British Columbia-based Ainsworth abandoned operations in Minnesota early this year, leaving oriented strand board (OSB) facilities in Bemidji and Cook vacant. A third plant in Grand Rapids has been idle since 2006. Now, separate projects seek to breathe new life back into the shuttered facilities, idled by a stagnant housing market.

Itasca Power Company is eyeing the Cook plant. The company, which is largely based near Bigfork in northern Itasca County, has plans in place for a biomass energy conversion plant, said Dean Sedgwick, Itasca Power Company president.

Company plans include a biofuels and power generation project, which would produce 15 megawatts of electricity. The plant would potentially use more than 400,000 cords of wood products annually.

Sedgwick predicts that biofuels will gain importance in the electrical generation industry as consumer need continues to rise and public appetite for traditional generation methods declines. “For whatever reason, people don’t want coal and they don’t want nuclear. And, when you look at renewables, wind generation is not reliable,” he said.

Sedgwick anticipates this project would employ more than 50 direct workers and produce another 75 to 100 logging jobs. Next steps include finalizing a purchase with Ainsworth and securing support from regional economic development players, such as Iron Range Resources.

Sedgwick said company plans would allow the plant to become operational in 90 to 120 days.

Meanwhile, in Grand Rapids, economic developers hope to convert the idled Ainsworth plant here into an eco-industrial park.

Itasca Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), a private/public partnership, has joined forces with the Twin Ports-based Area Partnership for Economic Expansion (APEX) to transform this 400,000 square foot-plus facility into a multi-tenant site for heavy manufacturing with an emphasis on eco-friendly manufacturing, such as the wind energy industry.

Early efforts have produced some interest said Rob West, chief executive officer of APEX. “We have some legitimate prospective tenants,” he said, declining to name companies due to nondisclosure agreements.

The partners in the project already have completed feasibility studies and are looking for financial partners. Governance for the Itasca Eco Industrial Park has not yet been determined. IEDC is a potential owner of the facility, said West. APEX will not be an owner of the facility, he said. IEDC President Diane Weber could not be reached for comment.

Community planners in Bemidji have similar hopes for that idled plant. Workforce development company, Idea Circle, has purchased the facility and plans to turn it into an industrial park to incubate emerging green businesses.

The combination of the three projects holds significant promise for an embattled forest products industry, but also could create an overabundance of space in the same market.

“Competition is a huge factor,” said Grand Rapids Area Chamber President Bud Stone. “To find tenants (for the eco-industrial park) we’re going to have to find someone who needs to be here (for the resource base).”

But, the new projects also are potential re-employment for those who lost jobs when Ainsworth left Minnesota. Prior to the closures, Ainsworth directly employed 450 FTEs in the northeast region as well as many others in the logging industry.

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