Minot Accelerator Fund gets expansion

MINOT, N.D. - The Souris Basin Planning Council is looking to expand the business accelerator fund in Minot using the magic fund grant.

The accelerator is a revolving loan fund. The money is loaned to businesses getting started or expanding in the area, paid back, and loaned out to another. They started with a million dollars over the last few years. They asked for another $2 million to make the program more sustainable. For now the city would only be able to add another seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars to it.

“We had a speed bump with COVID. People got a little nervous about opening a new business, and so people kind of put the brakes on their projects for a period of time, and then after that it was just full steam ahead. There was a lot of word of mouth, and people really like this program,” said Lyndsay Ulrickson, executive director.

The city council moved to approve the $780,000.

They also discussed the possibility of adding more money when it becomes available.