Sept. 15, 2021
A new 144,000-square-foot facility will open this month that includes a convention center and community gathering spaces for meetings and events of up to 5,000 people. The Iron Trail Motors Event Center has two arenas for hockey, figure skating, trade shows, ice bumper cars and more.
One of the arenas features year-round ice capability and a walking track around the perimeter. Other amenities include a 6,400-square-foot ballroom, two meeting rooms and a board room with state-of-the-art audio/video capabilities.
Construction began in June 2020, and a grand opening celebration is planned for the week of Sept. 20. The grand opening celebration includes a week of events starting with a ribbon cutting and open house on Sept. 20 and culminating with a live concert featuring nationally recognized Night Ranger and Starship with Mickey Thomas. The full schedule for grand opening week is at www.virginiamn.us.
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 “The event center will meet a great community and economic need in our city and region for venues that can host a variety of public and private events,” said Brian Silber, Virginia’s Park & Recreation Director. “The facility’s versatility creates spaces for everything from concerts, wedding receptions and trade expositions to community education classes, craft fairs and family reunions. The facility may also serve our region in times of crisis. It will be equipped with infrastructure contingencies to handle communications and shelter for emergencies, neighborhood evacuations and natural disasters.”
The original Miners Memorial building was built in the 1950s. The complex included an ice arena and Virginia High School’s track, football and baseball fields. Failing and outdated infrastructure of the facility, coupled with growing demand for a variety of community events made new construction more viable than a renovation. In addition, the consolidation of Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert school districts into one combined Rock Ridge Career Academy in 2023 will result in Virginia Schools no longer needing its own football field and track.
“The city of Virginia has long viewed public recreation and community spaces as vitally important to our residents’ quality of life,” said Virginia Mayor Larry Cuffe. “The citizens of Virginia gave us the unique opportunity to build the new event center when an overwhelming majority of them voted for the new sales tax. The facility will serve our community and region by potentially attracting new businesses and residents, increasing property values and providing healthy activities for adolescents and people of all ages.”
Total project investment was $38 million which included $12 million from a 2016 Minnesota Legislature bonding bill and $20 million from a citizen-approved 1% sales tax that went into effect January 2020. Iron Trail Motors of Virginia provided $1.1 million for naming rights for the next 20 years.
Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation supported the project with Community Development grants totaling just over $1 million. For community development grant information email Chris Ismil or call him at 218-735-3010.
Learn more about Iron Trail Motors Event Center.
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The Redhead Mountain Bike Park opened last year near Minnesota Discovery Center (MDC) in Chisholm. The 25-mile trail traverses amidst 1,225 acres of mining impacted land with rich red earth surfaces, steep and rugged rock ledges, lush green forestry, and open mine pits full of clear blue water. Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation supported the project with Mineland Reclamation and Trail grants to the city of Chisholm.
The Redhead land once yielded iron ore that was transferred to America’s steel mills. Mining ceased on the parcels many decades ago, and the property now draws mountain bikers, hikers, e-bikers, kayakers, canoers and other outdoor recreation enthusiasts.
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“The Redhead trail represents how mining-impacted land can be responsibly reclaimed for the economic betterment of northeastern Minnesota,” said Commissioner Mark Phillips, Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation. “Redhead is adding to the quality of life for local residents, attracting tourism spending, and is a business recruiting tool for the health care and other large industries.”
MDC, one of northern Minnesota’s largest nonprofit museums and the official trailhead of Redhead MTB Park, recently debuted a short documentary to launch a public crowdfunding campaign to help fund Redhead’s phase two expansion. The future plans include up to 14 additional miles with some wider trails for adaptive cycling competitive racing, a mining themed paved pump track, a robust skills course, enhanced user amenities throughout the trail system and water recreation. Watch “Reclaimed.”
“We were thrilled to officially launch the campaign and invite the public behind the fences of the mines that built America,” said Jordan Metsa, MDC Fund Development and Marketing Coordinator. “The video shows the spectacular and unearthed potential Redhead has to become a world-class recreational destination.”
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“Reclaimed” features Joel and Candice Sjogren (pictured) who own 30West Fitness & Rec with their business partners Nick and Jen Gigliotti. The two young married couples purchased a 1900s downtown Chisholm building in 2018. They transformed it into a 3,000-square-foot modern and ecofriendly fitness center. The club has about 200 members. Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation supported the small business with Business Energy Retrofit (BER) and a Downtown Building Rehabilitation (DBR) grants to help renovate the building with energy efficiency and code compliancy improvements.
The Sjogrens and Gigliottis grew their entrepreneurism this summer from downtown Chisholm to a second facility at MDC. In addition to their gym, their MDC location is a bike rental, repair and retail shop that caters to the region’s growing biking industry and the Redhead Mountain Bike Trail system. Learn more about 30 West Fitness & Rec.
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“Outdoor recreation and trails can have wide-reaching impacts economically and socially in rural areas,” said Phillips. “The investments our agency made have been in partnership with a very committed group of community and business leaders. The development in Chisholm clearly demonstrates how outdoor recreation can interconnect with economics and have an impact across the entire region.”
Redhead project partners include city of Chisholm, Chisholm Community Foundation, Iron Range Off Road Cyclists, Minnesota Discovery Center and St. Louis County. For more Mineland Reclamation grant information email Jim Plummer or call him at 218-274-7006.
Watch a short video “Redhead MTB Park - Support Redhead MTB Park Phase 2 Build-Out.”
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Lake Superior Dental broke ground last week on a new 4,500-square-foot dental office in Two Harbors. The private health care business currently operates out of a main street location in downtown Two Harbors, and its new location will be on Highway 2. Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation supported the project with a $275,000 Development Infrastructure grant to the city to help pay for site preparation related to water, sewer, storm sewer and electrical.
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The new dental office will create approximately 15 construction jobs and 10 fulltime jobs at Lake Superior Dental. Total project investment is estimated at $1.6 million.
The new Two Harbors office will have eight treatment rooms and expanded services to perform specialty care not currently offered in its downtown location. Lake Superior Dental has three other offices in northeastern Minnesota locations: Cloquet, Duluth and Hermantown.
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“Our agency was pleased to support this project in which a private business is investing in one of the region’s communities,” said Commissioner Mark Phillips, Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation. “Dental and health care clinics can have a positive economic impact in the community in which they are located. They employ people who impact local spending, and the facility itself can purchase from other local businesses and generate tax revenues.”
Funding partners include Lake Superior Dental, the city of Two Harbors and Lake County. Learn more about Lake Superior Dental.
Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation grants are funded through taxes paid by Minnesota’s mining industry.
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Voyageurs Conservancy used a Culture & Tourism grant to purchase equipment and supplies to support the second phase of the Voyageurs Wolf Project (VWP), a wolf research project in and around Voyageurs National Park. Minnesota’s only national park spreads across more than 218,000 acres in northeastern Minnesota.
Thirty-five additional trail cameras were purchased to supplement the existing 125. The cameras are capturing high-quality footage of wolves, wildlife and scenery, and in some instances captures behaviors that have never been observed or filmed before. Three of the videos produced have received over 1,117,507 views combined.
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The Voyageurs Wolf Project (VWP) is a University of Minnesota wildlife research program. VWP produces digital content that engages and educates the public about wolves, wildlife and the Northwoods of Minnesota. The agency’s grant is enabling VWP to produce more content and share it with a broader audience.
“The videos have been hugely popular with the public and helped us reach our goals of greater online impact and connectivity with people in order to drive interest and tourism to Voyageurs National Park and northeastern Minnesota,” said Tom Gable, research biologist at University of Minnesota. “We are very thankful to Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation for their support of our efforts and their commitment to help us show the wild qualities that make our region the national treasure that it is.”
For Culture & Tourism grant information email Danae Beaudette for grant information or call her at 218-735-3022.
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A virtual Regional Broadband Summit will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 22, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The event is free and open to the public. Information will be shared about:
- Community broadband and innovative economy projects.
- Successful regional infrastructure projects.
- Arrowhead Intelligent Region grant recipients and their plans.
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The summit is presented by Northland Foundation in partnership with Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, Blandin Foundation, Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation and Northspan.
Register for the Regional Broadband Summit.
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Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) will begin accepting applications for the Main Street COVID Relief Grant program on Monday, Sept. 20. A total of $64,200,000 is available in grants for Minnesotan owned and operated businesses that can demonstrate financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Businesses that are majority-owned by military veterans, women, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color individuals; employ six people or fewer; and/or did not receive previous assistance from other state relief programs will be prioritized in the selection process. Funding will be distributed in a 50/50 split between the Twin Cities metro area and Greater Minnesota.
Applicants that qualify and are selected will receive a grant amount between $10,000 and $25,000 based on the number of full-time equivalent employees on staff. To be eligible, businesses must operate in Minnesota and be majority owned by a resident of Minnesota.
View additional eligibility requirements and application information.
View an informational video.
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