EDA hires new executive director, continues push to sell Superior National Golf Course

In mid-April, a new executive director for the Cook County/Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) will step into the role.

Over the past several months, the EDA has been actively recruiting a new executive director and has conducted interviews with several applicants.

Of the applicants, the EDA Board selected Lucas Wakefield from Bemidji, Minn., who will begin in the position on April 13.

“We’re delighted to have Lucas on the team,” said EDA President Peter Clissold.

Lucas Wakefield | City of Staples

Wakefield has served as the City of Staples Economic Development Director since April 2024. Prior to that, he served as an economic development specialist with the Headwaters Regional Development Commission, where he led the economic development authorities for Mahnomen and Lake of the Woods counties.

The EDA executive director position has been vacant for nearly a year since Heidi Krampitz’s resignation in June 2025.

In the interim, the EDA hired North Shore Development Company (NSDC) to oversee and manage the administrative tasks of the role while the board reviewed and modified the director’s job description. NSDC is owned by Jason Hale, the former executive director of the Housing Redevelopment Authority (HRA). Theresa Bajda, the former EDA director, works for NSDC.

NSDC will oversee Wakefield’s onboarding process.

Clissold said once Wakefield is settled into the position, the EDA Board will evaluate and discuss the need for continued contracted work with NSDC.

For years, the EDA executive director position has been a one-person role, responsible for all administrative duties, overseeing operations at the Superior National Golf Course, leading economic development efforts, and managing the Cedar Grove Business Park, among other responsibilities.

Wakefield will now step into the role following the recent restructuring of the position and the elimination of golf course related duties. Furthermore, the Cedar Grove Business Park lots are all sold but still require some level of oversight and management.

With the recent changes in responsibility, Clissold said the EDA Board sees Wakefield focused on “pure economic development,” which entails securing state funding for projects, procuring grants, and overseeing the EDA business development grant program, among other initiatives.

Sale of Superior National Golf Course

Superior National Golf Course | Contributed by Superior National Golf Course

In addition to hiring a new executive director, the EDA has been involved in the ongoing process to sell the Superior National Golf Course. The sale process began in 2024.

In August 2025, the EDA selected Brady Hatcher, owner of Golden Eagle Golf Course in Brainerd, Minn., as the desired prospective buyer and settled on a sale price of $1.85 million. During the “due diligence” process of the sale, an inspection of the irrigation and septic system revealed needed repairs, estimated to cost $500,000.

Clissold said that after all expenses, including a $1.25 million bond retirement, the EDA will be $90,000 in the red after the sale.

With the significant costs of repairing the irrigation and septic systems and the profit shortfall, Clissold said the EDA is trying to “protect the activities of the EDA in 2026 to the best of our ability.”

To help cover costs amid the shortfall and also seasonal cash flow concerns with the golf course, the EDA requested a $200,000 loan from the county during a Feb. 10 Cook County Board of Commissioners meeting. The loan would be short-term, as the EDA is expected to receive repayment of a $200,000 loan from Gunflint Vue, LLC between September 2026 and September 2027.

During the Feb. 10 meeting, the Cook County Board of Commissioners decided to table the decision and explore additional loan options. The discussion resumed during the Feb. 24 meeting, where the board unanimously approved a $200,000 loan to the EDA using county reserve funds, pending the draft agreement by County Attorney Jeanne Peterson.

EDA President Clissold and Treasurer Mark Shackleton returned before the county commissioners at the March 24 meeting to continue discussions and review a draft $200,000 loan agreement.

Upon review of the loan agreement, Commissioner Gary Gamble recommended adding a section on sole recourse. Language in the agreement would ensure that the intention is to retire the loan with the collateral, and that no action would be taken to impact the county levy or taxpayer money, Gamble said.

Peterson said Gamble’s recommendation is covered and included in the security section of the agreement and suggested to the board not to limit the language regarding the source of the $200,000 loan payment. Any additional funding requests that may impact the levy would already require coming before the board for a vote, she said.

One of the recent developments in the sale of the Superior National Golf Course is a mechanics lien on Gunflint Vue, LLC, totalling $257,000.

Hoeft Builders, Inc, a Wisconsin-based general contractor business that was hired to work on the 51-unit Gunflint Vue apartment building, filed the mechanics lien paperwork with the Cook County Recorder’s Office on Nov. 3, 2025. Hoeft Builders is claiming that the $257,000 with interest and attorney’s fees is owed for unpaid labor, materials, equipment, and services furnished and performed for work conducted on the 51-unit apartment building in Grand Marais.

The county commissioners discussed the logistics and associated risks of loaning $200,000 to the EDA amid the mechanics lien on the Gunflint Vue, LLC.

Peterson said that while she can add language to the draft loan agreement to clarify the payments and expectations, she can’t fully “mitigate the risk.”

“The risk exists in and of itself,” she said.

County Administrator Kristen Trebil-Halbersma recommended that the county commissioners table the vote on the loan agreement until the April 14 meeting. In the meantime, Peterson will add additional language in the loan agreement, the county will seek further information about the mechanic’s lien, and the EDA will secure updated cost estimates for golf course repairs.

EDA Treasurer Shackleton said that as of March 23, the EDA will require $155,000 before the golf course sale closes. In the next two weeks, the EDA will have a clearer understanding of the estimated irrigation cost.

“We’ll have a better number on cash flow next week, and we’ll have a better number probably on irrigation costs,” Shackleton said.

WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins spoke with EDA President Peter Clissold following the March 17 EDA Board meeting about the new executive director, sale of the golf course, new SBDC consultant, and the business development grant program. Audio is below.

Kalli Hawkins March 25, 2026