North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum visits Grand Forks' Career Impact Academy construction site

Mar. 2—GRAND FORKS — North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum visited the construction site for the new Career Impact Academy Friday and said it's a model for private and public sector collaboration in the state.

"Grand Forks always figures out a way to get the private sector and collaborate everybody together and what an incredible model," Burgum said. "(The Career Impact Academy) will be up and you'll be cutting the ribbon before you know it. ... I'm super pumped that this is going forward."

The Career Impact Academy is a project being undertaken to help create more and different opportunities for students to get education and training in high-demand fields. It's located on the site of the old Holiday Inn and is expected to be ready by the 2025-2026 school year. Additionally, the district is hoping to have the building dried in by the end of this summer so they can begin the inside work throughout next winter.

Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski thanked Burgum for coming and for the support his office and the state have given to help redevelop this site.

"Thank you for the work to make this happen," Bochenski said. "We took a big eyesore and took down the hotel that was here and now the whole region will be able to come here and access it."

Grand Forks Public Schools Superintendent Terry Brenner also thanked Burgum.

"This ground means something, this building means something, so thank you for your support, thank you for the grant," Brenner said. "We're excited to get kids here."

The whole facility is expected to cost about $30.5 million. The 55,000-square-foot facility will provide an introduction to the many possible fields that students can pursue that aren't necessarily a college path which isn't for everyone.

"I've had a chance to shadow students around our state and some of these are unfortunately having an experience too close to what I had," Burgum said. "These kinds of opportunities where they not just in a different building, but they going to exposed to all these (different businesses and careers)."

The day before,

the final beam was placed on the building

. Several representatives from across the sectors supporting the project signed the beam before it was raised onto the structure.

The groundbreaking for the facility occurred in October

. Of the $11 million raised by local businesses for the project, $10 million was raised in 72 days according to Grand Forks Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Keith Lund said at the visit.

"I think that speaks to the importance of (this facility) and what industry needs," Lund said. "Without that, we wouldn't be standing here today."

Burgum said that the partnership between the public and private sectors for this project is fantastic and is what the state needs to be competitive for workforce development.

"It's not about recruiting companies anymore; we got all kinds of companies (wanting to come to North Dakota)," Burgum said. "We've got to fill the jobs we have as well as build a base of excellence."

Burgum continued by saying that projects like this will help with impending changes to industries and workforce with the advent of technological advancements, like artificial intelligence.

"I would put a big circle around all of (the focus fields at the academy) and then put AI because every one of those industries is going to be, in my lifetime, every job in every industry will be disrupted by technology," Burgum said. "The technology disruption of every job is going to accelerate and is accelerating rapidly now."