NEWS RELEASE
July 18, 2025
Contact: Dawn Mandt, Executive Director, 701-520-0487, dawn@redriverrc.com
Photo caption: Dawn Mandt, RRRC; Kevin Bartram, MBA Development; Todd Blixt, ICON; Chad Ruzicka, RRRC Construction Advisor; Austin Foss, ICON; Brenda Baumann, RRRC Project Manager; and Alex Neumann, ICON.
MBA Development to serve as Construction Manager at Risk
Grafton, North Dakota: The Red River Regional Council and its Board of Directors are pleased to announce that MBA Development Group from Fargo, North Dakota has been selected as the Construction Manager at Risk for the Hill Avenue Business Incubator and Co-Lab space located in downtown Grafton, North Dakota.
With the addition of MBA Development, the architectural and construction partners are intact to begin the process of renovating the historic, 10,000+ square foot downtown building located at 532 Hill Avenue, Grafton, to create a Business Incubator. Included in the design is a shared commercial kitchen and co-lab space to serve current and future entrepreneurs. ICON Architectural Group is the architect of record and Red River Regional Council is the owner of the building responsible for building out the space.
“We are thrilled to partner with MBA Development and their team of experts in historic renovations to make the vision for the incubator and co-lab space to come to life”, said Dawn Mandt, Executive Director of Red River Regional Council.
MBA Development’s portfolio includes numerous examples of turning historic buildings into modern and functional spaces in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Examples include The Railyard — an office, coworking and collaborative workspace for solopreneurs, and on a larger-scale, Drekker Brewing Company.
“MBA is excited to work with the Red River Regional Council and their Design Team led by Icon Architectural Group to repurpose the former Reylecks Department Store building which was built in 1916,” said Kevin Bartram, President, MBA. “Our firm has extensive experience renovating historic buildings in the region. Projects of note include the Ford Building in Fargo along with the Armory Event Center, the Kassenborg Block, and the Fairmont Creamery Building in Moorhead, MN. We appreciate the opportunity to work on this one of a kind project in downtown Grafton.”
By late summer, the community will start seeing fencing come up and crews will start to mobilize to prepare for the renovations. The construction process is estimated to take up to 12 months. Plans are in development to officially mark the start of construction and will be announced later.
The 532 Hill Avenue Business Incubator + Co-Lab project is made possible through a $1.6 million-dollar federal grant through the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) and matching funds provided by the local area community including the RRRC, Marvin, Walsh County Job Development Authority, City of Grafton, and Polar Communications.
“This business incubator project has been in the works since 2022, it’s exciting to have enthusiastic partners ready to roll-up the sleeves and get to work to transform the old “Reylecks” building into a community hub to inspire future food entrepreneurs and business start-ups to enhance both the community of Grafton and the entire region in northeast North Dakota,” said Mandt.
For more information about the business incubator, please visit www.redriverrc.com or follow-us on Facebook @RedRiverRegionalCouncil
About 532 Hill Avenue Business Incubator + Co-Lab
The vision to offer a shared commercial kitchen and co-lab space in the heart of downtown Grafton is rooted in extensive research revealing the hundreds of cottage food producers, caterers, and food entrepreneurs that are looking to provide a food-based offering in our region. The gap was having a licensed, commercial kitchen to offer food producers the opportunity to grow, entrepreneurs exploring the feasibility of opening a restaurant and/or test-marketing a food offering, teaching culinary arts surrounding them with access to resources to start a business, grow a business and more.
In 2022, the Red River Regional Council received a $1.6 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration department and a local match of five local partners with an overall value of approximately $2.2 million to renovate the 532 Hill Avenue building.