Month: December 2017

“Bright Ideas” for the New Year

Kevin Bright

2018 is just around the corner. And whether you see New Year’s Day as an arbitrary date or resolve to undo all the bad habits you’ve developed during 2017, the New Year presents an opportunity for each of us to take inventory of our lives – and our impact on the environment.

DMC Economic Development Agency Energy and Sustainability Director Kevin Bright shares some simple ways to live more sustainably in the coming year.

A collaborative commitment to housing affordability

As growth and development continue throughout the Rochester area, local leaders are making housing affordability a top priority for 2018.

A new collaborative community initiative was announced on Thursday, December 21, 2017 at a press conference at the Rochester Area Foundation (RAF) where more than 40 community leaders and residents came together to learn more about this important effort.

From left: Randy Staver, City of Rochester; Jeff Bolton, Mayo Clinic; Jennifer Woodford, Rochester Area Foundation; Ken Brown, Olmsted County

The Coalition for Rochester Area Housing will bring together public and private sector organizations to acquire, invest, manage, and distribute funds and resources to create and preserve affordable and workforce-priced housing. The group will be led by the Rochester Area Foundation and supported by founding partners from the City of Rochester, Olmsted County, and Mayo Clinic. The group will rely on the community to bring forward ideas and proposals and will leverage local expertise to identify and address gaps in today’s housing market and use resources efficiently.

A thank you to Lt. Gov. Tina Smith for her service to Destination Medical Center

Lt. Gov. Tina Smith

Over the past four years, Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith has provided valuable leadership to the DMC initiative as chair of the Destination Medical Center Corporation (DMCC) Board of Directors.

During her tenure, she has helped guide the DMC from its initial start-up, through the detailed planning, to the present where hundreds of millions of dollars of private investment are now underway in Rochester in support of the DMC vision.

Lieutenant Governor Smith has resigned from the DMCC board of directors; we wish her the best in her new role representing Minnesota in Washington, D.C.

Introducing the DMC Sustainability Series

Sustainable development is essential for economic growth and a key priority of the DMC initiative. Improving community health, exploring alternative modes of transportation, and reducing consumption of water, waste, energy, and emissions are just a few of the goals outlined in the DMC plan.

But these goals cannot be achieved by a single person or organization. To achieve a sustainable future for America’s City for Health, it will take an informed and engaged community working together.

DMC is launching a monthly speaker series to help initiate a community-wide conversation about sustainability.

Focus group: Meeting our future workforce needs

Ranked as the 16th Best College Town in America by Business Insider, southeastern Minnesota’s reputation for talent development is recognized nationally. But what’s not as widely known is the unique collaboration taking place between higher education and the business community to help address the area’s growing workforce needs.

Now, with construction for DMC’s signature Discovery Square building officially underway, working together to ensure Rochester has the skilled workforce to meet the needs of the region is becoming increasingly important.

DMC is partnering with Winona State University-Rochester to conduct research into the gaps that currently exist in the local educational offerings and how to be intentional about filling those gaps as we develop future programming, specifically related to entrepreneurialism.

Discovery Walk: Connecting the District

Cities across the country are exploring new and improved ways to design the streets and corridors that connect us to the places we live, work, and play. In downtown Rochester, DMC is looking at options to provide practical, safe, and appealing ways for everyone to move between the six sub-districts.

Most recently, designers for DMC have been focusing on the future of a four-block segment of Second Avenue SW. The corridor – which extends south from Heart of the City through Discovery Square and down to Soldiers Field – has been dubbed “Discovery Walk.”

“Connecting existing and future assets of downtown is essential,” says Patrick Seeb, director of economic development and placemaking for the initiative’s Economic Development Agency. “Discovery Walk will be an integral piece of the greater plan for the DMC District.”

Discovery Walk is among several downtown streets to be redesigned as part of the DMC initiative.

Rochester Rising: Five Rochester Health and Wellness Startups Honored by Minnesota Business Magazine

This month five Rochester businesses were honored by Minnesota Business Magazine as “Innovators in Health and Wellness” to celebrate local leadership.

Awards were given in sixteen different categories including: Startup, Software Web Application, Health and Wellness Campaign, Excellence in Facility Design, Health Care Executive, Medical Breakthrough, and Wellness Advocate.

Four Rochester businesses or startups were finalists in their respective categories and one local business came away as the overall winner in their division.

Charter House- Mayo Clinic Retirement Living was a finalist in the Health and Wellness Campaign Division.  Charter House is a senior living facility in downtown Rochester, operated by Mayo Clinic, that advocates for healthy aging.

Healthtech startup OneOme was a finalist in the Medical Breakthrough category. OneOme’s solution, called RightMed, is a gene panel that analyzes patient DNA to determine how an individual will respond to medications for a wide range of conditions. The company was co-founded by Troy Kopischke, a managing partner of the Twin Cities incubator Invenshure, and John Black, a consultant in the Division of Clinical Biochemistry and Immunology at Mayo Clinic.