It has not Been a Quiet Week in Bemidji, My Hometown

October 2025
Dave Hengel 
Executive Director

Unlike Garrison Keillor’s hometown of Lake Wobegon, it has not been a quiet week in Bemidji, my hometown, up here in the northwoods. In fact, this has been an extremely big week for our community’s future.

It was this past week that the community’s long-held dream of redeveloping the rail corridor brownfields site in downtown became a reality. Two major announcements served as tipping points.

First, after over a decade or work, the City Council awarded bids for the demolition, remediation and site preparation work within the corridor. Starting yet this year, the community will see significant work being completed on the site. Even more, the City will be utilizing state grants, contributions and a variety of other funding sources to complete the redevelopment work – without using local property tax dollars.

Secondly, GoodNeighbor Properties, a real estate development company out of Alexandria, MN, announced their intention to build a new Marriott hotel complex with attached event space and restaurant within the rail corridor. This development will bring over $22.5 million in private investment to Bemidji, providing a major boost to our downtown and the entire region.

Both of these developments push us closer and closer to the construction of the YMCA in the corridor. Our fundraising team is working hard to finalize the fundraising yet this year, meaning we could see both a new YMCA and a new hotel complex downtown beginning next year.

This should be exciting news for every one of our community members.

Yet I am aware that a handful of people have been scrutinizing the rail corridor project and the proposed YMCA development over social media, including personally bashing those who have been working to make the long-held community dream a reality. Unfortunately, they are using at best ‘selective information’ and at worst flat-out mistruths in their arguments.

As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “You are entitled to your own opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” I support people’s right to have opinions on this or any economic development project in the region – provided the
opinions are based in facts.

So today, let me share five facts with you that have been discussed over social media:

Fact #1 – The City of Bemidji is not and will not own or operate the YMCA wellness center. The YMCA is a private entity – just like the businesses in our community. As a hypothetical, if a restaurant (a private entity) goes out of business here, would the City of Bemidji (and its taxpayers) be forced to own the restaurant or be held responsible to operate it? Of course not
.
The City of Bemidji is not contributing to the construction of the YMCA, nor its operations. I understand residents concern given the financial challenges the city has faced with the Sanford Center. The Sanford Center is city-owned – a public entity. The
YMCA is privately-owned. Anyone who compares the YMCA development with the Sanford Center is simply ill-informed of the facts.

Fact #2 – It is true that the YMCA, as a non-profit corporation, does not pay property taxes. However, it is not true that the YMCA won’t have a huge social and economic impact on our community. Imagine the economic impact on downtown when hundreds of visitors and residents go downtown daily. Think about the jobs created directly by the YMCA – good jobs with good benefits for Bemidji residents. How many local companies will benefit from the purchasing and operations of the YMCA.

The University of Minnesota Extension completed an economic impact study a few years back on a similarly sized expansion of the Brainerd Lakes YMCA. It found that the proposed YMCA expansion there would support 288 construction jobs in the region.
Not only that, in addition to direct jobs and spending by the YMCA, operations of the YMCA indirectly support 343 additional jobs in the community. The overall economic impact to the economy of the Brainerd Lakes Area was calculated to be $7.2 million
annually.

I fully expect the impact of the new YMCA in Bemidji to exceed the projections by the University of Minnesota report for Brainerd.

Fact #3. While the YMCA does not pay property taxes, the GoodNeighbor Properties development – and any other private developments on corridor site – certainly will. The hotel with event space and attached restaurant proposed by GoodNeighbor Properties is estimated by the company to cost $22.5 million to build. The new development will pay anywhere from $200,000-$250,000 in property tax annually.

Even more, the GoodNeighbor Properties development is one of two private developments on site. Greater Bemidji has received a letter of interest on the final development site in the corridor for a mixed-use development. Should that additional development occur, the total estimated development in the corridor will be $67.5 million, with an estimated $300,000-$350,000 in new property taxes.

Fact #4. The City of Bemidji will be reimbursed for current and past expenses incurred for the remediation and site preparation work of the rail corridor through tax increment financing (TIF). Simply put, TIF allows the city to capture the new taxes generated by the private development to reimburse itself for project-associated costs. Given the estimated property taxes described above, the City of Bemidji will have a very quick return on its historic investment.

Fact #5. The YMCA of the Northern Sky out of Fargo is excited to bring the YMCA to Bemidji. Greater Bemidji has committed to raising $25 million prior to construction. We currently have 86% of our goal in both cash and pledges. All contributions to the YMCA construction are held in a bank account in Bemidji – and will not be used until construction begins. A volunteer team is working to bring the fundraising to a close by the end of the year in time for construction to begin in 2026.

Should fundraising require more time, the GoodNeighbor Properties project is not contingent on the construction of the YMCA.

These are five facts that cannot be disputed. You can find these and other project facts on our website at www.greaterbemidji.com. Moreover, both Steve Smith, the CEO of the YMCA of the Northern Sky, and I will meet with anyone who has questions and wants the facts on the project.

What excites me most about the new developments is that no one can ever question if this is going to happen. We are moving ahead. The contaminated site in the heart of our community will be cleaned up and developed – growing our tax base and attracting private investment.

Equally, I am excited that the future of the YMCA is entirely up to us. There are no longer questions whether the city would move forward with the site cleanup and preparation. There is no longer doubt that there is community support for the project. And there is no longer a concern whether a YMCA would be interested in our community.

The only question that remains is ‘when will we hit our fundraising goal’? That is up to each of us. Interested in helping? Use the link at www.greaterbemidji.com or reach out to me directly at dhengel@greaterbemidji.com.