Eide Bailly and Schmidt Insurance Services broke ground on their new office building in North Bismarck last week.

The 24,000-square-foot, three-floor, $3 million building is on 1730 Burnt Boat Loop, just behind the Bismarck-Mandan Chamber of Commerce building.

Fargo developers A&F Development LLC are building and leasing the space to the two tenants; Eide Bailly will have the first two floors and SIAthe top floor.

Barb Aasen with Eide Bailly said they've been expanding significantly over the past five years and need the extra space to accommodate the growth.

"We'll have quite a few different things that we haven't been able to have,"Aasen said, such as a training room, office space and more open workstation areas.

Bob Anderson of A&F Development said they designed the building around their tenants' needs.

The footing and foundation areas will be set before the ground freezes, with the building scheduled to be complete by July 2009. Tenants may move in around mid-July.

New bank at Wendy's

Another new building is going up at the site of the old Wendy's on State Street.

The 6,000-square-foot, $1.5 million one-story building will be home to a new Cornerstone Bank, in addition to the bank's south location.

The new building will house part of the bank's mortgage department, and their investments and consumer divisions.

"We're still optimistic about Bismarck,"said Jerry Hauff, bank president. "We've made a commitment to this community."

They opened their south bank at 600 S. Second St. in December 2007; they started with five employees and have grown to 14.

"Great things are going to happen in Bismarck,"Hauff said of the bank's willingness to expand even during difficult financial times.

The new location will be ready in spring 2009.

Area needs workers

Unemployed workers in Michigan have few qualms with moving to Bismarck-Mandan if the job is right and moving incentives are covered, a survey revealed.

The Workforce Development Committee for the Bismarck-Mandan Development Association recently released results of a survey from a job fair they attended inGrand Rapids, Mich.; area workforce organizations recently attended a fair there, where unemployment rates are high as manufacturing jobs become more scarce.

The biggest obstacles to moving to the state were the cost of moving, family considerations and paying off mortgages or selling homes.

"Not one of them said they would not relocate to North Dakota,"said Steve Herman, chair of the committee.

Herman said workforce levels in Bismarck-Mandan are critically low, and finding workers from areas with high unemployment will help fill those needs.

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)