FAIRMONT– The Fairmont Economic Development Authority heard an update about the Business Development Center (incubator building) from Jennifer Howard, interim Economic Development Coordinator, during Monday’s meeting.

FEDA has owned and operated the incubator building, located at 426 Winnebago Ave., since 1993. The building provides office suites and work areas for up to seven businesses and there are currently five tenants in the building.

Of the five tenants, one has been in the building less than a year and the others have been in there at least five years with the longest for 25 years. Typically, incubator office space is leased to new businesses below market value to allow them a successful start.

At last month’s meeting, the board decided it would like to look into selling the building. During Monday’s meeting Howard said a Request for Proposal is being worked on by the city attorney.

“The goal with it would be to have someone present us with a development agreement and have one of the terms also be that the leases are maintained for a minimum of a year,” Howard said.

She said they’d like to publish it by Aug. 22 and have the RFP due Sept. 30 so it will be ready for the board to consider any proposals at the October FEDA meeting.

Board Member Andy Noll asked how they’re going to get the word about the RFP out to those who may be truly interested.

Howard said it will be sent out as a public notice and will also be posted on the FEDA website. The board expressed interest in also having word of it being put in the Photo Press.

“We’ll send it to the current tenants too to see if any of them are interested,” Howard said.

Moving to other matters, the board also received a brief update on the Whitetail Ridge lots. In November, the board had authorized previous Economic Development Coordinator, Linsey Preuss, to draft an RFP to develop eight residential lots at Whitetail Ridge, as the lots weren’t selling as quickly as they once were.

The board has hoped a developer could build small scale residential options including single family, twin homes, duplexes and townhomes.

“We’re still working with a developer and working on an agreement,” Howard said, adding that she’s hopeful they’ll have something for the next FEDA meeting.

She said the listing for the lots is set to expire Sept. 15 so she was wondering if the board was interested in extending that until there’s an official agreement drafted with the developer.

The board approved extending the listing for a year with the option to cancel anytime.

In other news, Howard said she’s spoken with Judd Schultz from Minnesota Valley Action Council regarding funding from the Small Cities Development grant for homeowners interested in making improvements to their homes. The board was aware that there are still funds available to assist eligible homeowners.

“It sounds like they did get some more interest. The thing that’s holding them back is the target zone and making sure people fall in that and also the income requirement,” Howard said.

She said they still have funds available to assist more homeowners but the deadline is quickly approaching in September.