The southeast Minnesota region is home to many resilient institutions that are better equipped to address the challenges our State and the Country are facing now. There exist in this region fundamental elements that over the years have helped ensure a robust economy in normal times, and a “better than most” economic and job environment during tougher times.

As leaders entrusted to make tough decisions,  as parents, and as members of the community, we owe it to current and future generations to take on challenges that will pave the way for a better tomorrow for our kids and grandkids.

 Much, if not all of where Pine Island is at this moment in time is a direct by-product of the confluence of critical elements. I have great faith in the future of Pine Island, and the region, and in the following I will attempt to explain why we are at the cusp of a great promise, and why today we have such unprecedented opportunities.

• In the early 1990, the City of Pine Island established the Pine Island Economic Development Authority (EDA). The EDA worked very hard over the years to identify opportunities aimed at growing the local business environment and on bolstering local economic conditions. Along its 17 year history the EDA has demonstrated its ability to meet its goals by providing economic development incentives to existing and new businesses. The EDA Board, working closely with the City established not one but three revolving loan fund programs and worked very closely with local State and Federal agencies to achieve long standing community goals.
• In 2000 the State of Minnesota Department of Transportation recognizing the critical importance of U. S. Highway 52 set out to plan and to bring resources to upgrade U.S. 52 to a limited access highway. This prompted many communities to take a close look at the meaning of such plan and its impact on land use and the local economies. Understanding the impact of the proposed U.S. 52 design on Pine Island’s current and future land uses became a critical goal of the City and the EDA.
• Shortly before the official mapping of U.S. Highway 52 new interchanges and service roads, the City of Pine Island adopted its 2005 Comprehensive Plan. In early spring of 2005 an article in the Post Bulletin written by Abraham Algadi, EDA Director at the time stated that “We are no longer a community off the beaten path. We are at the heart of the beaten path”.  A follow up editorial by the PB stated “Pine Island’s efforts to develop an economic development plan are important because the community sits in the state’s fastest growing corridor between Rochester and the Twin Cities on up to St. Cloud”. Such statements ring even more relevant today.
• Towards the end of 2005, the Pine Island EDA worked closely with a number of state and national private companies who have expressed interest in buying the John and Carl Hoehne Ranch. The ranch consisted of over 1,200 acres and is located around where the new “Pine Island/Oronoco” interchange is slated to start construction by summer of2010. Tower Investment was the last of more than four investment companies that came before it and the one that proved it has the commitment and resources to take on the challenge.
• Due to natural growth in housing developments and commercial land use, the City of Pine Island boundaries began to expand into Olmsted County where by the end of 2005 the City added over 37% on to its 1857 boundaries, and about the same percentage in population growth. The State Demographer’s office ranked Pine Island’s 2000-2005 as the fastest growing community located within the Rochester sphere of influence.
• Data gathered about Pine Island and the region during the development of the City’s Comprehensive Plan between 2002 and 2005, and analysis of factors affecting growth trends, painted a clear picture of things to come. The future of the City of Pine Island lies to the South and East (towards Rochester). The Comprehensive Planning process led the City to identify and adopt an official future urban growth area that included all of what we now know as Elk Run and almost a mile and half south into New Haven Township.
• The City’s efforts, coupled with having a partner like Tower Investment, and the leadership shown by state and Olmsted County leaders put the Elk Run Development and Pine Island where we are today. We did not operate in a vacuum, we did not speculate. Instead, we took important incremental steps and made very smart decisions along the way that proved critical in forming the future prospects for Pine Island and the region.  More importantly Pine Island understood what it means to have a world class institution like Mayo Clinic just 16 miles away. We fully understood the meaning of having such breadth of knowledge in agriculture, computer and medical fields in our midst. We worked with all project partners for years to build a coalition of private and public partnerships determined to see this project and the region, through to a brighter tomorrow.

Could Elk Run and the proposed Bio-Science Park in Pine Island happen anywhere else? Perhaps, but its chances of delivering on its promise are much greater here. Such chances are a greater because of who we are, because of the knowledge base that is already here, because of the great work ethic we pride ourselves in, and because of our own long history of always rising to the challenges no matter the odds.

The idea that somehow Pine Island or some investor woke up one morning and decided to change the course of the region’s history is at best a fallacy. In Pine Island, we have been at THIS for quite sometime. We have been deliberate in steering the rudder to where we want to be. We are confident that from here on out we will begin to see the fruits of our collective labor.

As of today Pine Island has accomplished many of its strategic objectives concerning planning and future land use.  Very soon Pine Island and the region will begin to see the fruits of its labor; a new interchange will be constructed to meet safety and traffic needs, while at the same time driving economic development and job creation. Very soon we will see the construction of the first of many bio-science business park buildings.

If I was to bet on the future of Pine Island and the region, I would say that the best is yet to come. We are at the very beginning of a transformational change in our area, a change that will deliver on the promise of what southeast Minnesota and its people have to offer. We should not be shy about the incremental decisions we made over the years to get here. In fact, on the contrary we all should be proud of Pine Island, its people, and the promise it holds to itself, and to the region.

For more information, or if you have any questions please contact: Abraham Algadi, 507.356.4591