Mary Blair-Hoeft, current board chair and Byron city administrator,
Hiring committee is nearing selection of new president. Two finalists soon to be interviewed by the board.
Smith
2017 was another good year
Major expansion projects by Kerry and Pace International
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504 Corp. - fixed asset loans
15 businesses - $19 million investment
Southeast Minnesota Capital Fund
40 investors
$1.4 million in capital
Gary Smith named president in 1989.
smith's first project the expansion of Kemps
launch of Domaille
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Heard on the Street: RAEDI report: 'Another good year'
Jeff Kiger, jkiger@postbulletin.com Mar 16, 2017 (0)
Rochester Economic Development Inc. kept busy in 2016.
RAEDI delivered its annual report to a sold-out crowd at the Rochester International Events Center on Wednesday.
"2016 was another good year," RAEDI President Gary Smith told the audience of area business leaders.
In addition to reporting on the previous year, Smith said that RAEDI is ready to launch a new $1 million angel investment fund called the Southeast Minnesota Investment Fund. The fund will be used to assist eight to 10 local start-up businesses.
RAEDI's existing development fund has helped fund 11 businesses to date with $1.35 million. That in turn spurred the creation of 57 local jobs.
The businesses that were funded included - Ambient Clinical Analytics, Geneticure, HB Healthcare Safety, Hunhu Healthcare, Imanis Life Sciences, LAgen Laboratories, ReGen Theranostics, Sonex Health, Xcede Technologies, GoRout and LiquidCool Solutions.
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Overall, Smith reported that RAEDI helped facilitate an estimated $50 million of local investment plus the creation of 150 new local jobs in 2016.
It also assisted local firms in lining up 15 U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loans totaling $8.1 million in 2016. Those SBA loans, in turn, are projected to create 66 new local jobs.
Smith also gave an update on the Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator. The business accelerator, based in the Minnesota Biobusiness Center, is a joint project between RAEDI, the City of Rochester and Mayo Clinic. The accelerator, which opened in 2013, is designed to help young start-up businesses.
The facility has 23 tenants plus seven corporate and venture capital partners. RAEDI says accelerator businesses have created 60 jobs to date.
