Business Beat - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Business Beat

The Marketplace project on north hill got a financial shot in the arm from the Federal Government last week. The EDA announced a 1.6 million dollar disaster grant for the Market on North Hill project. Paired with 400 from local funds, the 2 million will help with infrastructure around the site to handle the increase in business that will be moving in in 2013.

Watch for an addition here -- at Dakota Square inside JCPenney. Although Penneys officials won't confirm it, my sources tell me that Sephora will be added to Minot's JCPenney. You'll find something like it in Fargo at West Acres and in Bismarck's Kirkwood Mall. Sephora is an industry leader in beauty and cosmetics. Watch for it's arrival in Minot later this year.

Finally, on north hill, a new Choice Hotels location is officially open for business. Econolodge opened about a month ago with its 66 rooms. It is managed by a Wisconsin company but owned by local investors, including a Minot doctor. It is the first new hotel that has been built on north hill in quite some time...but Angie Delorme, the GM says it makes sense to grow on the hill as the city does as well...

(Angie Delorme - Econolodge General Manager) "There are a lot of local businesses up this way that bring people in that need hotels in this area and being close to the bypass, it is easy to sometimes avoid the traffic on Broadway."

With Business Beat, I'm Perry Olson.