JSDC Board Approves Flex PACE Fund De-obligation, Spiritwood Equity Payment

The Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corporation board voted unanimously Monday to release unused interest-buydown funds from three program years and approve a six-figure equity payout from Spiritwood, setting up decisions that could direct well over $900,000 to local government coffers.

The March 9 board action de-obligated unused Flex PACE funds from the 2023, 2024 and 2025 program years. If the Jamestown City Council signs off, the city would receive more than $434,000 from the 2023 and 2024 pools combined. Business development director Alyssa Looysen noted that JSDC staff determined the city's share needed to be adjusted downward from a prior figure of more than $461,000, though she did not detail the specific line items driving the change.

The 2025 de-obligation carries its own conditional split: if both the Jamestown City Council and the Stutsman County Commission approve, the city would receive more than $241,000 and the county would receive over $60,000.

The Flex PACE program, administered through the Bank of North Dakota, allows communities to buy down interest rates for local borrowers, with rates reduced to as low as 1% from as high as 5%. The Jamestown-Stutsman community match covers 30% of the total interest buydown, capped at $85,714 per project, and is structured as a loan from JSDC repaid at 2% over four years after the note's term expires. In 2024, JSDC participated in 12 Flex PACE loans totaling more than $640,000, which Looysen said leveraged about $1.5 million in local investment and more than $14 million in private capital into the Jamestown area.

JSDC CEO Corry Shevlin identified three 2024 projects that remained on the books at full cash value: 201 Aesthetics, Charge on Together, and Central Sales. "We kept those … in as full cash values one because they will still receive incentives and they still do get incentives from the Bank of North Dakota, but from our book side, we didn't feel comfortable taking that off just yet until everything was fully done and executing," Shevlin said.

At the same meeting, the board unanimously approved a Spiritwood Energy Park Association return-on-equity payment totaling $292,500. Shevlin said the payment was triggered by a second tenant locating at the association's industrial park in Spiritwood, which activated a contractual provision returning equity to partners. JSDC holds about 78% of the partnership stake, translating to roughly $228,000. Of that amount, 90% is slated for the City of Jamestown's sales tax fund and 10% for Stutsman County's economic development fund. Pending approval by the City Council and County Commission, the city would receive more than $205,000 and the county about $23,000.

Both distributions, the Flex PACE de-obligations and the Spiritwood equity payment, require formal approval from the Jamestown City Council and the Stutsman County Commission before any funds are disbursed. No dates for those deliberations have been publicly announced.