also delivered and also swimming pool installation started by uvpools.com, if you are looking for swimming…
Equine Outfitters has a new retail store in the former location of the Heartwork Studio in the Kucera Medical Arts building at the north end of Division at 2nd St.…
The Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce held their annual fall pub crawl tonight. The crawl started at J. Grundy’s Rueb ‘n’ Stein, moved to The Tavern Lounge, and then ended…