St. Cloud’s Economic Development Weathers Pandemic

ST. CLOUD -- A number of businesses closed during the pandemic of 2020 and many more struggled as restrictions were put into place to slow the spread of COVID-19. But, there was a silver lining for the city of St. Cloud.

Economic Development Director Cathy Mehelich says as the pandemic began, they started tracking new business starts and closings. She says the statistics showed some positive signs...

Based off of any announced business openings and announced business closings that we saw, we actually had more business openings than business closures in the city of St. Cloud. Openings surpassed closings by another 10 to 15.

Mehelich says there continues to be significant private investment happening in St. Cloud and a lot of optimism in the commercial real estate market.

She says a few examples of new development are the Caribou Coffee shop in east St. Cloud, the Spire Credit Union, Scooter's Coffee, Crew Car Wash, and Raising Cane's.