Business Loans

BND’s special partnership with the state’s banks and credit unions is explained.

WBI Energy, a subsidiary of MDU Resources Group, Inc., is on a mission to provide “safe, reliable natural gas transportation services across the Northern Plains” and its most recent project expands its reach. The company recently completed a 60.2-mile pipeline expansion that will bring an additional 20.6 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to the southeastern part of North Dakota.

A need for the expansion was identified through feedback that WBI Energy was receiving from Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., Great Plains Natural Gas Co. and key stakeholders, including local officials in Kindred, Wahpeton and other southeastern North Dakota communities. The concern was insufficient access, or in Kindred – no access, to firm natural gas service which negatively impacted economic development and growth. The challenge was getting natural gas to the area. This led WBI Energy toward exploring the pipeline and creating a solution.

Headquartered in Bismarck, WBI Energy initially submitted a prefiling request in September 2021 and received the notice from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to proceed with construction in February 2024, after achieving other needed milestones along the approval process. It is quite a process that includes collaboration among many different national, state and local agencies. WBI Energy sought to determine the most feasible route with minimal environmental impacts.

To expand its services to southeastern North Dakota, WBI Energy needed a connection to existing pipeline along with a compressor station, which was a critical piece to make the project viable. Fortunately, the company completed its Valley Expansion Project in 2018 to get gas to the Red River Valley. That project included the construction of a compressor station in Mapleton.

As Brent Miller, MDU Resources treasurer, explains, “When we first started reviewing options to get more natural gas transportation capacity built into the Wahpeton area, our Valley Expansion Project was not yet in service. This meant that reaching adequate natural gas supply points were much farther away from Wahpeton, and therefore much more costly to construct. The Valley Expansion Project served as an important platform from which we could build to Wahpeton.”

Another critical piece in a project of this scale is funding. WBI Energy worked with Kevin Murphy,
U.S. Bank senior vice president of Power and Utilities Division, for financing. “The Match Program through Bank of North Dakota is a great alternative financing tool to support critical infrastructure projects in North Dakota,” Murphy explains. “It provides a very competitive, comprehensive financing structure for large companies in the state at attractive terms.”

Miller, who has been with MDU Resources for 11 years and has worked through financing of other projects, adds. “The competitive financing offered through the Match Program provided lower interest rates when compared to traditional financing options, which in turn increased the return profile of the project. With less interest expense, we also have more capital available for additional growth projects.”

WBI Energy and MDU are investing resources in North Dakota and are looking ahead to long-term growth in the state. The Wahpeton Expansion Project is an example of its commitment to help support its customers and economic growth in the state.

In regard to the Match Program and helping to fund the expansion project, BND Financial Institutions Market Manager Kaylen Hausauer shares, “You take state dollars and deploy them into financing at low cost, which generates this economic activity or opportunity in these areas, and then that in turn, it creates additional sales tax and real estate tax dollars. It’s just this full circle kind of cycle.”

Having access to uninterrupted natural gas in southeastern North Dakota will, as Miller explains, “allow industry and communities in southeast North Dakota to continue to attract investment and grow, which in turn allows our company, both WBI Energy and Montana-Dakota Utilities, to grow in the region.” He adds, “Economic development shouldn’t be impeded by insufficient access to natural gas when it’s so readily available in the state. It allows that access.”

BND’s special relationship with the state’s financial institutions is explained.

“We experienced firsthand the joys and the very real fears of dropping our kids off at daycare,” shared Tricia Luck. Being a mom of five children, foster parent to more than 100 children and a grandma, Tricia Luck is passionate about her and her husband Blain’s recent venture: Blue Haven Kids Academy LLC.

The Lucks have nearly three decades of caring for children between their own and others. Tricia provided child care in their home while their sons were young and briefly when they first became licensed foster parents. After she decided to discontinue providing child care and worked outside their home, they relied on child care providers, both in home and centers, for their foster children.
Experiences in 2019 and 2020 were pivotal for the couple. In 2019, their first grandson was born, and in 2020, they concluded their 12-year foster care journey when they adopted their two daughters, who were in their care. After having their daughters in daycare and helping to find care for their grandson, they made the decision to start Blue Haven Kids Academy.

The timing of their decision worked well. In May 2024, they were able to finalize the purchase of an existing 7,000 square-foot daycare center, including its building, and began to transform it into Blue Haven Kids Academy LLC. The academy cares for children up to age 12, but the primary age groups are infant through age 5. The Lucks leave openings in some of their rooms, so they can accommodate foster parents in need of child care at short-term notice. They also want to maintain a solid balance with staff and relationships with the kids and their families.

“We’ve had parents tell us, and we kind of feel it too, that we’re big enough to be a center, but yet we’re more of a family,” explained Tricia. “We make sure all our employees know all the kids. I don’t ever want a child to not know an adult in our building. Any of our teachers could step into any room for another teacher and cover for them if they needed, and it not be traumatic to a child.”

The Lucks currently employ 28 people at the academy and are seeking additional employees who share their vision on what child care should be. Nutritious meals are cooked in an on-site kitchen, and all six classrooms provide curriculum through “Teaching Strategies” and hands-on learning opportunities. There are also indoor and outdoor play areas with age-appropriate spaces.
Like any new venture, there are challenges to overcome. Some of these challenges include staffing, budgeting for improvements and updates, and the time investment – often sacrificing family time to ensure the business tasks are handled. These challenges also come with rewards. Tricia shared, “I love every one of these kiddos that are here. I can just walk by a hallway, and they yell for me, and I get hugs from them. So for me, it’s easy. I get rewarded every time I walk into a classroom.”

The road to opening the academy was filled with lots of questions and various pieces coming together to bring it to fruition. To start the process, the Lucks turned to their local lender Gate City Bank. The process included creating a business plan with phases and discussing different funding options, all under the guidance of the Gate City Bank team.

Together, they came up with a funding package that included Gate City Bank’s BetterLife™ Child Care Business Loan, North Dakota Development Fund, and Bank of North Dakota’s PACE Program, as well as buydown assistance from Lewis and Clark Development Group. Gate City Bank Business Banker Austin Hawkinson shared, “Thanks to our joint efforts, as well as Bank of North Dakota’s PACE Program, the daycare can put more money toward business operations instead of the loan payment. Not to mention, Bank of North Dakota’s involvement has also promoted a level of risk mitigation that opens the door to new business financing opportunities.”

Bank of North Dakota Business Banker Andrew Tweet adds, “It’s rewarding that collaboratively we were able to come together and build a financing package to help the Lucks and Blue Haven Kids Academy get started. Child care is a huge need in the area. It’s clear that the Lucks are dedicated to their work at Blue Haven Kids Academy.”

In regard to their mission, Blain expressed, “We want our story to resonate with it too. Even down to the name Blue Haven Kids Academy, it rings true. We could’ve named it whatever we wanted, but we just wanted haven – safe. That’s what we want when parents drop their kids off is to know they’re safe.”

Lake View Services LLC, based in Beulah and Trenton, North Dakota, is reaching new heights – literally – with its recent addition: a 250-ton Tadano crane. Purchased in May 2024, the boom of the new crane alone can reach nearly 230 feet, which is just shy of the 241-foot, 21-story tower of North Dakota’s Capitol. This heavy piece of equipment is opening new opportunities for the 14-year-old company.

Gary and Carla Poeckes, owners of Lake View Services LLC, recognized a need for the larger crane due to increased work in the surrounding communities and Bakken shale formation. To achieve heavier loads safely and the increasing number of requests, Lake View Services needed to invest in equipment.

With the need identified, the next step was deciding whether to lease or finance the crane. The Poeckeses visited with their local lender, Union State Bank of Hazen, and decided to finance it. Union State Bank partnered with Bank of North Dakota (BND) and utilized BND’s Business Development Loan Program. The program provided an affordable rate and allowed the purchase transaction to happen in North Dakota, which kept the tax revenue in state.

“We’ve had people say, ‘Well, you’re just a small crane company.’ Now we can compete with anybody out there, and we are,” Carla Poeckes states. “We’re competing with crane companies out of Bismarck and a lot of crane companies in the Williston area, so it makes us more competitive and will generate more income than the smaller cranes.”

The cranes can be used for projects including precast concrete buildings, coil tubing in oil fields, wind turbines, weather towers, pumpstation houses and more. The company also provides flatbed hauling, belly dumping, and pickup and gooseneck hotshot services. It serves customers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Canada, and even countrywide for hotshot – or pickup and flatbed – runs.

The company, which started in 2011 with three trucks and a loader, has experienced year-over-year growth and weathered the downturn of the oil industry during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The passion the Poeckeses have for their work and their employees is evident. Gary started working around cranes when he was 18, and Carla admits she is a “crane-a-holic,” confessing her vacation photos are often pictures of cranes. Regarding their employees, she explains, “We’re family.”
To avoid downtime between jobs and retain their 15 employees, the Poeckeses creatively expand their company’s services as needed to keep business flowing and meet the needs of their customers and communities. For example, they help with erosion control, dirt work, grounds maintenance, and even started stocking aggregate after realizing a need in the community.

Gary Poeckes explains, “What we did for the aggregate is when somebody would come in and want to buy, say, class five, we would run all the way over to Riverdale, load it and then take it to them. Well, we only handled what they needed, where we can haul 28 ton on a truck. If they only needed two ton, it was kind of senseless for us to run. We started piling it in the yard to make it more convenient for the community. Rather than them taking their pickups all the way over to Riverdale and they come with a 5 ½ yard bucket, try to dump a little bit in the back of a pickup, we thought, ‘Well, we’ll do that.’”

Serving the local community and maintaining relationships are a priority with Lake View Services and the Poeckeses. As Union State Bank Executive Vice President Lending Department Manager Leanne Stiefel shares, “When Carla and Gary say they’re hands on, they’re hands on. The diversification that they have in their approach of ‘if this isn’t busy, let’s go do this,’ and the foresight for ‘okay, we can see this is going to slow down, so we’re going to go this direction’ help them be successful.’”

BND Business Banker Andrew Tweet adds, “The Poeckeses are very present in their business and value the relationships they have in the industry and the community. Their all-around values, business approach and dedicated employees strengthen their company and help the Poeckeses continue to drive the business they are so passionate about.”

“I love what we do. I love our company. When we started the company, I was so scared and nervous, and now I’m not because we’ve learned and grown so much,” Carla expresses. “I learn something new every day.”

https://youtu.be/53AB88xuQGg

BND President/CEO Eric Hardmeyer shared his thoughts on BND’s role in the state upon his retirement in 2020.