Click on the TribUniverse logo above to return to it. All rights reserved. Although the Duluth Technology Village will be built and managed by a private firm, the city could control up to 25 percent of the space that backers hope to lease to emerging software businesses. Now city officials at the Duluth Economic Development Authority must decide among themselves what to do with their cut of the lease payments from the portion they would control.
City administrators recommend pumping it back into the Technology Village to cover costs.
DEDA commissioners including Yvonne Prettner Solon want to divert the stream of money outside the project, to pay for other economic development projects down the road. Apart from consummating a purchase of the Wabasha Book building, signing the development agreement is the last major task before construction can begin on one of Duluth's most anticipated jobs projects in years. But DEDA officials are looking at a number of options as to where to get the money. DEDA's board was tentatively scheduled to vote on the matter at its meeting Tuesday afternoon. But Assistant City Attorney Cynthia Albright wasn't sure all the questions could be settled in time.