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General Questions
What is MNPRO?
MNPRO ('minn-pro') is a public-use website created by the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to assist businesses interested in expanding or relocating in Minnesota.
The website contains two integrated databases - the Minnesota Commercial Properties and the Community Profiles. From the property database, the site offers detailed listings of available buildings and land, for sale or lease, primarily for commercial purposes (no residential buildings).
All incorporated cities in Minnesota are offered a Community Profile to use, if they choose to. Profiles contain civic infrastructure data including population, workforce, major employers, utilities, transportation, education, and much more - information necessary for businesses making critical location decisions.
There is no cost to use the site no matter what you are doing: searching the site, entering in property listings, or adding community profile data. You may add as many listings as you wish.
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Is there a contact person for MNPRO?
Judy Parker, DEED Communications Division, is the current MNPRO Manager. You can reach her at judy.parker@state.mn.us, 651-259-7443 direct, or 1-800-657-3858.
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How do I open a Community Profile?
Using the left side menu, locate "Community Profiles" to open the "Search for Community Profile in MNPRO" page. The most common search method is by city, using the "Communities" list box. You can choose more than one city by simultaneously holding down the Shift key (for selections in a row) or the Ctrl key (for random selections). Other search options are available as well, i.e., choosing a county will bring up all the cities within that county.
After hitting Submit on the profile search page, the following Results page will list one or many cities. Select the city’s name (blue + underlined) to open the Detail Selection page and choose the Entire Report or sections of the profile. Hit 'Submit Request' to open the profile.
Please note: Only one profile can be opened at a time. There are no archives of the data previously entered into a profile. Not all profiles will be current – cities are welcome to use the profiles as part of their business development marketing package but are not mandated to do so. If they choose to, the city enters 95% of the data and is responsible for necessary updating.
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How do I search for properties?
MNPRO’s home page is the property search page. You can also select "Property Search" in the left side menu or the MNPRO logo to return to it. How to use the search page:
- Choose a 'Type' of building or land. "Office Building" is the default.
- If searching for a particular dimension or range, use the 'Minimum Size' and/or 'Maximum Size' fields (one or both).
- The 'Choose a location' option offers all of Minnesota (the default), a city or a county. Selecting city or county will open a dropdown list to choose from. You can choose more than one city/county by simultaneously holding down the Shift key (for selections in a row) or the Ctrl key (for random selections).
- If you are interested in only JOBZ subzones or Shovel Ready properties, check the boxes next to these options.
- Hit the 'Search' button to bring up a Results page of property listings. To view a listing’s Details Report, select the name of the property (blue + underlined). While in the Results page, use the check boxes (on far right) and "Display Only Selected" (at end of page) to narrow down the results list.
- To start a new search, use the 'Reset' button to clear the form.
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What is a JOBZ property?
Passed into law by the 2003 Legislature and launched on January 1, 2004, the Job Opportunity Building Zone (JOBZ) initiative is Minnesota’s marquee rural economic development stimulus program. The goal of the program is to stimulate economic development activity in rural Minnesota by providing local and state tax exemptions to companies that start up or expand in targeted areas of Greater Minnesota. For more information, please visit the JOBZ webpage at PositivelyMinnesota.com.
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What is a Shovel Ready property?
Shovel-ready sites are in growing demand among companies and site selection consultants, and they are an increasingly popular tool for communities to attract new business and industry.
While definitions vary from state to state, the term 'Shovel-Ready' generally refers to commercial and industrial sites that:
- Have had all of the planning, zoning, surveys, title work, environmental studies, soils analysis and public infrastructure engineering completed prior to putting the site up for sale.
- Are under the legal control of a community or other third party.
It is the intent of the Minnesota Shovel Ready Sites Program to remove many of the initial unknowns from the site decision process, thereby reducing significant time and money for companies’ choosing to grow in Minnesota. The Minnesota Shovel Ready Site Certification Program was created together by the Positively Minnesota Marketing Partnership and the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). For more information, please visit the Shovel Ready webpages at PositivelyMinnesota.com.
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Adding Properties into MNPRO
Who qualifies to enter properties into MNPRO?
Any person taking responsibility for a Minnesota commercial property may list it in MNPRO at no cost. This includes, but is not restricted to, economic developers, brokers, Real Estate agents, property owners, and city staff. Those users with a Community Profile account may use the login given to them by the MNPRO manager to also add in property listings.
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How do I list a property?
First time users go to "Register" in the left side menu and fill in the registration form. Once you hit Submit, you are 'in'. Register only once. If you forget a past login, contact the MNPRO manager to obtain it.
Once logged in, return to the left side menu and select "Add/Edit Menu" (shows only after logging in). Choose "Add Building" or "Add Land". Fill in the text data first and hit Submit. Your listing is added into the property database instantly. You may add as many listings as have.
You'll next be asked if you'd like to add an Image. This must be a .jpg or .gif of a photo or a graphic, i.e., an aerial map or blueprint (sorry, no PDFs), which is saved on your computer. Follow the dimension guidelines for resolution and maximum pixel size. If you’re unsure or have questions, please contact the MNPRO manager (see below).
You can also open "How To List Properties", a PDF in the left side menu. This full sheet of instructions opens in a separate window, allowing you to work the system while reading along.
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What information is needed to list a building or land?
Users are required to list a minimum amount of information for each property such as property name, address/city, contact person, square footage or acres, and other data depending on whether it’s a building or land site. General practice is to present as much information as possible about the property, offering site selectors and businesses a good impression and straightforward selection process.
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How do I change or delete information within a listing?
Only the user that entered the listing can edit it. To do so, log in with the same username and password used to add in the property. You cannot use another login or create a new login. Once logged in, go to the left side menu and select "Add/Edit Menu" and then either 'Edit Building' or 'Edit Land' from the dropdown.
Your listing/s will appear in the box. Highlight one property name at a time and choose from the four buttons to the right of the box:
Edit = select to add or make changes to the listing’s content; auto renews the listing once you hit 'Submit'.
Renew = select to automatically renew the listing as it currently stands.
Image = select to add in a photo or graphic; auto renews the listing once you hit 'Submit'.
Delete = select to permanently remove the listing from MNPRO; no data is archived to retrieve later.
MNPRO has no affirmation windows to confirm your actions. As a quality control measure, always perform a search, like a site selector, to view your listing’s Details Report, to see it as they will.
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How long will my property be listed? And how is it kept current?
A listing may remain in MNPRO as long as it's available. However, every 120 days, from the day the listing is entered or the last time it was updated, the person who added the listing will receive an update notice email. This email is a reminder to log into MNPRO and renew the listing, make edits if needed, or delete if it is no longer available. In other words, we ask that you update the listing to reflect its most current status.
To authenticate the current status, a 'Last Updated' date appears in the upper right-hand corner of the property's Details Report, reflecting the 120-day update. Maintaining fresh data in MNPRO is vital to its survival as a creditable property database for the communities of Minnesota. Periodic removal of outdated listings is carried out for quality assurance.
To guarantee receiving the update email notices, users have to keep their email addresses updated within their accounts. Once logged in, go to "Add/Edit Menu" and select 'Edit Your User Info' to update your 'User Profile' account. DEED cannot be responsible for deleted listings because of incorrect or old email addresses in its users' accounts. ALSO: allow filters to accept emails from MNPRO’s address: admin.mnpro@state.mn.us.
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How can I get a property re-listed?
MNPRO has no archives of past data and cannot bring a listing back up. Please log into MNPRO to enter the information once again.
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I forgot my password - how do I retrieve it?
Once you've tried to log in, MNPRO gives you the opportunity to receive a hint of your reminder (based on your suggestion in your account) or to have an email sent to you that includes the password. You can also directly contact the MNPRO manager (see below).
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Updating a Community Profile
Who updates the profiles?
The profile’s respective city adds in and keeps updated 95% of the data, if it chooses to use the profile. Each incorporated city in Minnesota is offered a profile to use either in lieu of or in combination with its own city’s website. The profiles offer a comprehensive report of a city’s infrastructure that may not be included in the city’s website. Businesses often require the information given in a profile to help make critical location decisions.
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How can I update my city's profile?
Someone from the city contacts the MNPRO manager (below) who sets up the exclusive account with a login for the person who will be performing the update task (aka the profile 'contact' person). An email is then sent to this person in the form of guidelines that include the login as well as suggestions for using MNPRO to its fullest advantage for the city.
Updating a profile is an online process that uses editable pages for each section of the profile. The login allows the contact person access to these editing pages. Most of the data for the profile is collected by the contact person. The MNPRO manager is responsible for population figures, the Workforce section data (it's piped in directly from DEED's LMI division), property tax figures, and the post secondary institution descriptions.
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If you have any other questions, please contact the MNPRO manager: Judy Parker / judy.parker@state.mn.us / 651-259-7443
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