Mid-Nebraska helps Aurora create jobs for CDBG funding

The Aurora Development Corporation announced recently that jobs created at the Mission Critical site south of town have completed the state’s Community Development Block Grant requirements, opening the door to continued business growth and expansion.
Aurora was one of several communities to receive CDBG funding back in 2012, part of a Nebraska Department of Economic Development program designed at the time to attract large data centers. The ADC, in partnership with the City of Aurora, applied for and received $750,000 at the time, making the application through the city as a municipality eligible for the grant. ADC used the funds to help purchase a 135-acre lot on the east side of Highway 14, which was eventually named Mission Critical.
“They were able to identify a piece of ground that had a lot of specific characteristics, but then also do some surveys and studies which provided a value to prospects,” explained Kelsey Bergen, ADC’s executive director. Though Bergen did not start working with ADC until several years after the land was purchased, she noted that the focus on data centers began to change over time.
“It became apparent that the large data centers that they were targeting weren’t really a good fit for Nebraska, so over time that program kind of changed and it changed more as a place to attract any type of business,” she explained. “Having sites that are over 100 acres in size is kind of a premium. There aren’t that many options across the state, so the main focus then became on creating jobs.”
The number of jobs required for Aurora’s CDBG funding was 22, half of which had to be offered to low- to moderate-income (LMI) individuals.
“That grant really kicked off the opportunity to have this piece of ground, which was located in a great spot close to I-80 with great highway access and the infrastructure around it for us to market it,” Bergen said. “Over the last few years, it became a challenge with those funds because we’ve had several local businesses that wanted to expand and it just made it difficult to meet the requirements of the grant while also being able to provide what some of the small businesses were wanting. It was kind of a waiting game.”
Mid-Nebraska Land Developers became the first tenant on the Mission Critical site back in 2015,  purchasing 15 acres on the far northeast corner of the property. The Mission Critical site now has three businesses on site (with Specialty Ag Formulations and AAIM Data Centers both currently under construction) though as it turns out Mid-Nebraska’s decision to locate there proved pivotal to the site’s long-term development potential.
“Mid-Nebraska coming out there was a huge win for the community, maybe one that wasn’t realized at the time,” Bergen said. “As that company has continued to grow and be successful, they were able to create enough jobs that we were able to fulfill the grant just with the expansion that they’ve had.”
The timing was critical, Bergen pointed out, since the 10 years allocated by the state for Aurora to create the 22 jobs had expired, requiring two extensions.
“I hear a lot from businesses that they want to know if there’s funding out there for an expansion or whatever they’re wanting to do and I always tell them that free money is not always free,” she said. “The CDBG program, while it set our community up for a lot of success, that wasn’t the case for other communities that also received the funds. 
“After the 10-year deadline of the grant we still had not created enough jobs to fulfill what the grant had set out, so we asked for two additional extensions, which other communities did as well,” Bergen continued. “That gave us four more years to try to create jobs to fulfill those requirements.”
A hard cut-off date was established as of February 2024, which meant ADC either had to document the new 22 LMI jobs, or refund a significant portion of the $750,000.
“We really worked down to the wire to make sure we had all the jobs created,” Bergen said. “We were lucky enough to be able to do that, but not every community was that lucky.”
The paperwork to quantify the necessary job creation was completed earlier this year, with 24 new jobs documented, 71 percent of which were offered to LMI individuals, Bergen reported.

Critical timing
The timing was indeed critical, as ADC had been making progress over the past two years in its efforts to recruit other businesses to the site. Specialty Ag Formulations announced its decision last August to purchase 20 acres in Mission Critical where the company is now building a 100,000 sq. ft. facility expected to employ approximately 20 people once it opens in December. AAIM Data Centers made a similar commitment months later, announcing plans to build a facility just west of Mid-Nebraska which is expected to generate five new jobs later this year.
“The attraction of Specialty Ag Formulations was also a pivotal point in the future of that site,” Bergen explained, “because it was a large enough project that it made it possible to invest the needed infrastructure to really take that site from something that was greenfield, meaning it was an open piece of ground, to something that is shovel ready, meaning sewer, water, street, storm, electrical, fiber and natural gas will all be available as of fall of 2024 as well.”
Jim Ediger, ADC president, said the infrastructure now in place at Mission Critical opens the door for continued development.
“We’re hoping for a mix of local business expansion and growth as well as new additions to Aurora,” Ediger said. “I think it’s an ideal location for local contractors looking for more space with plenty of visibility along the highway. There is continued opportunity for growth in the ag sector given our geographic location and there is also opportunity in the logistics sector, given our location and proximity of the site to the interstate.”
Ediger said he thinks it is important for the community to be aware of Mid-Nebraska Land Developer’s role in keeping the vision for Mission Critical on track.
“First, what a great local business and story,” he said. “When Mid-Nebraska located in Mission Critical they had several employees, and now they are up to over 40 employees working all over the state. They are importing dollars into Hamilton County through wages and additional employment.
“They are Exhibit A of the kind of businesses we need to attract,” he concluded. “They have also been a good partner in all of our local development projects and have helped keep our costs down and move projects forward in a timely manner.”