Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN articles from June 2008

Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN archives from June 2008

St. Paul-based Donjek hires Walsh as V.P.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report St. Paul-based consulting firm Donjek, Inc. has hired Dan Walsh, an experienced urban development strategist, as vice president. Walsh has expertise in analyzing and planning economic...

Bloomington office of real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis announces two new hires.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Bloomington office of real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis announced two new hires this week, with the addition of Ted Abramson in its Multi-Housing Group and Neil Kolatkar as the newest...

Mendota Heights-based Cemstone launches new website.(Website overview)
June 3, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Mendota Heights-based Cemstone announced it has re-launched its website at www.cemstone.com. The site contains interactive support for architects, engineers, contractors, builders and...

Associated General Contractors of Minnesota to host ConsensusDOCS presentation.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Associated General Contractors of Minnesota will host a free presentation on ConsensusDOCS on June 23. The event will be held from 8 to 10 a.m. at AGC's St. Paul office, 525 Park St., Suite...

Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson official receives LEED accreditation.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Construction Company announced that assistant project manager Kenneth Francois has received his LEED accreditation from the U.S. Green Building Council. The...

Edina-based Ron Clark Construction and Design receives Business Ethics Award.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Edina-based Ron Clark Construction and Design recently received the 2008 Minnesota Business Ethics Award. The award is given each year to honor those companies that exhibit the highest...

Minnesota Twins aim to pump up attendance with gas-price ticket deal.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report With paid attendance down 80,000 to 90,000 from last year, the Minnesota Twins on Monday began running a Tanks from the Twins promotion, cutting the price of many prime tickets by the cost of a...

Minneapolis-based nonprofit developer PRG exits rental housing.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard Minneapolis-based nonprofit developer PRG Inc. is getting out of the rental housing business with its sale of 87 affordable units to St. Paul-based CommonBond Communities, a much larger player in the nonprofit housing...

At Urban Land Institute gathering in Minneapolis, expert urges better connections in 35W bridge area.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson A new report from the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute calls for the U.S. to adopt more of a big-picture transportation focus, even at the expense of regional controls. Most metropolitan planning...

McAvey pieces together Minnesota's 35W bridge puzzle.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson Maureen McAvey likens the area around the new 35W bridge to an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. There are a number of places where you have the corner going really well, but it's almost like the top of the jigsaw puzzle...

Minnesota-based Best Buy becomes first retailer to accept 'e-waste'.
June 3, 2008... Byline: Kendall Anderson Responding to pressure from an environmentalist group, Richfield-based Best Buy is launching an expanded electronics recycling program that some hope takes the e-waste issue to a new level: U.S. retailers. To...

Hourcar to double Twin Cities service sites.
June 4, 2008... Byline: Kendall Anderson Hourcar, a nonprofit Twin Cities car-sharing program that leases Toyota Priuses by the hour, will double the number of its local service sites -- from 13 to 26 -- over the next two years. The expansion is being...

Central Corridor's next stop: Minneapolis.
June 4, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Central Corridor light rail line metaphorically rolled into Minneapolis City Hall on Tuesday afternoon. Central Corridor planners and the Metropolitan Council held an open house at City...

Coal plant protesters gather in Minnesota as Big Stone II prospects for plant in South Dakota dim.
June 4, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Mercury! Mercury! Bad for you and bad for me! Big Stone II's a factory! Stop it now and let it be! The streets outside the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission office in St. Paul echoed with chants...

Twin Cities business school St. Thomas gets $10M for business ethics program.
June 4, 2008... Byline: Kendall Anderson The Twin Cities' second-largest business school has announced a $10 million gift to enhance its business-ethics center and thereby distinguish itself in an increasingly competitive B-school climate. The Opus...

Rosati joins BNC Bank's Minneapolis office.
June 5, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Robert Rosati has joined BNC National Bank as a senior vice president in its Minneapolis commercial lending division. Rosati comes to BNC from U.S. Bank in Minneapolis where he spent nine years working in its...

Four Twin Cities firms win ethics awards.(Awards list)
June 5, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Four Twin Cities companies were named winners of the 2008 winner Minnesota Business Ethics Award, an annual recognition sponsored by the Twin Cities Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, the Center...

Manufacturers Building in Minneapolis sold.
June 5, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Uppal Enterprises recently completed its purchase of one of Minneapolis' historic downtown buildings, the Manufacturers Building at 401 First Ave. N. Uppal bought the 52,175 square-foot retail and office building from...

Met Council in Minneapolis seeks parks panel applicants.
June 5, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff The Metropolitan Council is taking applications for a position on the Metropolitan Parks and Open Space Commission to represent an area including most of Minneapolis, except the southwest portion of the city, and St....

Richard joins St. Paul-based Minnetronix.
June 5, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Diane Richard has joined Minnetronix, Inc., a St. Paul-based medical device design and manufacturing firm, as its director of human resources. Richard comes to Minnetronix from the Ordway Center in St. Paul, where...

Thormodsgard joins Minneapolis Foundation board.
June 5, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff The Minneapolis Foundation recently appointed Diane L. Thormodsgard to its Board of Trustees. Thormodsgard is vice chairman and head of Wealth Management and Security Services for U.S. Bancorp, and was president of...

Wealth Enhancement Group moves HQ to Plymouth.
June 5, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff The Wealth Enhancement Group recently relocated its corporate headquarters from Wayzata to 505 N. Highway 169, Suite 900, in Plymouth. The group made the move to accommodate recent and planned growth and to improve...

St. Paul Police: Logistics for Obama gathering not comparable to RNC.
June 5, 2008... Byline: Betsy Sundquist St. Paul police, accustomed by now to handling huge crowds at the Xcel Center for rock concerts and sporting events, took Tuesday night's Barack Obama rally there in stride -- even with only four days' notice. ...

Medicare reimbursement proposed for high-tech checks.
June 5, 2008... Byline: Arundhati Parmar Your heart is beating erratically and it needs to be monitored regularly. Would you rather (a) haul yourself to the city hospital every so often, or (b) strap on a device that transmits your heart condition...

Minneapolis-based ADC Telecommunications tops analyst estimates.
June 5, 2008... Byline: Arundhati Parmar Minneapolis-based broadband equipment maker ADC Telecommunications Inc. posted double-digit growth in its second fiscal quarter and showed an improving bottom line, beating analyst expectations. In the quarter...

St. Paul hiring minority contracts czar.
June 6, 2008... Byline: Kendall Anderson The City of St. Paul announced Thursday that it will create a new department -- run by a new cabinet-level director -- to ensure that a fair percentage of its contracts are awarded to companies run by qualified...

Minnesota Public Utilities Commission delays vote on Big Stone II.
June 6, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on Thursday voted 3-2 to defer its decision on a South Dakota coal-fired electricity plant until an outside independent expert testifies about the cost of carbon emissions...

Age wave threatens health care in Minnesota.
June 6, 2008... Byline: Frank Jossi To deal with the silver tsunami of retirees descending on Minnesota and the nation, government policymakers will have to bolster current programs and create new ones to help families and senior citizens pay future costs...

Hennepin County makes shift to all-recycled paper.
June 6, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Hennepin County has achieved a new level of earth-friendliness: 100 percent of the paper it uses in copiers and printers is now from recycled sources. And, through the county's cooperative purchasing program, it sells...

Minneapolis tech company demonstrates conferencing robot.
June 6, 2008... Byline: Arundhati Parmar Minneapolis-based PowerObjects Inc. has created an innovative tool to communicate with its development team in Islamabad, Pakistan. It's a 5-foot-3-inch, 215-pound robot called POGO -- a sort of rolling,...

FAF Advisors sees big opportunities in new markets.
June 9, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson In spite of a weak market, the past couple of years have been good for FAF Advisors, Inc. For the two years ended March 31, a period when U.S. equity markets were virtually flat, the firm built its assets under...

Upscale in Uptown: Apartments in works in Minneapolis.
June 9, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson The projects are moving ahead, they just aren't hotels any longer. Eighteen months ago, three developers were each committed to bringing the first hotel since 1978 into Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood. ...

St. Paul tapped for community-planning pilot project.
June 9, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard St. Paul will be one of four U.S. cities participating in a pilot community-planning program sponsored by the New York-based Environmental Simulation Center (ESC). The nonprofit ESC deploys technology and...

Breaking in the wind.
June 9, 2008... Byline: F&C News Brief A Minneapolis police officer diverts traffic at Fifth Avenue and Eighth Street downtown after strong winds blew out windows in the Centre Village building Friday afternoon. Police directed pedestrians away from Fifth...

All along the tower watch.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard The last new office tower in downtown Minneapolis, Retek on the Mall, was completed at the end of 2001. In the seven years since, no new ground has been broken for any new office towers downtown, and today it remains...

Minneapolis PR exec hopes to beat odds, survive bout with rare bone cancer.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger For Todd Andrews, each workday is literally a breath of fresh air. Andrews, 30, is an account manager at Minneapolis public relations firm Karwoski & Courage (K&C). Like his peers, he spends his days writing news...

St. Paul-based Carl Bolander & Sons lauded for safety.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Carl Bolander & Sons, a St. Paul-based specialty contractor, recently earned a pair of safety awards related to its debris-removal work at the scene of the I-35W bridge collapse. On May 16, the...

CEO of Minneapolis-based Virtual Radiologic honored.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Virtual Radiologic Chairman and CEO Sean Casey won Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award in the technology category in the Upper Midwest Regional program on Thursday. To alleviate the...

Minneapolis-based Weidt Group joins Climate Registry.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Weidt Group, a Minneapolis-based design consulting firm, has joined the Climate Registry, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information about greenhouse-gas emissions. The...

St. Paul-based TKDA adds new staff.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report TKDA, a St. Paul-based engineering and design firm, has added five employees to its St. Paul office. The new employees are Philip Briggs (registered architect), Fred Beukema (graduate...

Dale Nordquist to lead Minneapolis-based Zareba Systems.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Zareba Systems, a Minneapolis-based electric fence manufacturer, appointed Dale Nordquist as the company's president and chief executive officer effective July 1. He replaces Jerry Grabowski, who...

Melton joins HTG Architects in Eden Prairie.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report HTG Architects has added industry veteran Mike Melton to its staff. Melton, who has 10 years of experience in the design industry, is the firm's new vice president of business development in the...

Minneapolis design firm excels in post-WW II housing.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson The Rodney Dangerfield of housing is finally getting some respect, in the person of Judy Grundstrom and her Minneapolis design firm, IOTA. IOTA is carving out a niche by putting a modern touch on ramblers and...

Minneapolis PR exec hopes to beat odds, survive bout with rare bone cancer.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger For Todd Andrews, each workday is literally a breath of fresh air. Andrews, 30, is an account manager at Minneapolis public relations firm Karwoski & Courage (K&C). Like his peers, he spends his days writing news...

All along the tower watch in downtown Minneapolis.
June 10, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard The last new office tower in downtown Minneapolis, Retek on the Mall, was completed at the end of 2001. In the seven years since, no new ground has been broken for any new office towers downtown, and today it remains...

Snapshots of behavior changing as Minnesotans deal with $4-a-gallon gas.
June 11, 2008... Byline: Kendall Anderson Car pools are growing, close-in homes are selling, customers are buying scooters and Hummers sit unsold. When gas climbs past $4 a gallon, things change. And some local experts think the new transit-related...

Gut instinct drives Minnesota restaurateur.
June 11, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard Phil Roberts has been busy lately. His company, Edina-based Parasole Restaurant Holdings Inc., is just getting ready to open its latest restaurant: a French-themed Salut Bar Americain, along Grand Avenue in St....

Companies in Twin Cities area respond creatively as gas reaches $4 a gallon.
June 11, 2008... Byline: Kendall Anderson Like most local businesses, medical transport companies are agonizing over a 40 percent year-over-year price increase in diesel fuel. Unlike others, North Memorial Medical, Allina Medical Transportation and a...

Boardman heads regional Wealth Mgmt. Group for USB in Twin Cities.
June 12, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Michael Boardman has been named Twin Cities market leader for the U.S. Bank Wealth Management Group and president for its central region, which includes Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. In his...

Sage-Martinson takes staff role for Central Corridor group in St. Paul.
June 12, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff The Central Corridor Funders Collaborative and Learning Network has named Jonathan Sage-Martinson to be its coordinator. Sage-Martinson will deliver staff support for the network's efforts to foster healthy community...

Coldwell Banker Burnet buys RHS Realty in Apple-Valley.
June 12, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Coldwell Banker Burnet announced Tuesday that it has acquired another Minnesota residential real estate business, Apple Valley-based RHS Realty LLC. RHS Realty's four offices in the Twin Cities and Mankato will now...

Eden Prairie attorney wins real estate law certification.
June 12, 2008... Byline: F&C News Brief Joel A. Hilgendorf has been certified as a real property law specialist by the Minnesota State Bar Association. Hilgendorf is a lawyer with Hellmuth & Johnson, PLLC, a firm with offices in Eden Prairie. ...

Kandiyohi pulls plug on Midtown project in Minneapolis.
June 12, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Kandiyohi Development Partners announced last Friday that it would forgo further efforts to develop Midtown Eco Energy, a renewable energy facility at the South Transfer Station in Minneapolis. The Kandiyohi group...

Buell heads Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray's investment research.
June 12, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Piper Jaffray & Co. has tapped Steve Buell to be the new head of its investment research team. Buell will be based in Piper's New York office but will also work from the firm's Minneapolis headquarters. Buell has...

Minneapolis-based CRF sells out 19th securities offering.
June 12, 2008... Byline: F&C Staff Community Reinvestment Fund, USA has sold out a $62 million security offering, its largest ever. The Minneapolis-based nonprofit supports community-based and economic development lenders by pooling their loans for...

Minn. Dept. of Employment and Economic Development awards cleanup grants for redevelopment projects.
June 12, 2008... Byline: Adam Johnson A 143,000-square-foot industrial redevelopment sought by the St. Paul Port Authority was one of 11 projects awarded cleanup funds by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) on Wednesday....

U.S. House passes $14.9 Amtrak bill.
June 12, 2008... Byline: Adam Johnson The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday to authorize $14.9 billion in Amtrak funding to upgrade and expand the national passenger rail service over the next five years. Sponsored by Rep. Jim...

New Hope-based online grocer SimonDelivers lays off workers.
June 12, 2008... Byline: Kendall Anderson Local online grocery leader SimonDelivers has laid off 17 employees -- about 6 percent of its workforce -- and is taking other measures to rein in expenses, according to company officials. I can confirm that...

Maple Grove disabled vet says he's been 'blacklisted' by Department of Veterans Affairs.
June 12, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson A Maple Grove business owner and service-disabled veteran says he's been blacklisted by the local arm of a federal agency that's supposed to help American service people: the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. ...

VA in Minn. re-awards projects after veterans' bid protests.
June 12, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson In the last several months, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has had to rescind contract offers on two local projects aimed at military-veteran-owned firms after complaints from two veterans whose businesses...

Minneapolis-based Xcel plugs renewable power for GOP, Democratic conventions.
June 12, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Adding to the political energy expected to be generated by the Republican and Democratic national conventions, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc. has announced it will supply solar- and wind-generated energy to both...

Wells Fargo Bank selling stalled Otsego, Lakeville developments.
June 12, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard The original marketing pitch for the Martin Farms development in Otsego sounded quaint and inviting: a master planned community... where picturesque neighborhoods are woven around a central Commons park that features...

Saint Paul Area Association of Realtors: Metro housing market stays on path to recovery.
June 12, 2008... Byline: F&S Staff Report Pending sales of existing, single-family homes increased 5 percent between May and April, according to the Saint Paul Area Association of Realtors. The association reported 4,418 pending sales during the month...

States could face huge reduction in federal Highway Trust Fund dollars.
June 13, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson An expected shortfall in the federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for fiscal year 2009 could put tens of thousands of construction workers out of work across the country and force states to cancel or delay several hundred...

Eye on the states: Transportation funding in Minnesota.
June 13, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson The $142.5 million dollar hit in Highway Trust Fund dollars for fiscal 2009 represents a bloodletting that could result in the loss of nearly 5,000 construction jobs. It's even worse than that. Look at it...

Eye on the states: Transportation funding in Wisconsin.
June 13, 2008... Byline: Paul Snyder If the federal Highway Trust Fund follows projections and partially dries up at the end of the year, it will mean trouble for Wisconsin. If you look at it, every road program in Wisconsin has a combination of state...

Transportation funding by state: Arizona.
June 13, 2008... Byline: Christian Palmer The future of Arizona's transportation systems is in jeopardy as a result of the rising cost of construction materials, rapid population growth and the continued depletion of the federal Highway Trust Fund. ...

Transportation funding by state: Oklahoma.
June 13, 2008... Byline: Brian Brus Oklahoma can't be expected to fill a $173 million pothole without some major delays in road construction projects. The scope of that project may be changed or altered. That doesn't mean we're not going to do it, said...

St. Paul Ford's credit union embarks on next generation.
June 13, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson Ford's shutdown of its historic, massive St. Paul plant will reverberate through the economy in many directions during the next few years. One consequence that's already unfolding is the expansion of the...

Foreclosures keep climbing in Minnesota.
June 14, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard New statistics from RealtyTrac show national foreclosure filings up 48 percent in May, compared to the same month a year earlier. The number of filings in May was also up 7 percent month-over-month. May was the...

Presidential candidates could spend $100 million advertising in Minnesota.
June 14, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger If you like political ads, you'll love what's coming this fall. Minnesotans, split down the middle in terms of political preference, can again expected to be bombarded with innumerable ads as Democratic and...

Minneapolis firm may seek first-ever public offering for wind power.
June 14, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Minneapolis-based wind farm developer National Wind LLC has received permission from Minnesota and South Dakota officials to make intrastate public offerings of securities for wind-energy developments in those two...

Analysts: Eden Prairie-based ADC Telecommunications should profit from broadband boom.(Financial report)
June 14, 2008... Byline: Arundhati Parmar They're doing something right at ADC Telecommunications Inc. Last week, as the Nasdaq dropped 0.6 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 300 points, the stock of the Eden Prairie company...

Koski joins Minneapolis office of Leo A Daly.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Phillip Koski has joined the Minneapolis office of design firm Leo A Daly as senior project designer. Koski, who has 14 years of experience as a project designer and project manager at various...

New hotel opens in Red Wing, Minnesota.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Country Inn & Suites By Carlson has opened a new, 61-room hotel at 4275 Highway 61 West in Red Wing. The hotel's features include an indoor pool, whirlpool and fitness center, a meeting room...

Associated General Contractors of Minnesota plans tour of hospital project.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Associated General Contractors of Minnesota's Construction Leadership Council is presenting a tour of the Maple Grove hospital project. The June 26 event begins at 2:45 p.m. at the D.J....

Eden Prairie-based ADC Telecommunications loses appeal on patent-suit.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Eden Prairie-based ADC Telecommunications lost a patent-infringement lawsuit Monday when a special appeals court ruled against the maker of broadband equipment. In 2004, ADC filed a lawsuit...

Cargill, shippers in Minnesota hurt by flooding.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Kendall Anderson The floods in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri are triggering problems in Minnesota, as well. Experts say Cargill and other agribusiness companies are facing increased costs, and the shipping industry is...

Minnesota-based Vision Remodeling adds sales director.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Vision Remodeling, a Little Canada-based remodeling firm, has added a new sales director to its staff. Therese Kemp, who has 20 years of experience in residential construction and remodeling,...

St. Paul-based Howard R. Green expands Environmental Resources Group.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Howard R. Green Co., a St. Paul-based architectural and engineering firm, has added two employees to its Environmental Services Group. Leslie Knapp joins the company as project manager and Mark...

Minnesota Department of Transportation wish list is more than bridges, roads.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Charley Shaw Rails, not roads. Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) officials, testifying before a joint House and Senate committee Monday, said the agency is shifting its focus from simply expanding the highway...

Minneapolis-based Hoyt Properties: Tough times an opportunity for 'redefinition'.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard Ask Steve Hoyt about the worst deal of his three-decade-long real estate career, and he doesn't hesitate. Hoyt points to his short-lived stint as landlord to a local medical company that had attracted millions from...

Self-described 'country girl' from Minnesota has good business sense.
June 17, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson Diane Willenbring is in the homebuilding business. And she considers herself lucky. That may seem like an oxymoron, given the shape of the current residential construction market. But Willenbring, who owns...

Lakeville-based homebuilder files for bankruptcy.
June 18, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson The declining residential construction market in the Twin Cities has claimed another high-profile victim; Lakeville-based MW Johnson Construction has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It's miserable out...