Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN articles from July 2005

Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN archives from July 2005

MN Marketing Briefs: July 2, 2005.
July 2, 2005... Byline: Bob Geiger Minneapolis ad agency Periscope has resigned its Rainbow Foods account after Milwaukee-based parent Roundy's Supermarkets began a review that includes all three grocery store chains it operates in Illinois, Minnesota and...

Commentary: Mainstream news media discover real estate 'bubble'.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard It's unsustainable. It can't go on. It will never last. I'm talking, of course, about the current glut of media articles about the real or imagined bubble in the residential real estate market. Speculation...

Minneapolis-based Thrivent Financial responds to competitive lending market.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Mark Anderson It's been a successful and busy run for many financing pros in the commercial real estate business. But the flood of investment that's kept deals flowing and sellers excited has put the squeeze on many of the...

Whitney Hotel takes another step toward becoming condos.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Brian Johnson The old Whitney Hotel in downtown Minneapolis sparkles with tradition and history, but its track record from a business standpoint is less than stellar. A former grain mill, the 126-year-old structure at 150...

MN Real Estate Briefs: July 7, 2005.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Bob Geiger The sparsely developed northeast corner of North Oaks, near the onetime summer farm of railroad magnate James J. Hill, is on track for development. Gary Eagles, vice president of development for North Oaks Co., said...

MN Construction Briefs: July 7, 2005.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Brian Johnson Local homebuilders are asking state lawmakers to stop using proceeds from building permit fees to help balance the state's budget. The fees are supposed to go toward industry-related research and education, but...

Cities Edge Architects created from merger of two firms.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Two Minnesota architectural firms have merged and opened a Twin Cities office in Bloomington. As a result of the merger, the Waters Edge Architectural Group of Willmar and CRE + Associates Architects...

United Properties to manage St. Paul-based Green Tree Servicing buildings.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Green Tree Servicing, a St. Paul-based financial services company, has selected Bloomington-based United Properties to handle facilities management for its 527,000-square-foot real estate portfolio. The...

St. Paul BOMA plans Golden Broom Award.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff The St. Paul chapter of the Building Owners & Managers Association and the city of St. Paul are sponsoring the Golden Broom Award to honor three building owners who do the best job of keeping their...

Minnetonka-based Opus Northwest set to begin third phase of Savage complex.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Minnetonka-based Opus Northwest will break ground in August on the third phase of the Eagle Creek Commerce Center in Savage. The project will add 122,912 square feet of office and warehouse space to the...

Edina-based Frauenshuh Cos. exec promoted to senior V.P.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Edina-based Frauenshuh Cos. has promoted Brian Field to senior vice president of management services. Field, who has been with the company for six years, will be responsible for property and facility...

City of Cosmos granted state loan for water treatment facility.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff The city of Cosmos has been awarded a low-interest state loan of $990,550 for construction of a water treatment plant and a well for drinking water. The project is necessary because the arsenic level in...

Fifty South Sixth joins growing list of Minneapolis office towers for sale.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard Fifty South Sixth, one of the newest office towers in downtown Minneapolis, is the latest local building to be put up for sale. "We have engaged Holliday Fenoglio Fowler to market the building for sale," said John...

St. Paul's Gateway Village fuels West 7th renaissance.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Bill Clements Shawn Bartsh's favorite line when courting potential funders in the late 1990s for St. Paul's Gateway Village/West 7th redevelopment project was simple. "This is the primary entrance for most visitors to our...

Plans clash with politics in proposed Uptown Minneapolis project.
July 7, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard An eleventh-hour compromise paved the way for the Minneapolis City Council's approval of a revised version of Stuart Ackerberg's proposed mixed-use project in the city's Uptown neighborhood. On Friday, the city...

Minnesota lawmakers respond to eminent domain ruling.
July 8, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw Minnesota legislators have joined the chorus of state lawmakers nationwide who have introduced bills in response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain. The court ruled 5-4 on June 23 that a...

MN's agriculture appropriation bill offers array of provisions affecting state farmers.
July 8, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw Natural resources groups sat on the edge of their seats in June as a panel of House and Senate members debated the fate of the Legislative Commission on Natural Resources (LCMR). But LCMR reform was just a portion...

Eden Prairie-based MTS Systems signs letter of intent to sell testing division.
July 8, 2005... Byline: staff Eden Prairie-based MTS Systems Corp. on Thursday announced it is negotiating the sale of its powertrain technology division with Tokyo-based A&D Co. Ltd. Under the agreement, A&D has an exclusive period of 30 days to...

MN Marketing Briefs: July 9, 2005.
July 9, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Losing big clients is difficult for ad agencies, especially if the client is enjoying record sales and the advertising is well-received. Last month's decision by Minneapolis-based Fallon Worldwide to...

Minneapolis-based Norwest Equity Partners announces sale of Norwesco Inc.
July 12, 2005... Byline: staff Norwest Equity Partners, a Minneapolis-based private equity firm, has sold its portfolio company Norwesco Inc. to Allied Capital Corp. for $160 million. The transaction closed July 8 and was announced Monday. Norwesco, a...

Minneapolis-based Spanlink secures $12 million in financing.
July 12, 2005... Byline: staff Minneapolis-based Spanlink Communications announced Monday that it has secured $12 million in funding from BlueStream Ventures and Split Rock Partners. Spanlink will use the Series A financing to hire additional sales...

Minneapolis developer seeks deal for Wyman buildings.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Bob Geiger Minneapolis developer Ned Abdul says he is engaged in "serious discussions" to buy the Wyman Building at 400 First Ave. N. and the adjacent Wyman-Partridge Building at 110 Fifth St. N. in downtown Minneapolis. ...

Developers embroiled in lawsuit over development rights in St. Paul.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Bill Clements Developers Jerry Trooien and George Sherman are embroiled in a lawsuit over development rights to a portion of St. Paul's West Side Flats included in Trooien's massive $1.5 billion Bridges of St. Paul redevelopment...

St. Paul's Island Station project to go up for sale.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Bill Clements The Island Station project - an $80 million plan to convert a former coal-burning power plant in St. Paul into a 238-unit condo development - is for sale. The investor team that funded the ambitious project...

Market for downtown Minneapolis office buildings stays hot.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard Investment sales activity in downtown Minneapolis is becoming increasingly feverish. Fifty South Sixth, the Campbell Mithun Tower and Northstar Center have all come on the market in recent weeks. Combined, those...

Reports show gains in commercial market in Minneapolis.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard A couple of fresh market reports show a continuing trend of gains in the local commercial real estate market. Numbers from the forthcoming "Outlook" report from United Properties show the direct vacancy rate in...

From Minneapolis to Northfield, residential construction stays hot.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Brian Johnson A monthly report on residential building activity in the metro area shows that homebuilding is heating up in places as diverse as Minneapolis and Northfield. The report, released last week by the Builders...

Exec. director of Greater Minneapolis Building Owners & Mgrs. Assn. appointed to state committee.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Kent Warden, executive director of the Greater Minneapolis Building Owners & Managers Association, has been appointed to a state steering committee that is overseeing the consolidation of construction codes...

Target inks deal for City Center space.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard Ever-expanding Target Corp. has inked a fresh long-term lease at City Center for roughly 73,000 square feet of new space that was once home to a food court and retail shops. "It's a much different space than your...

Bloomington-based Welsh Cos. announces two industrial purchases.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Mark Anderson Just about a year ago, Welsh Cos. President Bob Angleson promised during an interview that his fast-growing company was planning to pick up its already-torrid acquisition pace in the next 18 months. The...

Buyers of St. Paul's Northwestern Building resist conversion into condos.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard When Rich Pakonen was among the partners who bought the Northwestern Building in St. Paul's Lowertown area a couple of years ago, the natural speculation was that the historic building would be converted into...

St. Paul developer Jerry Trooien also plans condos for Shepard Road parcel.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Bill Clements St. Paul developer Jerry Trooien is hatching condo plans for a 5-acre site along Shepard Road in the southwest corner of the city, overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. The parcel...

MN-based Upland Real Estate completes deal for Childtime Learning Center.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Minneapolis-based Upland Real Estate Group Inc. recently brokered the sale of the Childtime Learning Center in Maple Grove. Upland's Keith Sturm and Deborah Vannelli represented the seller of the...

Adolfson & Peterson Construction names head of facilities maintenance.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Steven Dussi has been named director of the facilities solutions group at Adolfson & Peterson Construction of St. Louis Park. In his previous job, Dussi headed North American sales for a Japanese firm...

St. Paul BOMA group plans security discussion.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff The security group of the St. Paul chapter of the Building Owners & Managers Association will examine issues related to homeland security at a meeting on Tuesday, July 26. Featured speakers will be...

CSM Lodging unveiling remodeled, rebranded St. Louis Park hotel.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Minneapolis-based CSM Lodging has scheduled a public ribbon-cutting ceremony today to celebrate the grand opening of the remodeled Marriott Minneapolis West hotel in St. Louis Park. The event will be...

Seminar on land-use rights in Minnesota set for October.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff A seminar for lawyers who specialize in land-use rights in Minnesota will be offered this fall by the National Business Institute. "Preserving Land Use Development Rights through Subdivision, Annexation...

New staffers join Eden Prairie-based HTG Architects.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Eden Prairie-based HTG Architects has added several people to its staff. Sean Raboin has named project architect, rejoining the firm after a two-year sabbatical to work on a master's degree at Clemson...

St. Paul officials plan strategy to clean up site.
July 14, 2005... Byline: Bill Clements St. Paul officials are negotiating with developers JLT Group and Sherman Associates over $1.5 million in environmental cleanup funds for disputed former industrial property along the riverfront. The funding, which...

Transportation funding still a concern at the MN Capitol.
July 15, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw Transportation advocates and lawmakers agree that the clock is still ticking on issues related to transportation funding. Limited progress was made earlier in the legislative session to increase funding for roads,...

Citizens League sees need for engaged public.
July 15, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw Citizens League President Sean Kershaw thinks that lawmakers reached a "reasonable short-term solution" this week on the state's two-year budget. Kershaw, however, sees significant problems ahead as the state's...

MN Marketing Briefs: July 16, 2005.
July 16, 2005... Byline: Bob Geiger Federated Department Stores Inc.'s acquisition of May Department Stores Co. has heightened concerns about job losses in the Marshall Field's marketing unit in Minneapolis. About 200 workers create marketing and...

Owners of low-income rental property win tax relief in Minnesota's state budget.
July 19, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw Housing advocates are claiming victory, thanks to an item in the state budget that was signed into law last week. Owners of low-income rental property will benefit from the resurrection of a tax classification that...

Burnsville courts medical device industry.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Brian Johnson Burnsville is putting out the welcome mat for the medical device industry. The south metro suburb, which is about 98 percent developed, is homing in on the emerging industry as it looks at the "redevelopment...

Former state building official criticizes use of design-build.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Brian Johnson Design-build construction is catching on throughout Minnesota and the rest of the country, but not everybody is sold on the trendy project delivery method. Many people swear by design-build - which allows a...

Finance and Commerce selects 2005 Innovators of the Year.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff The developer of a Marine on St. Croix housing project and a father-and-son development team that uses concrete-based construction techniques instead of traditional wood framing are among the winners of the...

Bainey Group breaks ground on office/warehouse facility.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Plymouth-based general contractor The Bainey Group Inc. has broken ground on a 50,800-square-foot, two-story office/warehouse distribution facility in Anoka for Central Power Distribution and is building a...

Woodbury Lakes adds five tenants.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Minnetonka-based Opus Group and Kansas City-based Red Development said five more retailers have committed to their Woodbury Lakes project at Interstate 94 and Radio Drive in Woodbury. The...

Ames Lake Community Center to celebrate grand opening.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff A grand opening celebration for the Ames Lake Community Center on the east side of St. Paul will be held next Thursday, July 28. The event will run from 4 to 6 p.m. at the site of the new center, 1144...

Owatonna-based Viracon expands Georgia facility.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Owatonna-based Viracon, which makes glass for installation on buildings, has completed a 60,000-square-foot addition at its plant in Statesboro, Ga. The addition will increase total square footage for...

The Village of Blaine retail center sells for $38.7M.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard Developer-turned-U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Doran has sold The Village of Blaine retail center for $38.75 million to an affiliate of the Multi-Employer Property Trust of Bethesda, Md. Doran's portion of The...

Developer T.J. Hammerstrom maintains vision amid adversity.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Bill Clements Developer T.J. Hammerstrom's attorney told him not to talk to journalists, because journalists are the enemy. But Hammerstrom, 37, a newcomer to the real estate development game who runs SpringPointe Development...

Minneapolis condo boom brings some tax relief.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Mark Anderson The condo boom has contributed a lot to water-cooler chat and real-estate hyperbole, but did anybody expect it would offer the best tax news that Minneapolis homeowners have heard in years? Residential property...

St. Paul Port Authority seeks $10 million for Mears Park Centre.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard The St. Paul Port Authority has listed Mears Park Centre, 230 Fifth St. E. in downtown St. Paul, for sale for $10 million. But the Port Authority may also keep the building, if it can find a tenant or tenants for...

Giant banners on CW Lofts project rankle Minneapolis officials.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Bob Geiger Oversized promotional banners on the CW Lofts condo project in northeast Minneapolis have drawn the attention of the city's Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC). The commission has summoned the developer of the...

MN Real Estate Briefs: July 21, 2005.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard Finance and Commerce has learned that The Business Journal, a local weekly newspaper, has inked a deal to leave the historic Rand Tower in downtown Minneapolis, decamping next door to One Financial Plaza this December....

Liberty Property Trust inks three lease deals.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff The Eden Prairie office of Liberty Property Trust has completed three lease agreements for 11,678 square feet of Class A office space in the Twin Cities. In the Whitewater Office Center II in...

Real estate expert featured at NAIOP breakfast.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff University of North Carolina-Charlotte real estate and development professor Steven Ott will be the featured speaker at the next breakfast meeting of the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of...

Two vice presidents hired at Bloomington-based Welsh Co.
July 21, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Two executives have joined Bloomington-based Welsh Co. Craig Patterson was hired as vice president of Welsh development and Mark Parten was named senior vice president of property and facility...

Minnesota's Senator Norm Coleman navigates political storms over Rove, CAFTA.
July 22, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw It's hard to sugar-coat the recent political controversies weathered by U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman in Washington, D.C. Minnesota's junior senator has been in the eye of a couple of maelstroms involving the disparate...

MN agriculture officials push ahead with federal organic certification cost-share program.
July 22, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw State agriculture officials are pushing ahead with a federal program that supports the organic farming industry despite dwindling funds. The Organic Certification Cost Share Program, approved in 2002 with funding...

MN Marketing Briefs: July 22, 2005.
July 23, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff After nearly 50 years covering the local advertising scene, Format magazine will cease publishing after its August issue. The move comes just 17 months after Edina firm Castaneda Williams Ltd. was hired...

Make-up of MN Legislature in 2006 may depend on outcome of St. Cloud special election.
July 26, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw The makeup of the state Legislature that will sit down for the 2006 session starting in March may depend on what happens in St. Cloud. That's because for sure one but possibly as many as three legislators will be...

Environmental groups weigh in on St. Paul riverfront housing project.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Brian Johnson A long-anticipated housing development planned for a state-protected riverfront site in St. Paul Park and Grey Cloud Township has a chance to move forward with help from an unlikely source - an environmental advocacy...

River Valley Church at peace in suburban office park.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard In the beginning, there was an office/warehouse building in Apple Valley. Tenants came, and saw that it was good. From the outset, the largest tenant in the Valley Business Center has been an unlikely office/warehouse...

Maple Grove still awaiting approval for new hospital.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Bob Geiger Construction of a new hospital in Maple Grove has been delayed at least one year by state lawmakers, who couldn't agree on which one of three health-care providers could build a hospital in the northern suburb. Al...

Stonebridge breaks ground on $24M Burnsville development.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Stonebridge Development broke ground last week on a $24 million mixed-use development in Burnsville's Heart of the City area. The Park Crest project - located east of Nicollet Avenue and south of 125th...

Bankers are beginning to warm up to 'green lending'.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Mark Anderson Earlier this month, Wells Fargo Bank made a pledge to lend at least $1 billion in the next five years to enterprises that promote protection of the environment. On Wells Fargo's list of lending candidates were new...

Condo corner convergence in up-and-coming Northeast Minneapolis?
July 28, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard As the downtown residential condo market gets clogged, developers are increasingly turning to new venues: up-and-coming neighborhoods with the right mix of elements to support condos. Last year, Bloomington-based...

Development team defies large-scale housing trend in Minneapolis.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Brian Johnson When it comes to condominium developments, bigger isn't always better. That's part of the philosophy behind a six-unit loft condo project planned for the Lyn-Lake neighborhood in Minneapolis. The proposed...

Minneapolis-based Pinehurst Properties plots condos for former funeral home site.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard Tom Lohmann is thinking outside the pine box. The president of Minneapolis-based Pinehurst Properties, Inc., has a contract to purchase the Werness Brothers funeral home site, 3500 50th St. W., and a plan to redevelop...

Commentary: Real estate ops firm puts Twin Cities under surveillance.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Burl Gilyard An ominous-looking black-and-yellow van parked directly outside our office on Tuesday. The side of the truck bore these legends: "CoStar Group," "Commercial Real Estate Field Research." This meant nothing to any of us....

Social investment firm opens Twin Cities office.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Mark Anderson Capital may be pouring into real estate, but affordable housing developers have generally been absent from the feast of the last few years. With the subsidies that drive most affordable projects tied to a federal...

Madison Lofts marketers find more buyers respond to visceral approach.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Bob Geiger The Northeast Minneapolis condo market is hot. But a "Moonlight Madness" promotion last weekend aimed at wooing prospective 20-something buyers to the Madison Lofts project was little match for the heat index that was...

Inspec architect gains Registered Waterproofing Consultant certification.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff David W. Campbell, AIA, has been certified by the Roof Consultants Institute as a Registered Waterproofing Consultant. RWC applicants satisfy rigorous experience and education requirements and pass an...

MN-based Hartford Group moves on with Legacy Village projects.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Eden Prairie-based Hartford Group Inc. closed on the financing and began construction of the 50-unit Wyngate Homes in the Legacy Village at Maplewood. The project offers rental, workforce housing for...

Burnsville firm acquires Kohlrusch Title Services.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Shakopee-based Kohlrusch Title Services announced this week that it has been acquired by Taurus V LLC, a Burnsville-based private investment firm. Terms were not disclosed. Kohlrusch Title, which has...

MN Shopping Center Assn. meeting surveys grocery industry.
July 28, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff The Minnesota Shopping Center Association (MSCA) will discuss the "State of the Grocery Industry" at its next meeting on Wednesday, August 3. Elliott Olson, chairman of the Bloomington-based consulting...

Former Senate majority leader Roger Moe enjoys life outside limelight.
July 29, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw Not too long ago, Roger Moe had a seat at the table during state budget negotiations. But the former Senate majority leader and 2002 gubernatorial candidate is now busy outside the limelight doing consulting work for...

MN ag officials beef up livestock ID system.
July 29, 2005... Byline: Charley Shaw The detection of contagious diseases in animals has spurred a nationwide effort to create a system that can track the food supply. The federal government put millions of dollars behind a National Animal...

Minneapolis officials tapping blogosphere to attract visitors.
July 30, 2005... Byline: Bob Geiger Seeking to provide unedited, locally produced lifestyle tips about Minneapolis to prospective tourists, the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association (GMCVA) in late August will start three Web logs, or...

MN-based Golf Galaxy completes public offering, starts trading.
July 30, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Golf Galaxy, an Eden Prairie-based owner and operator of golf specialty retail stores, began trading its shares Friday on the Nasdaq National Market. On Thursday, Golf Galaxy announced the initial...

St. Paul-based Patterson Cos. announces resignation of board member.
July 30, 2005... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff St. Paul-based Patterson Cos. on Friday announced the resignation of David Beecken from the company's board of directors. Beecken cited a potential conflict of interest as his reason for resigning. His...