Brown began with an update on NUBRIC’s tiny home project, which he said garnered the most interest from the community. The idea behind the tiny homes project was to expand workforce housing by creating simplified living spaces with small floor plans.

In July, the city approved a Planned Unit Development (PUD) application for a property at 418 and 424 S. 13th Street and 1305-1315 South Minnesota Street to develop a tiny home community as a model for this type of workforce housing.

Brown said the development agreement with the city has been finalized and will be presented to the New Ulm City Council next week for approval.

“That’s the last big hurdle for the development to continue,” he said.

By next spring, the vacant lot at the corner of 13th South and Minnesota Street is scheduled to have to tiny homes constructed and ready for occupancy as part of NUBRIC’s tiny home workforce development project. Photo by Clay Schuldt

All engineering plans for the tiny homes project are complete. NUBRIC is currently seeking bids for the project. Brown said if the weather holds, groundbreaking could start before winter.

“I don’t have a problem building through winter,” Brown said.

Since the homes are smaller, they can be constructed over a shorter time than a regular home.

Mayor Kathleen Backer inquired about the timeline for occupancy of the tiny homes.

Brown said in a perfect world, it would take six weeks to build the homes, but he believed it would likely take 90 days.

“I would ideally like to have occupancy in the spring,” he said.

Brown said NUBRIC is continuing to work on a business incubation project that would include a site for the program. 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.

Brown said NUBRIC is currently exploring locations to build the incubator.

NUBRIC has applied for a $20,000 matching grant with Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) to use for planning the business incubator project. Related to that planning, NUBRIC has submitted an employer’s needs survey to all large businesses in New Ulm. The survey focuses on their needs regarding robotics and automation. The survey data could be used to help plan the business incubator as well as plan Career and Technical Education (CTE) programming.

Brown said CTE promotion is a priority for NUBRIC. Brown is currently working on a CTE action plan for Independent School District (ISD) 88.

Recently, NUBRIC was able to assist a public middle school teacher in securing a $5,000 grant for STEM programming.

In other news, NUBRIC was able to secure an agreement with the Small Business Development Center.

(SBDC) to bring a satellite office to New Ulm. The satellite office will be able to serve all of Brown County. Brown said a formal agreement was made with SBDC to bring an office to New Ulm, but said the agreement is on hold until the government shutdown concludes.