Duluth Neighborhood Improves With Commercial Development

DULUTH (AP) - An effort has begun to brand an old blue-collar Duluth neighborhood as a collection of like-minded businesses, to not only sell more goods, but to help rebuild the neighborhood with jobs and commerce.
Reports say that there have been at least 25 commercial real estate transactions in the Lincoln Park Craft District since 2014. Seventeen businesses have opened, and more are planned for this summer, including a restaurant, coffee shop and pottery studio.
The city of Duluth has launched a loan program that provides up to $50,000 in bridge financing to help entrepreneurs rehab old buildings.
Joel Bookman, a Chicago-based consultant advising the Lincoln Park group says the neighborhood is a textbook example of how to do economic development.