 A big day in Bemidji today as Delta Dental broke ground on a new operations and technology center. Josh Peterson tells us what that will mean for the community. Excitement and optimism was in the air as a new chapter in Bemidji's history officially broke ground. One, two, three. Bemidji was Delta Dental's ideal choice for expanding into the future. Well, we see a great employment area, a strong workforce here, highly educated folks with the colleges here and really a great place to build another location for us. With Bemidji growing as a regional center, bringing Delta Dental to the area was a large undertaking for the greater Bemidji organization who promoted all aspects that make Bemidji attractive. This has been about almost four years in the making and we've been working with the company, they've been looking at locations and it took them about four years to get to this point so it makes it really special for us. Over 200 construction workers will spend the next 12 months building the 11 million dollar facility but the project won't end there. Over the next year Kraus Anderson Construction will build the over 38,000 square foot facility with the possibility of expansion in the future. It's going to be very user friendly for the the people that are work there and it'll be a great place to call their second home. While the facility will set a new standard for the area, the new Delta Dental Operations and Technology Center is expected to generate many new jobs in its first year with plenty of room to grow. We're really focused on this first year. You know our plan is to bring 150 jobs here and then we'll we'll certainly assess things and we look to grow. With a tight timeline in place and shovels in the sand, the dirt will be flying well into the future. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. Delta Dental's Bemidji office will include customer service, technology, finance, billing and possibly the the the web development as well. The facility is expected to open in September of 2019. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.