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(NewsDakota.com) – A new Cherry Berry frozen yogurt store in Jamestown moved one step closer to fruition Monday.

The Jamestown City Council by a 3-2 vote approved of using economic development money for a Flex-PACE buy-down loan, requested by a group of investors in the project. The council approved of using up to $54,000 in economic development funds for the loan, with the city share to be up to $43,200.

Mayor Katie Andersen and council members Ramone Gumke and Steve Brubakken voted to approve the money. Council members Charlie Kourajian and Dan Buchanan voted against it. Kourajian says he is concerned that the Cherry Berry and sandwich shop is a competing business of several in town, and Buchanan expressed a number of his concerns with the project, including using public funds to help retail businesses.


The loan will be repaid with interest to the city and Stutsman County. If the business fails, the city can recoup its money through a personal guarantee of the project’s largest investor, Kal Patell.

Brubakken says the majority of the people he talked to were in favor of the request.


Gumke says even though the project brings in a competing business, it is something the council has done numerous times in the past.

Seven Flex-PACE loans have been granted locally since 2009. Gumke says only one was for a business that did not already have a competing business in town.

The money for the Flex-PACE buy-down loan is used to help the company secure up to $100,000 in grant money from the Bank of North Dakota.