The Outlook for Business in West St. Paul

Ben Boike serves as the community development director for the City of West St. Paul. His job involves bringing new developments to the city and working with existing businesses. We talked with Boike about the business climate here in West St. Paul. 

Boike lives in Rosemount with his wife Jen, three kids, and a dog. He enjoys spending time with family and friends, coaching youth sports, cheering on Minnesota sports teams, golfing, and fishing.

With inflation, global calamities, and lingering pandemic impacts, it's easy to worry about the economy. What's your outlook on the current business climate?

Inflation and the resulting interest rate hikes are definitely impacting the business and development climate. We have been working on a couple projects that started a year ago and the additional 2-3% rate hike is making things extremely challenging to close deals. As a result, we seem to be in a bit of a holding pattern with developers at the moment. The good news is construction costs are starting to come down, but they are still impacting projects financially along with labor shortages. I am hopeful that things will balance out soon as interest rates level off.

We saw a lot of new business construction in West St. Paul this past year—will that pace continue?

Robert Street is an economic engine and has historically withstood economic downturns. So I do think we will continue to see new businesses in West St. Paul even if we see a recession. We continue to receive calls from various businesses and restaurants looking to locate in West St. Paul as property becomes available and continue recruiting efforts for certain uses that the community wants to see.

How can the city help local businesses? Especially startups and small businesses trying to find traction—what can local government offer?

The City is a resource for existing businesses and new businesses. We can assist in several ways. We have a great partnership with Open to Business, who provides free, confidential business counseling to current and prospective entrepreneurs. We also work with DEED, the Department of Employment and Economic Development, the South Robert Street Business Association, and the Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce in assisting new and existing businesses.

In terms of day to day operations, we assist new business in locating space in West St. Paul and offer various business subsidies through the Economic Development Authority (EDA). One of our goals for 2023 is to sit down with existing business owners to have conversations about how the City can assist their business. Based on those conversations, we plan to review our subsidy programs and better tailor them to the needs of the business community.

Why should a business come to West St. Paul? We're here, so we obviously like it, but how do you make that pitch to businesses who are looking all over the metro area?  

I really like the direction West St. Paul is heading. We are seeing tremendous reinvestment in the existing housing stock, the school district continues to be a tremendous asset, and the business community continues to thrive. In addition, the recent openings of the Westlyn, Savor, and Legacy Commons and Hilltop at Signal Hills point to a strong desire for amenity-based market family housing. Leases for all four buildings were and are being filled at astonishing rates. If planned in a thoughtful way, the added density will only help the commercial and industrial climate of the community by providing a strong workforce and economic base. I think the outlook is bright as we are seeing more interest from higher end developers, retailers, restaurant and recreational users.

What long-term business trends are you watching? What do you think is on the horizon that local entrepreneurs should be aware of?

National and regionally, the big push is industrial warehouse space, specifically for the ecommerce trades. Although we have limited space to accommodate, I think we need to take advantage of this trend for smaller operations and businesses that cater to ecommerce.  Additionally, I think we need to continue to support our existing industrial, retail, and service base by providing assistance to our existing businesses and new startups. As mentioned, the City will put more of a focus on business retention and recruitment in 2023 and re-examine our programming.

Thanks to Ben Boike for sharing his insights with us.