Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN articles from August 2007

Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN archives from August 2007

Twin Cities manufacturer expands presence.
August 1, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Few people notice which company built their computer stand, much less the swivel mount for their flat-screen monitor or television. But Eagan-based Ergotron is a heavyweight in that niche and is growing at a...

Triangle of innovation in Minnesota.
August 1, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Thanks to the abundance of wind and vast cornfields, the agricultural economy of southwestern and west-central Minnesota is well poised for growth in renewable energy and the biosciences. But economic development...

Lawyers in Minn. facing a critical shortage of office support personnel.
August 1, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones Memo to lawyers throughout the state: The legal profession is facing a critical shortage of administrative support personnel. Office specialists, legal administrative assistants, legal secretaries -- however you...

Investors want more info on IHOP Corp. plans for financing acquisition of Applebee's International.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson Plans by IHOP Corp. to finance its acquisition of Applebee's International Inc. by selling 508 corporate-owned Applebee's could mean opportunities for a handful of Minnesota interests. The Glendale, Calif.-based...

University of St. Thomas in Twin Cities to launch its master's degree in commercial real estate.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson Entering a real estate career will get a little more convenient in the Twin Cities this fall. The University of St. Thomas will launch its master's degree in commercial real estate when classes begin in September,...

Jeff LaFavre stresses shared vision at Colliers Minneapolis office.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Jim Martyka When he became managing principal at the Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker three years ago, Jeff LaFavre knew that the firm faced some growth challenges. "The Twin Cities isn't as vibrant a market as...

Fast-growing tech firm N'compass Solutions finds SOHO near downtown Minneapolis to its liking.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard Fast-growing tech firm N'compass Solutions outgrew the space it leased for the last five years in northeast Minneapolis. After an extensive search, the firm decided to buy an office condo in the SOHO project in the...

High-class self-storage comes to the Twin Cities.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard A Chicago-area firm is bringing a new twist on self-storage facilities to the Twin Cities. Lock Up Storage Centers don't look like the average mini-storage buildings. Northfield, Ill.-based BRB Development favors new,...

No deal for Metro Transit bus barn site.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Bill Clements Negotiations have failed over land parcels that many had hoped would replace Metro Transit's former bus barn site on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul. Both the Metropolitan Council, parent of bus barn owner Metro Transit,...

Secure Computing expanding to new building in Midway Corporate Center in Twin Cities.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard Demand for new office space in St. Paul? Impossible? Not at Midway Corporate Center, where Minneapolis-based CSM Corp. will build a 63,000-square-foot building and lease it to Secure Computing Corp. The publicly...

Sale closes for Calhoun Square in Uptown area of Minneapolis.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff The Calhoun Square retail complex in the Uptown area of Minneapolis has new ownership. BlackRock Realty, an arm of New York-based investment management firm BlackRock Inc., closed on the property on July...

'Great Streets' program offered for Minneapolis businesses.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Minneapolis businesses in designated commercial districts can receive financial help and other assistance from a new city effort called the Great Streets Neighborhood Business District program. The...

Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker hires Nichols, rehires Leines.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff The Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker has hired a new staff member and brought back a former employee. The new hire is Michelle Nichols, a property manager responsible for managing...

Once-abandoned building reopens in Minneapolis.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Fifth Ward City Council Member Don Samuels will be among the dignitaries at the grand reopening of a formerly abandoned building at 1101 W. Broadway Ave. on the city's...

Shoreview-based Deluxe Corp. chooses Bloomington-based United Properties.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Bloomington-based United Properties will provide facilities management services for Shoreview-based Deluxe Corp. United Properties was already working with Deluxe on strategic real estate planning and...

Highgrove Community Federal Credit Union to break ground on West Seventh in St. Paul.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Highgrove Community Federal Credit Union will break ground on a two-story, 12,000-square-foot building at West Seventh Street, Montreal Avenue and Lexington Parkway in St. Paul at 6 p.m. next Thursday....

Danish medical products firm Coloplast coming to north Minneapolis.
August 2, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard A year ago, Danish medical products firm Coloplast announced plans to relocate its U.S. headquarters to Minneapolis from Marietta, Ga. Now, details of the company's plans are coming into focus. Coloplast, which will...

National Transportation Safety Board investigates Minneapolis bridge collapse.
August 3, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Officials had more questions than answers on Thursday about what caused the Interstate 35W Bridge to collapse into the Mississippi River on Wednesday night. Despite rampant speculation about the condition of the...

Minnesota federal aid on the way after tragic 35W bridge collapse.
August 3, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson and Charley Shaw Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and other state and national officials struggled to get their heads around the 35W bridge collapse during a press conference Thursday morning in nearby...

Finance and Commerce's parent company goes public.
August 3, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard Shares in Minneapolis-based Dolan Media Co. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, posting a solid showing in their first day on the market. Dolan shares opened at $14.50 in the initial public...

No finger pointing at the Minnesota Capitol over I-35W bridge collapse -- yet.
August 3, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Transportation funding has been a controversial topic at the state Capitol during recent legislative sessions. DFLers who control the House and Senate and some Republicans have been at odds with Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a...

Media outlets give wall to wall coverage on Minneapolis's 35W bridge collapse.
August 3, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Media coverage of the dramatic collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River was hard to miss. Commuters arriving home to catch 6 p.m. TV newscasts got more than the 30 minutes of happy-talk that have...

Minnesota contractors offer aid to 35W bridge collapse search effort.
August 3, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Local contractors are ready and willing to donate equipment and manpower to help with the search effort at the site of Wednesday's 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. The Associated General Contractors of Minnesota...

After the Minneapolis I-35 bridge collapse.
August 3, 2007... Byline: Bill Clements and Mark Anderson Oriane Casale, assistant director of the Labor Market Information Office of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development: "From an employment perspective, it's hard to imagine this...

St. Michael construction company awaits word on employee after bridge collapse.
August 4, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Progressive Contractors, the St. Michael-based firm that was working on the Interstate 35W Bridge when it collapsed Wednesday, says its first focus in the tragedy's aftermath is the worker who remained missing on...

Minnesota Marketing Briefs: August 4, 2007.
August 4, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger A failed fax might have saved Minneapolis ad executive Lori Sharbono from becoming a victim of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. Before leaving for home, Sharbono, vice president of business development at Minneapolis...

Pawlenty mulling special session.
August 4, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday afternoon was weighing the possibility of calling lawmakers back to St. Paul for a special session to deal with the crumbling of the 35W bridge. We're reviewing all of the needs and options...

With 35W route lost, Minneapolis encourages transit use.
August 4, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Twelve key park-and-rides in the metro area will offer free mass transit service to downtown Minneapolis next week to help ease congestion. Peter Bell, chairman of the Metropolitan Council, made the announcement Friday...

New skyway link in Minneapolis connects IVY Hotel + Residence development.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Construction is about to begin on a skyway bridge connecting the IVY Hotel + Residence development with the larger skyway system. The new link received a key approval from the city of Minneapolis two weeks ago, and...

Bloomington police plan substation at Mall of America.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Bids close Thursday on a general contract to build a new police substation at the Mall of America. The 1,800-square-foot space will house a branch of the Bloomington Police Department, which has five full-time officers...

St. Paul researcher presents at international construction conference.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Daniel Vruno of St. Paul-based American Engineering Testing recently presented a paper at the International Sustainable Construction Materials and Technology Conference in Coventry, England. Forty-nine...

Architectural designer hired at Minneapolis-based Hay Dobbs.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Craig Caligiuri has joined Minneapolis-based Hay Dobbs as an architectural designer. The University of Minnesota graduate has eight years of experience that includes local and international projects. Hay...

Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson to build Breezy Point project.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Construction Co. has been selected for a project in Breezy Point. Kraus-Anderson will demolish the existing Marina Restaurant at Breezy Point Resort and build a new...

Construction industry offers support to people affected by 35W bridge collapse.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Local construction trade associations are extending their sympathy and offers of assistance to people affected by the 35W bridge collapse. Robert Heise, president of the Minnesota Associated Builders and...

Minnesota charter school awarded grant for addition.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff New Visions Charter School has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Education to build a science classroom at the school's campus in northeast Minneapolis. The grant will pay for...

35W bridge in Minneapolis put on fast track.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson State and federal transportation officials vow to pull out all the stops in an effort to rebuild the 35W bridge as quickly as possible. The Minnesota Department of Transportation, in an "expedited request for...

Minnesota firms kick emergency systems into action.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman Julie Paleen was at her family cabin in northern Minnesota last Wednesday evening when the first news bulletins began coming in about the disastrous collapse of the 35W bridge in Minneapolis. Paleen, director of human...

Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp offers retirement talk to baby boomers.
August 8, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson U.S. Bancorp is reaching out - ever so gently - to that large cohort of baby boomers who aren't financially ready for retirement. The Minneapolis-based bank's most recent gambit was the roll-out in June of its...

DFL state senator from Roseville, Minnesota, persistence and apple pie.
August 8, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw In the summer of 1962, young civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. picked up six-year-old John Marty and lifted him onto the branch of a tree the little boy was trying to climb. Marty, now a seven-term DFL state...

Colleges in Minnesota jump on e-ride bandwagon.
August 8, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson At a time when energy costs and college tuition are spiraling higher than ever, several local colleges are turning to ultra-fuel-efficient electric vehicles. From the University of Minnesota to Minnesota State...

Office manses in Minneapolis can prove tough to sell.
August 9, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard You've heard about Class A, Class B and Class C office space. But what about Class M, as in mansion? A rarified group of former Minneapolis mansions now serve as commercial properties. Consider the Clifton Mansion at...

North Dakota REIT boosts Twin Cities presence.
August 9, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson Investors Real Estate Trust, North Dakota's top real estate investor, continues to expand in the Twin Cities medical office sector, starting work this month on a medical development project valued at about $15...

Hit me with your best shot: Real estate stats for Twin Cities.
August 9, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard A real estate report junkie never has to wait long for another fix. As any serious report junkie knows, you can never have too much information or too many reports. Bring it on. Give me the numbers, the charts, the...

St. Louis Park office complex changes hands.
August 9, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Affiliates of Boston-based AEW Capital Management and Chicago-based Golub & Co. have acquired Park Place East and West, a 387,000-square-foot, two-building complex in St. Louis Park. Located at I-394 and U.S....

Minnetonka-based Cargill Inc. opens R&D center in Plymouth.
August 9, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Minnetonka-based agriculture and food-processing giant Cargill Inc. this week opened a 19,000-square-foot research and development center in Plymouth to perfect polyurethane foam containing up to 40 percent...

St. Louis Park-based real estate recruiter hires Clapp Doane.
August 9, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report St. Louis Park-based Arlene Clapp Ltd. announced that Jennifer Clapp Doane has joined its executive recruiting team. Arlene Clapp Ltd. specializes in recruiting for the commercial real estate and construction...

Wayzata-based H.J. Development hires new leasing associate.
August 9, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Wayzata-based H.J. Development, a commercial real estate firm, has hired Joe Mahoney as a leasing associate. A 2006 graduate of the University of St. Thomas, where he earned a bachelor's degree in real estate,...

Kick-off for Waconia master-planned development.
August 9, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Developers will hold a "grand kick-off" in Waconia on Saturday to celebrate the marketing start of a large master-planned community called Interlaken, spanning almost 500 acres. Waconia, with just shy of 10,000...

Two St. Paul-based Met Council advisory boards need members.
August 9, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report The Metropolitan Council is taking applications to fill two positions on its Transportation Advisory Board. The St. Paul-based Met Council is also looking to fill four positions on its Metropolitan Parks and Open...

St. Paul-based Carl Bolander and Sons a logical choice for bridge cleanup.
August 9, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The Minnesota Department of Transportation wasted little time in selecting Carl Bolander and Sons to remove debris from the 35W bridge site. MnDOT, which is overseeing the $15 million debris removal effort, announced...

Boy Scouts chapter looking at former Hippodrome building near Ft. Snelling in Minneapolis.
August 9, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard Not every real estate investment goes according to plan. That's been the case for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board's seven-year ownership of the 201 Building near Fort Snelling. None of the park board's plans...

Mozaic mixed-use project in Minneapolis' Uptown on target, sort of.
August 9, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard In the spring and early summer of 2005, condo fever was running higher than August temperatures. Following a contentious battle over building height, the Ackerberg Group and CAG Development won approval from the...

Bolander selection consistent with state law, says Minnesota Department of Administration.
August 10, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The Minnesota Department of Transportation's fast-track selection of a contractor for debris removal at the 35W bridge site is consistent with state law, according to the Minnesota Department of Administration. "The...

HD radio makes a quiet debut in the Twin Cities.
August 10, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger HD radio is here, although few can hear broadcasts on the 14 radio digital channels in the Twin Cities. At the end of 2005, HD Radio Alliance -- a broadcast company cartel that includes Clear Channel Communications, CBS...

Minneapolis startup heeds call of Kenya.
August 10, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger When Les Mouser and George Halvorson left Minneapolis ad agency Campbell Mithun, they never expected to be creating print ads for the nation of Kenya. Instead, Mouser and Halvorson planned to fill an advertising niche...

Macy's publishes its own magazine.
August 10, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Macy's North, a 63-store division of Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores Inc., plans to launch a quarterly magazine called "M" in September. Published by Minneapolis-based MSP Communications, the magazine...

Hot off the presses: Minneapolis Star Tribune publishes early edition of Sunday newspaper.
August 10, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger In an attempt to stabilize circulation of its Sunday edition, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has been publishing a graphic-rich early edition of its Sunday newspaper called "Early Sunday" for the past seven weeks. The...

Sviggum's House District 28B stays Republican.
August 11, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw The winner of last Tuesday's special election in House District 28B says he does not support a gas tax hike that increases the overall state budget. Steve Drazkowski, a Republican from Wabasha in southeastern...

Sexton developers ordered to open sidewalks in Minneapolis.
August 11, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson The curtain has dropped a little further on efforts to launch the troubled Sexton condominium development's second phase on the eastern edge of downtown Minneapolis. Crews were working on the parcel at Portland...

So far, not so good with the Capitol restoration plans.
August 11, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw An ambitious $260 million state Capitol restoration proposal failed to win funding during the 2007 legislative session amid resistance from House members who have offices outside the Capitol building. As of early...

Construction of Great River Energy headquarters on schedule.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Construction of the new Great River Energy headquarters in Maple Grove remains close to its original schedule despite an accident that sent nine workers to the hospital in June. Gary Connett, manager of Great River...

How 'green' are bamboo and cork for flooring?
August 14, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson The U.S. marketplace has seen "green" products proliferate in recent years, and wood floors are no different. Bamboo and cork are two flooring options that have been available in the United States for about a decade....

Fasten your seat belts: Mall of America in Minneapolis to renovate its indoor amusement park.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The Mall of America is gearing up for a project that would make Bob the Builder envious: a major renovation of its indoor amusement park. The $25 million to $30 million project will update the 7-acre Park at MOA with...

Rural LEED homes in Minnesota face unique challenges.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson In November, the U.S. Green Building Council will take its LEED for Homes program nationwide, allowing home builders and owners to officially certify houses that are eco-friendly and energy efficient. But as early...

Federal bill targets popular legal tool in construction defect cases.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Nancy Seats would be hard-pressed to say that she's had a great experience in the court system. In the 1990s, Seats, now the president of a national homeowner advocacy group called Homeowners Against Deficient...

Cities of Arden Hills, Roseville to have say in Northwestern College expansion plans.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Northwestern College hopes to get key approvals in the coming weeks for a campus master plan that envisions at least seven new structures. By next summer, if all goes well, Northwestern could begin a construction...

Minn. Dept. of Transportation to reopen Hanson Boulevard bridge tonight.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Hanson Boulevard bridge over Highway 10 in Coon Rapids is scheduled to reopen tonight. The six-lane bridge and interchange at Hanson Boulevard and Highway 10, under construction since March,...

Road closed for Highway 12 bypass construction in Minneapolis area.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Work began Monday morning on a new interchange between Highway 12 and Wayzata Boulevard, a busy commuter corridor in the west metro. Wayzata Boulevard has been closed to traffic, and diverted to...

Open house, tour of Highway 36 in Twin Cities area postponed.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report An open house and site tour of the Highway 36 project in the east metro area has been postponed. The Transportation Engineering and Road Research Alliance (TERRA) event, originally scheduled for...

Minn. State Department of Transportation unveils early plans for I-35W bridge.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The Minnesota State Department of Transportation on Tuesday released a preliminary drawing showing an aerial view of a 10-lane span that would replace the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. Officials hope to complete the...

Reserves debated in 35W bridge rebuilding in Minnesota.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw The Republican House caucus wants Gov. Tim Pawlenty to dip into the state's $1.4 billion reserves instead of raising the gas tax to pay for state costs involved in rebuilding the I-35W bridge. They also don't want the...

Eden Prairie-based firm exploring the wave of the future.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson A technology demonstration is under way in the Gulf of Mexico that could revolutionize how energy is generated and water desalinated. That's the dream of officials with Eden Prairie-based Independent Natural Resources...

There's at least one reason why judicial elections in Minnesota have been fairly staid.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman Perhaps one reason that Minnesota so far has escaped a highly charged big-money judicial election is that business interests, the typical contributors to such races, actually like our courts. Earlier this year,...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: Sen. Terri Bonoff.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt Sen. Terri Bonoff says being a fiscal conservative often puts her at odds with her colleagues in the DFL caucus. Take her stance on education funding, for example. "I'm on a mission to transform our educational system...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: State Rep. John Benson.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Frank Jossi At a time a couple years ago when many of his colleagues were brushing up their golf games and looking for homes in the Sunbelt, retired high school teacher John Benson decided to run for office. Problem was, for almost...

Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker gets Rogers lease.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff San Francisco-based developer AMB Property Corp. has retained the Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker to lease an industrial facility under development at 13150 George Weber Drive in...

Minneapolis-based commercial developer CSM hires real estate development manager.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Minneapolis-based commercial developer CSM Corp. has hired Lisa Diehl to join its commercial properties division as a senior manager of real estate development. "We have an aggressive growth track plan...

Commercial lenders hit the brakes.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson There's always a brief late-summer lull in the commercial mortgage market as borrowers, lenders and mortgage bankers retreat to their personal versions of the beach. But there was also apprehension this year, brought...

TV Land: Hubbard Broadcasting to sell 5.5 acres to University of Minnesota.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard A decade ago, St. Paul-based Hubbard Broadcasting Inc. bought additional land to accommodate the expected growth of its publicly traded affiliate, U.S. Satellite Broadcasting (USSB). But in late 1998, Hubbard sold...

Debate continues in Minnesota over I-35W bridge design.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Bill Clements and Adam Johnson Include Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega among those who agree with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak that state officials should take the time to consider transit in the rebuilding of the I-35W...

Corps holds back Mississippi River water near collapsed I-35W bridge where divers are working.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Bill Clements For 10 hours each day, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is holding back as much as 2 feet of water from the Mississippi River near the collapsed I-35W bridge where divers are working. The idea is to make the difficult...

Twin Cities retail takes it on chin.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard The housing market slowdown and broader economic woes are being felt in the Twin Cities retail market after several years of strong performance and growth. A real estate market study by Bloomington-based Welsh Cos....

Twin Cities-based Metropoint gets a $10 million makeover.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard A year ago, Philadelphia-based BPG Properties Ltd. entered the Twin Cities market with an $86 million deal for what was then known as the Interchange Office Park. Although the complex stands at the heavily traveled...

Village at Mendota Heights enters final phase.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard Ross Fefercorn's RMF Group broke ground on Tuesday on the final phase of commercial development as part of The Village at Mendota Heights mixed-use development. The final phase adds 47,000 square feet of office and...