When Barb Engelking and her husband decided to reopen the vacant bar they have owned for 45 years, they knew they had an undertaking on their hands: They had leased the space for more than 30 years, and it sat vacant for eight years after its latest location went out of business.
But the couple didn’t have to take it all on alone. The one-year project was made possible by the Small Business Grant Program from the City of Superior, as well as a grant from the Superior Business Improvement District, otherwise known as the BID.
Now, Engelking can point to everything the grants helped her replace or freshen up at Port Town Tavern, 1318 Tower Ave., which opened its doors in April. The city’s Small Business Grant provided new floors, plumbing, heating, a new bar and some new equipment. The BID grant provided a new window, a sign on the side of the building and the side door.
These grants are just a couple of resources available to new business owners in Superior and Douglas County. Officials with local organizations are enthusiastic about the resources available to business owners, from new entrepreneurs to longstanding businesses, from hospitality and retail to industrial cornerstones of the community.
Officials described not just their own resources for Superior’s businesses, but a network of organizations who work together and refer each other, all in the name of helping Superior’s growing – and thriving – business community.
The day Engelking sat down at her new mahogany bar to talk, she said she and her husband had considered the future of their vacant space and heard from others who were interested in reopening it.
“We were going to have to do all the work anyway,” she said.
And as they look to their own futures, opening Port Town Tavern would let them run their business on their timeline, and not someone else’s, she said.
Now, she is preparing to turn in her receipts to the organizations, and explained the grant recipients have to pay for everything up front and then submit receipts
to be reimbursed. She planned to submit receipts for everything, and the entities could decide what the grant amounts covered and what they didn’t.
The city’s Small Business Grant came about in 2019 when officials noticed businesses in the community “that needed some help,” said Jason Serck, Planning, Economic Development & Port Director.
The grant can help cover anything customer-facing, but the definition of customer-facing can reach as far as additions like equipment, a new roof, parking lots and more. What the grant doesn’t cover are undertakings like operations and payroll, Serck said.
Each grant has a $20,000 cap and the grant has seen more than $900,000 given out since its inception. The City estimates a total of $3.3 million has been invested into program recipients.
The Small Business Grant is not limited to new businesses — current business owners who want or need to make an improvement have also received the grant, Serck said. He added that local business retention is as important as local business growth.
But grants and funds aren’t the only way the city helps businesses. When a business is looking for a location, “we try to find space for them,” Serck said. Officials can also help establish a business plan and refer to education courses at University of Wisconsin-Superior.
“We do a lot of upfront things to get people into a storefront,” Serck said.
Small Business and Revolving Loan Funds
City officials also work with organizations like the BID and the Superior Development Association to help the local business community. One resource the Development Association offers is a loan out of its no-interest Small Business Fund, an initiative that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and stayed. The loans are most often given in $5,000 amounts, with occasional $10,000 loans given.
When approved for a $5,000 loan, recipients pay the loans back over 36 months, after six months of no repayment, totaling a timeline of 42 months. The $10,000 loans include payments over 60 months, after the same 6-month window of no payment.
“Through that program, we’re willing to accept higher risk,” said Jim Caesar, executive director of the Development Association.
During the early pandemic, Caesar was the association’s “one-man band” said Jenice Meyer, now the assistant executive director. Caesar noticed businesses were struggling.
“PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) was helpful but there were also gap funding needs,” she said.
Caesar went to the association’s board.
“He took the funding that we had within our budget to give to small businesses to help keep the doors open,” Meyer said.
Today, “it’s really known as gap funding,” Caesar said of the association’s business loan.
Meyer said The Development Association helps small businesses in three main ways:
• Bringing the right people to the table at the right time;
• Providing the association’s Resource Road Map;
• Help with eliminating or navigating roadblocks and red tape.
As soon as Caesar receives a phone call from a hopeful business owner or business in need, his next phone call is to state and local resources, to see who has the best resources to help. The Development Association may be the resource.
In addition to its no-interest loans, the association also operates the Douglas County Revolving Loan Fund, which provides loans usually not exceeding $50,000. While these loans do include interest, rates are lower than those from traditional lenders, Caesar said.
These loans are typically used for general operating capital such as renovations, fixtures and equipment, and sometimes inventory. Loans for $20,000 or less can be approved by the executive committee of the loan fund. The advisory committee makes a recommendation to the full board on loans that exceed $20,000, and the board makes the final decision. These loans are not typically used to purchase new property.
“We’re not generally the lead lender,” Caesar said.
Then there’s the Resource Road Map. This allows the association to evaluate, “what are all the resources that we have?” Meyer said, as well as what the city and the county have.
Aiding Both New and Established Businesses
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation offers different grants and incentives for various businesses and different workforce sizes. Meanwhile the Northwest Regional Planning Commission offers seven different loan programs, five of which apply to businesses located in Superior city limits – the other two are designated for rural businesses, Caesar said. He said the association also works with traditional lenders.
Those resources are available to any businesses, not just ones looking to relocate or start anew — but when a business is looking to do so, that’s where the eliminating red tape comes in.
“If they’re looking for the right location, we can help with that. If there’s a particular roadblock, or some red tape, we can move that along if the business wants to be here,” Meyer said, adding there will always be red tape – but the association is there to help.
“That’s a lot of listening that we do,” Meyer said. “What the business is, where they’re at with thinking about relocation. It’s not just about bringing the right people together. It’s really about listening.”
And the listening, plus the resources, have helped. In the last 60 days, the association helped a business that would have otherwise gone out of business, Caesar said.
Later in the afternoon of the interview, Caesar planned to meet with the Entrepreneur Fund, which helps new businesses all over the northland. Sometimes an entity may want to provide the entirety of a business’ financing needs. Other times, officials may only be comfortable providing a smaller amount, letting another organization take on some of the gap and letting the business owner “have some skin in the game,” Caesar said.
“Our concern is about getting the deal done, and we don’t care who does it,” he said.
Superior Business Improvement District
And then there’s The BID, which gave out $35,000 in grants last year.
The official district consists of 89 blocks in Superior – Primarily from Keyport Liquor Store down Belknap Street to Hill Avenue, and on the other side, from McDonald’s heading north, from 21st to North 8th Street on Tower Avenue.
Once BID Executive Director Kelly Peterson hears of a new business in the Business Improvement District, she makes it a point to reach out somehow – sometimes simply by stopping in.
Businesses apply for available grants by receiving estimates for their desired project, providing photos of what the finished project will look like, and, if they aren’t the property’s owner, appropriate signoffs.
The grants must be approved before the business can begin a project. Grants are given as matching funds, “so if it’s a $10,000 total project the max we could give is $5,000,” Peterson said.
Peterson said she’s seen BID grants go to flooring, signs, facades, roofs, infrastructure, heating or cooling, and more, all of which also benefit the customers. She’s also seen grants help fund mural projects on a business’ façade.
The BID also works with Northwest Regional Planning, has a partnership with Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation – which began out of Milwaukee and has a branch in Hayward – as well as other organizations.
But the BID doesn’t stop at funds. When working with a business or meeting new business owners, Peterson learns what a business needs to succeed — and then helps find the appropriate resource.
She connects business owners to continuing education and leadership programs at UWS and Northwood Technical College. She refers services such as small business accountants, and brainstorms marketing strategies. During National Small Business Week in the first week of May, she invited local businesses to do the Small Business Administration’s Virtual Summit together.
“It’s brutal to do it yourself,” she said.
She also holds a monthly women in business group. It’s not solely for business owners, and it’s a place just to talk, she said. Some attendees come to every meeting. Some come every so often. But every meeting brings more people, with about 25 attendees per meeting.
Peterson first got the idea for her women in business group from talking to the business community in 2022.
“If I hear things through the grapevine about a business, like, ‘So-and-so is struggling with XYZ,’ I haul my butt over there and say, ‘Hey, how are things going? I heard something, but I don’t know if it’s true or not,’” she said. “‘What do you need? What can I do?’”
For Peterson, it’s a business comradery. She described signature events such as holiday promotions, “Pink Friday” for women-owned businesses, Shop Small Saturday, and “Surprise Santa,” when Santa Claus stops by participating businesses and gives a customer BID bucks during the holidays.
Superior also has community Fourth of July events, a family fun Pride event in September, and events on Tower Avenue like the “Power on Tower” muscle car show in July, and trick-or-treating every Halloween down the street, which last year saw 800 kids.
The shipping and print business Goin Postal hosts a fall music event, plus there are pub crawls and, on the the first day of summer, “Make Music Day.” The week of this interview, Superior hosted one night of the Homegrown Music Festival, with Mayor Jim Payne making a proclamation of the event.
One thing several officials observed separately, were the effects of COVID-19 on business: and not negatively. Peterson’s Women in Business group emerged from talking to business owners in the first years after the pandemic.
“Covid, quite frankly, created a lot of entrepreneurs,” Serck, with the City of Superior, said.
As people were losing jobs and the economy was changing, entrepreneurs were born, Meyer, from The Development Association, said.
“There were additional incentives to do that,” she said.
One of the incentives was a state-run business bounce-back grant.
“Those were really helpful for businesses to open up storefronts in the downtown and throughout the city of Superior,” Meyer said.
Downtown Improvements
Serck and Peterson both noted improvements in Superior’s business district through the years. Serck pointed to street improvements on Tower Avenue, with pedestrian space on medians, more housing, improved streetscapes and improved facades – in part thanks to aforementioned resources.
“A lot of those improvements make it feel a little more quaint and safer,” he said. “Not necessarily safe from a crime standpoint but being able to move around confidently and safely.”
Peterson listed incoming businesses like a new restaurant and upcoming park area in the district, plus other walkable businesses people can check out while strolling through town.
Engelking, the owner of Port Town Tavern, has heard from people who enjoy staying in Superior while in from out of town, and being able to walk everywhere.
The interviewed officials also noted Superior’s embrace of industrial and manufacturing companies.
“We’re very robust in our manufacturing sector for sure,” Serck said, listing off several manufacturing companies that make up Superior, “from metal fabrication to making crossbows.”
“The more diverse of business groups that we have the more stable that we are,” he said.
Serck recalled years ago when one manufacturing company moved its headquarters to Atlanta, GA, and how hard that was on the community.
During the pandemic, “we didn’t lose anybody,” he said. “People were able to pivot.”
Serck said the city has successfully used Tax Increment Financing, which has helped both the manufacturing sector and to improve housing in Superior.
“We need the industry; We need the small businesses.” Peterson said. “We need the shops; we need the restaurants. People want an active community that they can work, live and play in.”
But officials know the hardest work may just be beginning — especially ahead of the expected Blatnik Bridge closure in early 2027.
Ahead of the project, Meyer completed an economic impact study to determine what the greatest needs were, and to advocate how to best help the community.
“Businesses are terrified of it closing,” Caesar said.
Peterson echoed the sentiments from talking to business owners in the BID.
“Normal routines will be interrupted,” she said. “If (people) live in Duluth, maybe they won’t come over Saturday morning for waffles.”
But if businesses such as Superior Waffles on Tower Avenue and others should know one thing, it’s that, just like always, they won’t go it alone.
Those interviewed are now looking into resources for affected businesses, such as funding help. They’re also helping businesses prepare by assisting with marketing, additional training in resources like AI, “and also building that sense of community,” Meyer said.
Through informational meetings, a toolkit and a bootcamp for business owners, “the resounding thing is businesses need to sell themselves better,” Peterson said. She added that businesses are often afraid of bragging. “We’re our own worst self-promoters.”
Peterson foresees initiatives such as a passport program where people can collect stamps by visiting different businesses, and “Hard Hat Happy Hours.”
She doesn’t just want to survive the four-to-five-year closure, but to thrive through it. And the business community will have resources to lean on the whole way. Officials involved in planning and economic development meet regularly for breakfast, Peterson said. At the table, they discuss: Who needs help and how do we help them?
Peterson said the officials just need one thing: Businesses to ask for the help they need. She called the wide networks a “wraparound service.”
At the Development Association, Meyer agreed. “There is no ego involved in this,” she said. “We just really want to help people to open their doors and get started.”
Tamara Jansen is a Duluth based communications professional and freelance writer.
