Manufacturing companies in Perham continue to grow and are planning for future expansions despite the challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the summer, the city's Industrial Park had 12 lots available, but now there are only seven left.
"There's been a lot more interest in businesses purchasing lots," said Economic Development Director Nick Murdock, when asked whether this boom in purchases is irregular. "It's good, but there's getting to be less and less out there."
Three lots were purchased in September, by Keith and Jennifer Carlson, Marotz Investments and JOLD Enterprises. In November, Melgard Properties purchased two more. That makes five industrial lots sold by the city over the past couple of months.
There hasn't been any ground broken yet at any of these recently-bought properties. Murdock believes they're examples of speculative buying, as most of the lots were purchased by businesses that already have locations in the Perham Industrial Park.
"(Several business owners) just realized there aren't many lots left if they needed to expand," he said. "They decided to buy now before it's gone. (One buyer) spurred another to think about it. It was a domino effect."
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At the Nov. 8 city council meeting, council members talked about how space is running low in the Industrial Park. It's something the city is watching, Murdock said, but it's not yet an urgent concern; there hadn't been a lot of demand until this recent boom.
In the future, it's likely the city will look into developing additional industrial lots.
"We always want to have options," Murdock said.
