NUBRIC in a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering economic growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship in New Ulm and the surrounding areas. For the last few years, NUBRIC has worked on a longterm goal of creating a business incubation center in New Ulm. The idea of the business incubator is to establish a location to grow startup businesses. Once the businesses is established, it moves to another location and a new startup business moves into the incubator location.

To get the business incubator started, NUBRIC is seeking grant funding. NUBRIC CEO Steve Brown said the grant application was initially being written by Center of Rural Innovation (CORI), but the application was never finished. CORI ran out of funds and could not complete the application. NUBRIC decided to finish writing the grant in house.

The NUBRIC board held a special strategic planning session Monday to help complete the grant application.

“We need board participation in the process and we need consensus to move forward and get the grant,” Brown said.

NUBRIC board member Lou Vanderwerf encourages the board to be specific in writing the Build to Scale grant application.

Early in planning session NUBRIC board member Lou Vanderwerf encouraged to the board to determine which areas to focus on with the incubator.

“When you apply for one of these grants, you have to be super specific,” Vanderwerf said. “You need to know exactly what you’re doing with it.”

Vanderwerf was past part of the initial grant writing process with CORI. She said part of the problem was NUBRIC’s focus of the incubator kept shifting. At one point the focus shifted to cybersecurity technology but this was a dead end because New Ulm had no cybersecurity tech or any area interest for cyber security. That grant proposal would not have worked.

Vanderwerf said they needed to pict a technology that worked. Advanced manufacturing already fit New Ulm and could expanded into other areas like robotic and artificial intelligence.

Later in the work session, NUBRIC board member Rebecca DeMarais led a review of the original incubator plan to determine if should be updated. One of the top reasons cited in the plan for developing a business incubator was to counteract job and population loss caused by automation.

New Ulm Business Resource & Resource Innovation Center (NUBRIC) CEO Steve Brown (right) and NUBRIC board member Shannon Hillesheim (let) work to refine their application for the Build to Scale grant. With the grant NUBRIC hopes to create a business incubation center in New Ulm.

Brown pushed back against automation leading to job losses.

He said in a perfect world automation created more efficiencies, leading to lower product prices, which builds sales and allows a plant to expand. In theory automation could lead to more employees. Automation could also increase employment through new Information Technology (IT) positions.

“Automation is not a death knell for industries,” Brown said. “It is suppose to enhance industries.”

Brown believed if the incubator were to be based around advanced manufacturing, the grant should view automation as a benefit.

DeMarais agreed it could be a benefit to rewrite automation as a potential benefit for the grant application.

Rebecca and Morja Haustein: NUBRIC board members Rebeca DeMarais (left) and Morja Haustein (right) take notes during the strategic planning session.

“Let’s turn it around them into a positive story,” she said.

Brown believed they could build on the tech industries that were already present in New Ulm.

“Tech jobs are here,” Brown said. “AMPI runs two full production lines with two people. It is all robotics. It’s moving in that director.”

Brown said he believes farming is moving in that direction too.

“The farmer is not going to leave his house at 5 a.m.,” he said. “He’s going to press a button and his tractor will do the work.”

The Build to Scale grant application is due in the fall of this year. Vanderwerf said there is some uncertainty if the grants will be available this cycle, but said writing the grant was still valuable.

“If you do all this planning and the grant doesn’t come out, you still have your plan you just need to fund it,” she said.

Brown said the overall goal of building the incubator is to improve the New Ulm’s business environment.

“We do feel automation will keep tech and people here,” he said. The incubator would help grow a tech ecosystem in New Ulm. “We want to make New Ulm a business friendly environment.”

This also means building on infrastructure and housing. NUBRIC is creating a workforce housing project involving the creation of smaller apartment size houses in a village like setting.

NUBRIC has purchased the property at 13 S. Street and Minnesota for the Small Homes project. They are currently working to get approval for a planned unit development from the city.

Brown said the hope is to begin construction on the small homes by the August.