• Customized Job Training. Together with our job training and placement partners, we assess companies' needs, recruit and train Saint Paul residents, and eliminate other barriers to hiring and retaining employees.

• Brownfield Redevelopment. We filled out two business centers in 1999 - Empire Builder, established in 1985 north of Pennsylvania Avenue between Rice and Jackson Streets; and Williams Hill, established in 1997 along East University Avenue and Interstate 35E. We have two more centers ready for development this year - River Bend, along Shepard Road and Randolph Avenue, and the first phase of the Great Northern Business Center, along Topping Street between North Dale Street and Como Avenue.

• Financing. We helped provide nearly $10 million in financing for businesses that are growing and relocating in our business centers. Our services hook businesses up with our revenue bonds and second position lending with banks that are committed to East Metro companies.

These businesses form the corner-stones of the Port's 13 fully developed business and job-creation centers that burgeoned around the same time Fred Wagner launched his dream that would one day become Minnesota Wire.

Two other Port business centers are expected to be developed this year. The Great Northern Business Center is located at Dale and Topping streets in the city's North End, and River Bend is located near the Mississippi River and Randolph Avenue.

The goal of creating good-paying jobs for Saint Paul residents hasn't changed, however. Last year alone, the Port either helped create or retain more than 2,500 jobs in Saint Paul.

Good jobs are not achieved without risk. Through fits and starts, Wagner's company has landed on solid financial footing. So too, the Port, through its strong partnerships and ability to quickly salvage polluted land for redevelopment, continues each year to exceed its goals for a strong manufactuing and job base in Saint Paul. 1999 was no exception.

Hard work paid dividends.

Indeed, the Port's business focus has changed dramatically since it was created by the Legislature in 1929 -- the year Minnesota Wire & Cable's patriarch was born. What once was an organization that simply managed Mississippi River traffic through the Saint Paul harbor has moved inland to redevelop polluted land for manufacturing centers. That process today is faster and more feverishly paced than in years past. But it is no less personal.

To Fred Wagner, chairman and chief executive officer of Minnesota Wire, change was a way of life, and almost imperceptible in its effects. Wagner came of age in the 1950s and early 1960s -- a time when ambition and hard work often were enough to keep a family fed.

To Fred's son, Paul, 40 and the company's president, change meant opportunity. Paul came of age in the 1970s and early 1980s -- a time when jobs were scarce and an economic recession held the country transfixed on oil prices and want ads. Keeping a family fed had become more difficult.

To Fred's daughter, Joan Thompson, 44 and the company's vice president and chief financial officer, change can be negotiated. Like Paul, Thompson also faced an economic recession early in her career. But, like her father and brother, she weathered it with determination.

When Fred Wagner arrived in Saint Paul from Illinois in 1963, the Port was cleaning up what would become a prototype of sorts of the industrial business centers for which it today is nationally known. Riverview Industrial Center, described in 1964 as "suitable for light industry, research and distribution and only minutes away from the central business district," was nearing completion and was "attracting national attention."

national attention with its development of the Williams Hill Business Center, along East University Avenue and Interstate 35E. The 25-acre center was a finalist in 1999 for the prestigious national Phoenix Award. It won the Economic Development Association of Minnesota's and the Consulting Engineers Council of Minnesota's redevelopment and engineering awards.

The center, once a pile of unsightly aggregate, is now a job magnet for neighboring Saint Paul residents. Through the Port's web page at www.sppa.com and the center's mere presence in the once isolated area, businesses are connecting with prospective employees where they live. The center also anchors efforts to redevelop the Phalen Corridor east to Johnson Parkway.

And, unlike 1964, when the Port Authority undertook a national search for companies to relocate in Riverview, the Port was able to pick the best of 11 local businesses vying for the final parcel in Williams Hill. The selection, Carlson Refrigeration and Display Fixture Co., is co-owned by Saint Paul

native, Brian Dahl.

Dahl's voyage back to Saint Paul was a little easier than Wagner's path in forming Minnesota Wire and ultimately locating the company's operations in another of the Port's business centers, Energy Park on the city's North End. For Dahl, a visit to another business was fortuitous. The business had a drawing of its new space in Williams Hill. Dahl liked what he saw -- as well as the idea of coming back home -- and worked out a deal with the Port to take the last 3.4-acre site in Williams Hill.

Wagner had no market studies or chance encounters to guide him; just the experience accumulated selling semi-conductors and his own common sense. For him, Saint Paul became home, a place to grow a business and provide meaningful employment.

Similarly, the Port launched the prototype for a vital business development model with power to influence the future of Saint Paul, with the same gut instincts. Riverview was the Port's first jobs-oriented manufacturing business center. Port officials had a hunch in 1964 that the 255-acre center, located on

the south side of the Mississippi River adjacent to Harriet Island, represented the future.

They were right.
"That first industrial center was designed as a model for future generations of the Port Authority's job creation and retention activities throughout all of Saint Paul," Port Authority President Ken Johnson said.

Unknown to Wagner at the time, his vision for providing meaningful employment opportunities would one day coincide with that of the Port Authority's. The two recently agreed on a lease extension that contained provisions for Minnesota Wire to provide more good-paying jobs in Saint Paul.

Wired to Succeed
When it came time last year to renegotiate the financing package on that land, Wagner's daughter, Joan Thompson, led the negotiations. The first of Wagner's family members to join the company, she now oversees all of the company's operations, counting expenses and ensuring value. Among her decisions was whether to take her

company headquarters out of Energy Park.

"We could have gone away, very easily," she said. "We really questioned whether we should look at a new facility. But instead we renegotiated something that we already had. To me that shows continuity of a good relationship."

The Port Authority extened a financing package that not only resolved lingering environmental concerns on the property, but also beat their bank's financing package, Thompson said. To get this deal, Minnesota Wire committed to maintaining 91 workers at the site.

Good relationships with the Port's Johnson and industrial development director Lorrie Louder helped reassure Thompson that the Port would complete a deal fair to everyone involved.

"That's what we wanted," she said. "It's a great big highlight that I'll talk about for a long time. And that is to continue our relationship with the Port. They do good things."

And in 1999 the Port immersed itself in a variety of interconnected develop-

At the board's direction, for example, the Port laid the groundwork for expanding and marketing its Customized Job Training, which assesses a company's employment needs, recruits and trains qualified Saint Paul residents and eliminates other barriers to hiring and retaining employees.

The Port also initiated several projects with Metropolitan State University to better serve Saint Paul residents on the East Side and provide support for the Williams Hill Business Center and Phalen Corridor Initiative. The projects involved business office training and career and life planning, which experts say is an integral part of motivating job candidates and securing long-term careers with living wages and good-growth potential.

In 1999, the Port exceeded its goal of creating or retaining 1,600 jobs in Saint Paul in the third quarter. It ended the year with 2,540 jobs -- nearly 1,000 more than projected. That brings the Port's job production total to more than 45,000 since the day Wagner first landed in the city.

And businesses in the Port's manufacturing centers now contribute more than two-thirds of the city's industrial and commercial tax base.

One reason for that strong showing: The Port is more than a developer and property manager. It helped provide nearly $100 million financing for various business expansion projects, launched a $9 million renovation of the Port-owned Radisson Hotel Saint Paul to aid in the city's efforts to attract more convention and tourism business to the city. And, it is arranging financing for a 990-space parking ramp at Fourth and Minnesota Streets to help alleviate a downtown parking shortage.

The Port also prepared two new business centers for development this year and beyond -- River Bend and the

Great Northern Business Center -- and identified other sites throughout Saint Paul for space-hungry manufacturers.

And it managed a public harbor that helped funnel a record 14 million tons of commodities to outside markets. By comparison, Port officials in 1964 were very pleased with just 4.4 million tons.

"We couldn't be more pleased than we are with this year's developments," Johnson said of his organization's progress rehabilitating polluted inner-city land as job centers for Saint Paul residents. "Business in Saint Paul continues to expand and reinvent itself as the economy around us changes. A generation ago it was just a dream and today we're seeing that dream become reality, time and time again."

Last year was also the strongest ever for Minnesota Wire, an $11 million manufacturing company with 155 employees. Today, the company that Wagner launched is the single largest carbon fiber supplier in the wire industry and is responsible for adapting that technology to enhance care provided to premature infants in neonatal intensive care units.

"We're the market leader in things that can't be seen under x-rays or CAT scans," Paul Wagner said. "We also have an adjunct to that in nickel-plated carbon, which lowers resistance but is still radio translucent (invisible to scans) and used for defibrillators."

Laying the Groundwork
Like many young, married men and women of the day, Fred Wagner held down a regular day job selling electronic parts, and worked a second job doing whatever else he could find to make ends meet.

After five years as a manufacturer's representative, Wagner realized he wanted to pursue his own dreams. Because he wanted to grow the business and his partner did not, he struck out on his own.

"I'm a consummate risk taker, and my partner was an accounting graduate who was most secure with very little risk," he said. "That's not my nature. I wanted to grow the company and he was satisfied with it the way it was. We remained friends until his death recently."

In the years that followed, Wagner sold wire products to various manufacturers and struggled to make ends meet. Then an offer came along to distribute some of the products he was selling. He seized it and left behind his rented space in Saint Paul for an office/warehouse complex in Edina, chosen because of its proximity to his customers. He stayed for the duration of his three-year lease, but began moving back east toward Saint Paul in increments.

The Move Back Home
It was then that Wagner was first introduced to the Port Authority. Upon selling his building in Minneapolis, he began the quest to find new quarters, a process that involved sites in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.

Wagner found the Saint Paul Port Authority sincere and earnest in its desire to find a new home for his company.

"They (Minneapolis) made a modest attempt at keeping us over there, but not very much," he recalled. "But the Port impressed me a great deal."

The building, an impressive, ready-made 28,000-square-foot facility with exterior blue glass panels, exuded the

high-tech image Minnesota Wire sought to present as it retooled. As it turned out, the location was a gem for both the company and the Port Authority.

Today Minnesota Wire's Saint Paul corporate headquarters includes a complete manufacturing facility with a tool and die shop, inside sales force, and engineering, extrusion, molding, cut/strip, and assembly capabilities. The company's Eau Claire, Wis., plant also specializes in coiling.

Since moving in, the company's annual sales more than tripled while Energy Park became a top property-tax producer. The 218-acre center, established in 1980, generated more annual revenue for Saint Paul -- $2.9 million -- than any other of the Port's business centers.

The match positively affected Minnesota Wire as well.

The company's processing line began to thrive and Wagner's family members began joining the business. His wife, Nora, served as corporate secretary two days a week while raising their nine children. When his administrative assistant who served his company of seven

employees resigned, his daughter Joan stepped in.

"I was just going to help him part-time for a few months and ended up doing it for a full year," she said.

As the company grew, so did Thompson's responsibilities. Besides providing administrative support, she oversaw the company's accounting and infomation systems areas.

Now she is an articulate company spokesperson, promoting it to local school groups and international trade delegations. In November, she accompanied the Port's Johnson and other public and private officials on a trade mission to Saint Paul's sister city, Neuss, Germany. Saint Paul and Neuss hope a lucrative business trade relationship can be struck between the two cities on a long-term basis.

Adapting to Change
"It wasn't long ago that trade issues in Minnesota were centered on protecting our own from enticements from other states -- and even other Minnesota cities," Johnson said. "Now Saint Paul is competing in the world market."

To that end, the Port continues to work closely with neighborhood and community organizations to expand job opportunities for Saint Paul's burgeoning minority populations. And like Fred Wagner, the Port is ideally situated to accomplish its goals. Who would have thought more than 30 years ago that so much polluted land would be abandoned within Saint Paul's borders and near such a unique and needy workforce?

"Redevelopment of these sites is critical for Saint Paul's continued growth and development," Johnson said.

Likewise, Wagner found himself in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the burgeoning medical products industry.

"I literally stood in my kitchen one night and said, 'We're getting out of this scurrilous computer business because we're not making any money at it, and

we're getting into medical because the medical industry was just beginning to boom at that time,'" he recalled.

It may have seemed a risky strategy then, but it worked. "That decision," he said, "was probably the salvation of the company as we know it today."

Today Minnesota Wire gets about 85 percent of its revenue from medical products and about 2 percent on sales to computer industry companies. Total annual sales are growing at about 20 percent a year. More importantly, the company has carved out a unique niche in the marketplace and is earning a reputation as an innovator.

The company's medical grade, muscle-stimulating wires have found broad applications, from enhancing blood flow of beached whales to sustain them until they can make their way back to sea to stimulating muscles of paraplegics, allowing them to walk up to 100 feet under their own power.

Wired for Opportunity
Before all that creativity and while his father was growing his business,

Paul Wagner was feeling his way into a career by sweeping peanuts and beer at the old Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington. He leveraged that experience into a position as personnel manager handling the hiring, firing and scheduling of 400 part-time high school and college students and 60 full-time vendors.

"It's quite the interesting environment of keeping regular costs down," said Wagner, who received his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Saint Thomas. "It didn't pay all that great, but it gave huge responsibility to young people."

Since then, he not only learned the business; his sales skills have helped drive profits. His ability to build relationships and identify strategic opportunities earned him the title of company president in 1992.

Today, Minnesota Wire sells its products to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), large manufacturing companies like 3M, Medtronic, SpaceLabs and Marquette Electronics. In short, they make their mark by "doing what other companies don't want to do," the younger

Wagner said. "It's a niche biz. We make the wire and cable."

The company prides itself on its ability to remain nimble afoot. "We measure ourselves on speed," he said. "Right now we're doing three-week turn arounds for our customers. The competition is charting 6-8 week turns."

The Port, meanwhile, continues with the gritty, grassroots work of creating good-paying jobs on formerly polluted inner-city land. And like Minnesota Wire, its pace is quickening.

"We have a proven formula of success in developing these industrial business centers," Johnson said, recalling the Port's work in 1999. "We located them in areas that are accessible to employers and employees and we make sure they fit into the character of the neighborhood.

"Support for our work continues to be strong at the local and state levels. That's because our mission is symbiotic with theirs. We train Saint Paul residents for good jobs with a future near their homes."

Generation after generation.