http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/128569998.html
Story in the local Minneapolis Paper
Pledges of job growth fall short at Coloplast
Article by: STEVE BRANDT , Star Tribune Updated: August 29, 2011 - 12:16 AM
Almost $4 million in public aid backed its Minneapolis facility, which has lost, not added, jobs.
Delivering his State of the City speech in 2009, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak stood in the gleaming North Side headquarters of Coloplast and promised that this city-supported private business would pay off in jobs for Minneapolis.
Rybak said the complex overlooking the Mississippi River would hold 500 corporate jobs, and the Danish medical products company would hire city residents, with a hefty share from the North Side.
Despite loans and tax relief from the city and state, the company has fallen short of the mayor's promises. Its headquarters workforce is less than half of what was projected, and that number is even fewer than the company it replaced on the site. Coloplast last week blamed the employment numbers on the worsening economy, but it also has been shipping manufacturing jobs overseas.
City leaders and staffers who supported the project say they expect the company to rebound and boost its hiring again.
City Council President Barb Johnson said the poor economy means that spending has ebbed on some of the more elective health devices that the company makes. Coloplast makes products ranging from catheters to continence products to penile implants.
"It'll come back," Johnson said of the company. Asked whether the city's investment was worth it, she responded: "Look at that stretch of the riverfront and how that development has changed things."
In 2006, Coloplast bought the urology division of Mentor Corp., the site's previous occupant, and then built a new $39 million facility on West River Road. The city provided a $2.94 million subsidy through tax-increment financing, which allows a company to divert much of its property-tax payments to paying off eligible development expenses. Overall public aid approached $4 million.
Story in the local Minneapolis Paper
Pledges of job growth fall short at Coloplast
Article by: STEVE BRANDT , Star Tribune Updated: August 29, 2011 - 12:16 AM
Almost $4 million in public aid backed its Minneapolis facility, which has lost, not added, jobs.
Delivering his State of the City speech in 2009, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak stood in the gleaming North Side headquarters of Coloplast and promised that this city-supported private business would pay off in jobs for Minneapolis.
Rybak said the complex overlooking the Mississippi River would hold 500 corporate jobs, and the Danish medical products company would hire city residents, with a hefty share from the North Side.
Despite loans and tax relief from the city and state, the company has fallen short of the mayor's promises. Its headquarters workforce is less than half of what was projected, and that number is even fewer than the company it replaced on the site. Coloplast last week blamed the employment numbers on the worsening economy, but it also has been shipping manufacturing jobs overseas.
City leaders and staffers who supported the project say they expect the company to rebound and boost its hiring again.
City Council President Barb Johnson said the poor economy means that spending has ebbed on some of the more elective health devices that the company makes. Coloplast makes products ranging from catheters to continence products to penile implants.
"It'll come back," Johnson said of the company. Asked whether the city's investment was worth it, she responded: "Look at that stretch of the riverfront and how that development has changed things."
In 2006, Coloplast bought the urology division of Mentor Corp., the site's previous occupant, and then built a new $39 million facility on West River Road. The city provided a $2.94 million subsidy through tax-increment financing, which allows a company to divert much of its property-tax payments to paying off eligible development expenses. Overall public aid approached $4 million.