Max Community Enterprises
The Max Community pulls together to provide for its needs... Vital services are assured by community support.
If there is a single reason that Max has succeeded, when communities around it failed... it is because of MAX COMMUNITY ENTERPRISES, INC. The success of the enterprise is not measured in its financial worth or holdings, but in the services it has managed to keep in the city.
Max Community Enterprises was organized in 1980 when the only grocery store in town was for sale and there were no buyers. Bylaws were drawn up and Max Community Enterprises was incorporated as a for-profit corporation. Max Grocery was purchased by the new organization after a stock sale at $250 per share. Remodeling was done and it was immediately leased out.
Initially the corporation paid 2 to 2 1/2 percent on the stock, but officers soon found that people really didn't want returns on their investments; rather they wanted the money invested back in their community. They wanted a strong, viable and fully functioning home town.
The local lumber yard was bought and soon sold. In 1987 disaster struck the community when the only auto repair facility, the Huettl Garage, burned. A meeting following the fire resulted in a major stock sale, resulting in Max Community Enterprises rebuilding the garage in record time. Another proud result of the corporation's business ventures is retaining a gas station for the city. The former Standard Station was purchased and leased in 1982. It later became a successful Conoco Station and was sold. The most recent activity has been negotiating a home for a new Dakota, Missouri Valley & Western Railroad maintenance shop in the area . The expanding, Bismarck- based railroad company will put the facility on land and infrastructure donated by the city about a mile southwest of Max along the existing CP rail line. Between 10 and 14 people are expected to be employed.
Max Community Enterprises deals only in real estate. It may renovate the building the business is located in, but does not deal with inventory or the business itself. Once needed improvements are made, the business is leased or sold. Every lease is written with the option to buy. Max Community Enterprises sells stock, makes the down payments, and charges enough rent -- usually far below market values, to make the payments and keep a small profit margin to pay taxes and insurance and cover emergencies. As each business gets established, the expectation is that rents can be increased and the money used for new projects or to pay off the stockholders. There are about 190 stockholders, with no one owning more than just a few shares. Not bad for a community of about 300!
The success of the enterprise, and therefore the city of Max, has been in its ability to respond to the service needs of the community, which otherwise would have almost surely been lost. Not only is this a community effort, but area banks have enthusiastically worked hand in hand with Max... "The City That Could!"