City is at no risk

Everybody has baggage from their past.
But putting that past history in perspective is important when it comes to an employee of a company that owns and plans to develop property between Rainy River and Minnesota Highway 11 East.
Recently, Ultimate Development's chief employee, Bill Rieser, was the focus of a package of information sent anonymously to The Journal as well as to area officials. The package provided disclosure about Rieser’s past business dealings, including a few that had failed and ended up in court under allegations of malfeasance. Court documents in the package revealed that he had spent time in prison as a result of one of those deals.
The good news is that the city is at no financial risk when it comes to Ultimate Development’s ownership of the property. Ultimate purchased property along the Rainy River from Boise Cascade and later sold 11 acres to the city of International Falls. The city has provided no development incentives or tax deals to Ultimate.
Portions of Ultimate’s property could be sold to a developer for a border protection facility, a hotel chain, and/or developed into a destination resort. Ultimate is a private business and may do what it wishes with the property.
Best case scenario: These developments occur and result in more jobs, increased property value, and the development of now unused property. Again, good news for the community.
Worst case scenario: Nothing happens to the property that Ultimate owns and it remains undeveloped. That means no new jobs, no new taxes and no new reason for visitors to come here.
Clearly, the information on Rieser was shocking; and city officials have said it would have been good to know about it before now. But, the city would still have purchased the property because city officials believe it was the right thing to do for the community’s future.
Rieser’s past is now open to the public. And it should be put behind us — but not forgotten — as we move forward to make something valuable out of an underused area.
And yet, we can’t help but wonder why the package was sent now and sent anonymously. Is someone hoping to derail Ultimate’s plans that could, if successful, provide an economic boost for our community? Or are the motivations even more devious and intended to make city officials look bad?
Regardless of Rieser’s past, development of the property that is now owned by Ultimate could benefit everyone.