Jamestown Frontier Attractions aims to attract more visitors, secure larger grants for projects

Yahoo

29-03-2025

Mar. 29—JAMESTOWN — The formation of Jamestown Frontier Attractions will help with applying for larger-scale grants to improve Frontier Village in Jamestown and other projects that attract community members and out-of-state visitors, according to David Schloegel, Jamestown City Council member.
Jamestown Frontier Attractions (JFA) can apply for less glamorous grants to help shore up the retaining wall at Frontier Village or for bathrooms that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Schloegel, president of the JFA board.
"Then there's more exciting stuff like we've been talking a long time about miniature golf courses and other tourism-based attractions where there are grants for that sort of stuff to help encourage people to come to North Dakota," he said. "Jamestown could be one part of multiple stops within the state that the state wants to encourage people to stop in."
JFA is a 501c(3) nonprofit that provides a safe, fun and engaging experience through a North Dakota pioneer-era lens, according to its bylaws. Its primary function is to manage Frontier Village.
JFA is officially a 501(c)(3) organization in the state of North Dakota. The JFA filed its nonprofit corporation articles of incorporation in November 2024
JFA becoming a nonprofit organization changes how donations can be accepted and gives the organization more opportunities to apply for larger state or federal grants, said Emily Bivens, executive director of the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce and Jamestown Tourism and JFA board member.
"It changes how people who donate to the organization can reflect those donations on their taxes and also a lot of grants that are available require you to hold the 501(c)(3) status," she said.
Bivens said Frontier Village was awarded a few smaller grants here and there before the transition to JFA where now the grants awarded could be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
"Now, with its own 501(c)(3) status, it can apply for larger funds from larger pots of money whereas before we were trying to use the knowledge we knew in our office and then we were very fortunate to partner with the Jamestown Community Foundation if there were some grants out there that we can apply for as a pass through, but that isn't feasible for the long term," Limke said.
The JFA also applied for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS as well.
"We are confident that we will obtain that status before we open in May," said Allison Limke, visitor experience manager for Jametown Tourism and JFA board member, referring to getting the 501(c)(3) status.
Bivens said the JFA being a 501(c)(3) organization is similar to other entities in Jamestown. Examples of entities that have their own 501(c)(3) organization includes Anne Carlsen, Jamestown Regional Medical Center and the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District.
"They all have that foundation arm to help provide their experiences and services," Bivens said.
JFA is currently doing business as Frontier Village, Limke said.
"It makes the mission of that organization a little bit broader," she said. "If there's other opportunities in Jamestown to bring a new attraction to Jamestown, it can help with those types of things."
If another tourism-related entity's board in Jamestown dissolves, JFA could take that on and help manage the tourism-related site, Bivens said.
"We wanted to give it more opportunity, give us more opportunities than just the Village," Bivens said.
The city of Jamestown owns Frontier Village, and it is managed by Jamestown Tourism. Bivens said it wasn't a long-term solution for Jamestown Tourism to manage Frontier Village.
"Our time managing the Village was coming to an end," she said. "This seemed like the best path forward especially ... for grant-writing purposes and bringing cash flow to the Village."
Limke said JFA expands beyond Frontier Village.
"This renaming it Frontier Attractions helps us to be able to continue to grow, continue to create new and exciting things for Jamestown in the future, and make sure that other entities that might have a unique site don't go by the wayside," she said.
Schloegel said Jamestown Frontier Attractions should focus specifically on Frontier Village for now.
"It leaves the door open for maybe other things in the future," he said. "Right now, it's the Village because there's a lot of work, a lot of things to be done there."
Schloegel said the goal is to make Frontier Village a successful, independent entity that is self-sufficient and not reliant on financial assistance from the city of Jamestown.
"It's something that the city can plant the seed and then be able to watch it grow and it's able to survive on its own, so setting it up for the future, to bring people into town and be a great tourism attraction," he said.
Schloegel said the city will still be supportive of Frontier Village. The City Council allocated funds previously to make sure the General Store at Frontier Village could open.
"They finished in the black the first time, maybe ever in 60-some years, the last two years in a row with the General Store where we have employees, we're paying them, we're fixing stuff," he said.
Bivens said Frontier Village wouldn't be successful without the city's financial contributions.
"The city covers all the different liabilities, the property and utilities," she said. "They even allocate certain dollars for minimal maintenance up there."
Schloegel said Frontier Village already attracts many visitors to Jamestown. He said it's important for visitors coming to Jamestown to have ways to spend their money here.
"That's a great way to help our local economy. It's money that isn't here and now it is here, so that's a great boost, and it helps take the burden off of local residents having to pay for things," he said.
Frontier Village had 170,000 visitors in 2024. Bivens said Frontier Village sees visitors from all 50 states and about 40 countries every year.
"To our knowledge, most of our visitors coming to Jamestown are going to the Frontier Village, so it creates a huge economic impact on our community," Bivens said.
Bivens said Frontier Village has seen a significant increase in visitors and visitor spending over the last few years. She said JFA will work to bring better experiences at Frontier Village so visitors will stay longer, spend more money and come back again.
"Having this separate board that can drive that vision for that site and help bring new things or better the things that are up there for our visitors, that's our main mission," she said. "That's what we can do."
Bivens said Frontier Village's overall revenue in 2024 was about $80,000, which includes $50,000 from the General Store and smaller grants.
"We want to put it back into the site to build those experiences, and we really want the impact to be felt by our local businesses, by the tax revenues that come through," she said. "That lessens the tax burden on property tax. If we can get visitors to come and spend money and contribute to those taxes, why not? We want them to make that economic impact."
She said those visitors spend an average of $95 per person for one day. Visitors spend even more when they stay in Jamestown overnight.
Schloegel said JFA will continue to take steps to give people an opportunity to spend money at Frontier Village.
"There's huge things that we want to do at the Village, things I've been dreaming about for years and talked about but some of them are very expensive, and we do have to get your baseline stuff like retaining wall and bathrooms done," he said. " ... I'd love to think of big ideas for the next decade or two and try to see a lot of growth exponentially."
Limke said Jamestown Tourism can promote other tourism-related destinations in the area. She said other destinations include the 1883 Stutsman County Courthouse, Stutsman County Memorial Museum, Fort Seward and the North American Bison Discovery Center.
"We have all these different niches as well," Bivens said. "We have those adventure seekers where we push all of our trails. We're fortunate to have two large bodies of water really close to town and they have, you know, over 30-some miles of trail out there for these adventure seekers. Then we have the water trail. We have birding."
Jamestown Tourism has marketed Jamestown in Denver, Chicago and Minneapolis areas among other states in the U.S., Limke said.
"We get information requests from all over the country," Limke said. "We've gotten a few from Florida, Arizona and the New England area."
Schloegel said Jamestown is just off of Interstate 94 which attracts visitors from all over the U.S.
"A lot of people might be coming from the west heading to Minnesota or Chicago, or they could be heading from the big city out east and they want to see Montana or Medora or Oregon," he said. "Along the way, they're traveling on I-94 more likely than not."
He said the community needs to keep giving visitors an opportunity to stop in Jamestown, which is a chance to show off the community.
"We want them to see other places around here," he said. "So that way, if they stop there, we can point out these other places, and then it gives them more things to look at and then they can stop and eat here. They can stop and stay at a hotel here. They can stop and do some shopping here. They decide to get some gas here. You just have to get them to stop first."
Schloegel said if the Bison World project happens, it will complement Frontier Village very well. The Bison World project calls for the construction of a bison-themed cultural and entertainment park adjacent to Interstate 94 on land currently owned by the state of North Dakota through the North Dakota State Hospital.
"If Bison World takes a while to come to fruition, or it doesn't happen at all, you should still be focusing on it (Frontier Village) because every year we don't have Bison World, we should be offering some other alternative, which right now is Frontier Village and improving upon what we do have already," he said.
Bivens said there would be a lot of collaboration between Jamestown Frontier Attractions and Bison World if the project happens.
"We definitely would want to work with them and work together for the betterment of Jamestown," she said. "It's about our community."