Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN articles from November 2007

Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN archives from November 2007

Founder, CEO of Inver Grove Heights-based Red Ladder Inc. raises the Barr.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Jim Martyka Regina Barr tends not to dawdle. "One thing you'll learn about me is that I move quickly," said the founder and CEO of Inver Grove Heights-based Red Ladder Inc., a consulting firm for the banking and financial...

The price is right for office towers in Minneapolis.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson If there's a story behind the $186 million price tag on the Fifth Street Towers, it's about how sweet it is to own -- not build -- a Class A office building today. London-based Strategic Real Estate Advisers, or...

Expansions, new Bloomington station in works for Hiawatha.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Ten of 17 Hiawatha Line light-rail stations will be expanded and a new station built in Bloomington under a plan approved by the Metropolitan Council Transportation Committee. The panel voted last week to spend $1.5...

Minneapolis sells five parking ramps for $65M.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Bill Clements Minneapolis has closed on the sale of five of its 24 municipal parking ramps to St. Louis Park-based Alatus Partners for $65.1 million. Alatus agreed in the deal to complete about $23 million in mixed-use developments...

Twin Cities business community could learn lesson from Salt Lake City transit.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Twin Cities business leaders could learn a thing or two from their Salt Lake City counterparts about how to solve a transportation funding stalemate. Concerned that serious traffic congestion could threaten the economy...

N.Y.-based investment firm acquires three properties in Coon Rapids.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson Infinity Capital Management quietly joined the roster of retail investors in the Twin Cities this year with three acquisitions in Coon Rapids. The Syracuse, N.Y.-based investment adviser closed in August on the most...

Minneapolis church puts faith in affordable housing.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard You won't find the Minneapolis-based Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation (PCNF) on the list of the area's largest nonprofit housing developers. But the church foundation is an emerging player with two proposed...

Architectural Record editor headlines AIA convention in Minneapolis.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt Despite the many challenges facing the industry, it's a great time to be an architect, says Robert Ivy, editor-in-chief of Architectural Record. Ivy will be the keynote speaker at the 73rd annual American Institute of...

Defense contractor extends lease at Fridley facility.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff BAE Systems Land & Armaments has extended its lease at the largest industrial building in Minnesota -- a 2 million-square-foot facility in Fridley. The local office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker...

Minneapolis-based Colliers Turley Martin Tucker executive named to Central Corridor board.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff David Stokes, a vice president with the local office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, has been appointed to the Central Corridor Station Area Planning Steering Committee. The panel will plan for zoning...

Ceremony set for Hiawatha Avenue bridge in Minneapolis.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $5.1 million cable-stayed pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Hiawatha Avenue at 28th Avenue has been set for 4 p.m. next Thursday. A celebratory lighting of the 220-foot...

St. Cloud mall sold for $13.6M.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Encino, Calif.-based Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has arranged the sale of the 113,510-square-foot 2nd Street Quad retail mall in St. Cloud for $13.6 million. The price amounts to...

PR firms developing a new service segment called "blog relations".
November 2, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Think of it as trying to herd cats. PR firms increasingly are attempting to get their arms around the unfettered world of the blogosphere, developing a new service segment called "blog relations." They monitor blogs...

Minnesota Marketing Briefs: November 2, 2007.
November 2, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger After winning three local clients, Rochester, N.Y., ad agency Roberts Communications Inc. plans to open a branch office in the Twin Cities. The agency is searching for new office space after landing a $1 million project...

Minnesota governor appoints 11 to Board of Electricity.
November 2, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Eleven veterans of the electrical industry are Gov. Tim Pawlenty's choices for the state's Board of Electricity. The 12-member board, which includes the Department of Labor and Industry...

Heartland Financial seeks to maintain a small-town flavor in Twin Cities.
November 3, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson Heartland Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: HLTF) of Dubuque, Iowa, will follow a well-trodden banking path from small markets to the Twin Cities when it launches its first local office this month. The $3.2 billion bank...

Health care: Wrestling the beast.
November 3, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Health care costs are exceeding the rate of increase for wages and inflation of Minnesotans, and legislators on a health insurance system panel want to do something to stem the increasing tide. While the growth in...

Winona city manager fights for open spaces, LGA.
November 3, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Winona City Manager Eric Sorensen's childhood on the South Side of Chicago might seem like a world away from the southeastern Minnesota city on the Mississippi River he has called home for the last 20 years. But...

Minnesota Twins ballpark design in line with budget, officials say.
November 6, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson So far, it exists only an architectural model. But the real Twins Stadium is slowly rising from the ground in downtown Minneapolis, and the final design depicted on the model is doable within the $390 million...

Architectural model of new Minnesota Twins stadium brings project to life.
November 6, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson What has 240 feet of fiber-optic wire, 640 fiber-optic lights, 4,000 air-brushed "stones" and an LCD screen from a DVD player? Those ingredients -- plus myriad other bits and pieces ranging from plastic and acrylic...

Far out physics lab closer to reality for University of Minnesota.
November 6, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The University of Minnesota hopes to take construction bids as soon as this winter for a $260 million cutting edge physics laboratory in northern Minnesota. Last week, the university announced that a $45.6 million...

Security improvements for Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis.
November 6, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Two redesign projects inside the Hennepin County Government Center will improve both the look and the security system of the downtown Minneapolis building. The weapons screening system and the service desk are getting...

Awash in water problems, church project in Woodbury finally under way.
November 6, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Crossroads Church of Cottage Grove had most everything it needed to build a larger church building: a sizeable piece of land in Woodbury, a growing congregation and a desire to become a regional worship center. The...

Proposed makeover for Mayo Civic Center in Rochester still 'a dream'.
November 6, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson A proposed $75 million upgrade that would nearly double the size of the Mayo Civic Center could generate much-needed new business activity for Minnesota's third-largest city. That's why the long-awaited project is at...

Illegal traffic adds a safety concern for Highway 212 crews in Minnesota.
November 6, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The new Highway 212 isn't yet ready for traffic, but that hasn't stopped some motorists from giving the roadway a test drive. Highway 212 crews have seen motorists driving around barricades onto sections of the...

Bloomington-based BOR-SON Construction adds two to its staff.
November 6, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Bloomington-based BOR-SON Construction, Inc. has announced two additions to its staff. Charles H. Kramer was named corporate controller and Grant Varo joined the firm as an associate project manager. Kramer was...

Kansas City-based Burns & McDonnell opens regional office in Bloomington.
November 6, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Kansas City-based construction services firm Burns & McDonnell announced the opening of a regional office in Bloomington last week. Initially, the branch will focus on providing engineering design to meet...

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers breaks ground on Medford facility.
November 6, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers broke ground on an expansive regional auction campus in Medford on Oct. 31. Spread across approximately 70 acres at 6000 Frontage Road in Medford 50 miles south of Minneapolis, the...

12 appointed to Minnesota's new board of high-pressure piping systems.
November 6, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Gov. Tim Pawlenty has appointed 12 people to the state's new board of high-pressure piping systems. Created by the 2007 Legislature, the board adopts and amends the high-pressure piping code, interprets the code,...

KKE Architects in Minneapolis announces Vision Award winners.(Awards list)
November 6, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report KKE Architects presented two North Dakota State University students with its Vision Award. The students, Sarah Hooge and Nakina Wegman, will receive $1,000 and be eligible to participate in a summer internship...

Minneapolis-based Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. hires engineer Rebecca Nestingen.
November 6, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Minneapolis-based Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. has hired Rebecca Nestingen as a graduate water resources engineer. Nestingen will work from the national firm's St. Paul office, focusing on preparing hydrologic...

Fundraising effort nets $11.8M for St. Louis Park-based Tactile Systems.
November 7, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson St. Louis Park-based Tactile Systems Technology has raised $11.8 million in investment capital over the past five months, a record amount for a company that serves a narrow niche in the medical market. The Flexitouch...

St. Paul-based Kendall Howard thinks locally, sells globally.
November 7, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson While other technology startups gravitate toward the heart of the Twin Cities, Kendall Howard LLC is moving its headquarters in the opposite direction. The St. Paul-based manufacturer of computer-rack enclosures and...

Minnesota Tekne Awards honor tech leaders in the Twin Cities.
November 7, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff The Minnesota High Tech Association has named the 2007 winners of the Minnesota Tekne Awards, honoring top technology companies and professionals. The awards, presented in partnership with LifeScience...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: Julie Bunn.
November 7, 2007... Byline: Frank Jossi When Lake Elmo DFL activist Julie Bunn could not convince anyone to run for the Lake Elmo 56A seat in 2006, she decided to do it herself. The economist-turned-legislator was part of a DFL sweep of District 56 in...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: Thomas Bakk.
November 7, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt Sen. Thomas Bakk, DFL-Cook, is eager to talk about his desire to be Minnesota's next governor. It's Tuesday, Oct. 23, and that day's edition of the Mesabi Daily News carries a story in which Bakk publicly reveals for...

Report touts the value of pro sports venues in Minnesota.(Report)
November 8, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson A new report from the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission makes a case that the public benefits outweigh the costs of investing in professional sports facilities. The commission released the 22-page report...

Election results highlight education funding problems in Minnesota.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Bev Petrie of Stillwater spent the last six months waging a grueling campaign to pass three operating levy increases for Stillwater public schools. One of the three passed. During a press conference Wednesday morning...

Fingerhut Direct Marketing signs new lease for Eden Prairie site.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard United Properties has landed a tenant to take the entire Superior Office Center in Eden Prairie. Fingerhut Direct Marketing signed a 10-year deal for the single-story, 93,146-square-foot building at 6509 Flying Cloud...

Minnesota firms find value in apartment investments.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson Two recent apartment sales are a good example of the multifamily investment activity that has dominated Minnesota markets for much of 2007. Both deals were filed in late September. Both involved local, veteran...

Office-warehouse opens in Lakeville.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Construction is finished on the newest office-warehouse in the 1,500-acre Airlake Industrial Park in Lakeville. The Airlake South Creek Business Park is a 30,000-square-foot speculative, multi-tenant...

New development under way in St. Paul.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Maple Grove-based Hempel Properties has broken ground on a 13,105-square-foot, mixed-use medical, office and retail project at the old Embers restaurant site in the northwest corner of Interstate 94 and...

Welsh's Tracey Lange receives CCIM designation from Chicago-based CCIM Institute.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Tracey Lange, a vice president at Bloomington-based Welsh Cos., has achieved the designation of Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) from the Chicago-based CCIM Institute. The designation was...

Malvern, Pa.-based Liberty Property Trust breaks ground on sustainable offices in Eden Prairie.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Malvern, Pa.-based Liberty Property Trust has broken ground on a 120,000-square-foot Class A office project in Eden Prairie that it's touting as a LEED-certified development. Liberty said the four-story...

New Opus HQ in Minnetonka to seek LEED gold status.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff The Opus Group broke ground last week on its second headquarters building, a 148,000-square-foot facility adjacent to the firm's existing building in Minnetonka. The new building, which aims to include...

Fundraiser tapped for Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center project.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Colin Hamilton, who led the $16.4 million capital campaign for the new Minneapolis Central Library, will spearhead efforts to raise the final $11 million for the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and...

Arden Hills office project in the works for Minnetonka-based Chesapeake Cos.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard Minnetonka-based Chesapeake Cos. first won approval for an office development at a key Arden Hills crossroads in March 2001. But amid the office market slump after Sept. 11, demand for office construction dried up....

Minneapolis developer still confident in condos.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson David Crockett thinks the condo market still has plenty of life. The Minneapolis developer and principal of Crockett Associates Inc. recently finished Phase 1 of Olin Crossings, a 48-unit residential project at 53rd...

Something's brewing at the Schmidt site in St. Paul.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard St. Paul city officials and developers gathered last week to tout the most concrete evidence yet that the idle Schmidt Brewery along West Seventh Street will be redeveloped. Plymouth-based Dominium Development and...

Minnesota city's initiative to turn old school into affordable housing receives federal financing.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt When it comes to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), most people think of crops, meat and dairy, not apartments. But in the central Minnesota city of Little Falls, an initiative to turn a century-old...

Minnesota Marketing Briefs: November 9, 2007.
November 9, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Northwest Airlines has hired Minneapolis creative boutique Pocket Hercules to create an ad campaign for its WorldPerks frequent-flyer program, just five months after the contract with the airline's previous agency,...

Best Buy opening a musical instrument store-within-a-store at its Richfield location.
November 9, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. is opening a musical instrument store-within-a-store at its Richfield location today, adding guitars, amplifiers and home-recording gear to its merchandise lineup. The...

New CEO of Minneapolis ad agency Campbell Mithun tells of his plans for the agency.(Company overview)
November 9, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Steve Wehrenberg listened to radio ads for Northwest Airlines as a boy. Now, the new chief executive officer of Minneapolis ad agency Campbell Mithun dreams of winning back the airline's ad account. The same goes for...

U of M economist says corn alone won't be enough to replace dependence on fossil fuels.
November 10, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Ethanol has a long way to go before it supplants gasoline in U.S. cars. Corn-based ethanol alone probably will never replace gasoline, which is why the U.S. needs to develop other types of biofuels to produce ethanol...

'Fiscal Disparities' funding under review.
November 10, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw A tax proposal to fund the Mall of America expansion last session got the attention of commercial real estate interests at the Capitol. While lawmakers were debating the omnibus tax bill in conference committee, a...

Minneapolis-based Dolan Media Co. posts third-quarter revenue gain.(Financial report)
November 10, 2007... Byline: Burl Gilyard Minneapolis-based Dolan Media Co. reported increased revenue but posted a net loss in its third quarters numbers, announced Thursday. Dolan reported third quarter revenue of $38.3 million, an increase of 33.2 percent...

Cities in Twin Cities metro area peer into their crystal balls.
November 13, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Predicting short-term growth is hard enough, but when every city and township in the seven-county metro area is expected to forecast growth through 2030, it can be downright daunting. That's the challenge facing about...

Twin Cities-area Met Council bracing for deluge of development plans.
November 13, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson By the end of 2008, city, county and township governments in the seven-county metro area must update their comprehensive development plans, which forecast local growth for the next 25 years. The deadline is required by...

Weisman project on schedule, despite MIT-Gehry lawsuit.
November 13, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson As famed architect Frank Gehry faces a lawsuit alleging "design and construction failures" in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's postmodern Stata Center, work on a similarly postmodern addition to the Weisman...

Golden Valley-based Mortenson offices to tap wind power.
November 13, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Mortenson Co. and other businesses are trying to prove that they're not just blowing smoke when it comes to wind energy. Golden Valley-based Mortenson, which has overseen wind-energy projects throughout the country,...

Winona State University in Minnesota plans health and fitness under one roof.
November 13, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson If Winona State University has its way, students won't have far to wander after the doctor tells them to get more exercise. The university wants to bring health and fitness together in a 77,000-square-foot, on-campus...

Residence hall projects at Minnesota colleges and universities look for more curb appeal.
November 13, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Several major residence hall projects within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system are under way or on the drawing board, as MnSCU facilities look to encourage more students to stay on campus. Carrots...

Wall Street debuts planned for two firms from Minnesota.
November 14, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Two Minnesota biotechnology companies will premiere on Wall Street later this week. St. Paul-based EnteroMedics Inc. and Virtual Radiologic Corp. of Minnetonka are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange...

Worthington-based Newport Laboratories fights evolving enemy on American farms.
November 14, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Billions of dollars are spent on the front lines of the fight against new human diseases, but a young Minnesota company has become a leader in another important fight: combating the rise of new diseases among the...

State of Minnesota to consider geothermal help.
November 14, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw City officials in Baxter would like to use the warmth trapped under the earth's surface to heat their new city hall, and they'd like some help from the state to do it. On Tuesday, Dennis Coryell, city manager of the...

Profiling the Legislature: Minnesota State Rep. Tony Cornish.
November 14, 2007... Byline: Frank Jossi Tony Cornish (24B) freely boasts he's the Capitol's leading "gun nut." He proudly points to the "conceal-and-carry" law he authored and battled to get passed, as well as the controversial "Castle Doctrine" legislation...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: Sen. Chris Gerlach.
November 14, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt Sen. Chris Gerlach, R-Apple Valley, wants you to think of him as a free-market warrior. He feels it's his mission to guard the marketplace against unnecessary regulation and release his constituents from the shackles...

Storefront communications: Minnesota entrepreneur to open PRstore franchises in the Twin Cities.
November 16, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Laurie Englert thinks she has the answer for small businesses that can't afford the high fees charged by traditional ad agencies. They can market themselves with the help of the PRstore, a Charlotte, N.C., chain that...

Minneapolis ad agency Colle + McVoy hooks a big fish.
November 16, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Minneapolis ad agency Colle + McVoy this week reeled in a $6.5 million account to help stem declining interest in fishing. The firm landed the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation's (RBFF) ad business after a...

MinnPost shows promise out of the gate.
November 16, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Colleges, online and print newspapers, and nonprofit groups supplied advertising space in MinnPost during the Internet daily's much-anticipated first week of publication. "I'm so happy to have the site launched. I think...

Christmas season expected to be bleak for Twin Cities retailers.
November 17, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger After sending out 3,000 holiday shopping surveys in September, University of St. Thomas researchers delivered the bad news to Twin Cities retailers on Friday. "The Christmas season is going to be bleak this year," said...

New technology means no more standing in long lines at the bank.
November 17, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson This was the year that community banks jumped onto their industry's latest -- and currently greatest -- new wave of technology: remote deposit capture. That high-concept name describes a technology that offers a...

Sharply focused practices.
November 17, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman When Minneapolis lawyer Andrea Rubenstein began her legal career in the 1970s, she spent several years as a general litigator. While Rubenstein wasn't aggressively looking for an area in which to concentrate her...

Big change in store for state VA.
November 17, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw A commission appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty will recommend Monday that the state board that oversees Minnesota's five veterans homes be abolished. The Veterans Long Term Care Advisory Commission will present its final...

Thomson West's Eagan campus to expand global data network.
November 20, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson A new data center on Thomson West's Eagan campus will open in January even though the Legislature turned down proposed subsidies for the project earlier this year. The 80,000-square-foot center is a small part of the...

Eleven bidders vie for Northstar Commuter Rail contract.
November 20, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Knutson Construction Services Inc. of Golden Valley submitted an apparent low bid Thursday to construct four Northstar Commuter Rail stations north of Minneapolis. The $14.17 million estimate was the lowest of 11...

Winnipeg office building touted as model for cold climates.
November 20, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Green building fans in Minnesota may soon have reason to sing a spirited chorus of "Oh, Canada." The reason for their enthusiasm: a $278 million building under construction in Winnipeg that could become a model for...

Minnesota Department of Transportation has friend in Washington, D.C.
November 20, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The Minnesota Department of Transportation may be taking some heat at home, but it has a friend in Washington, D.C. Last spring, the Washington-based Design Build Institute of America honored MnDOT as its...

Minnesota VA to take control of veterans homes - again.
November 20, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Responding to recent patient-care violations at the Minneapolis Veterans Home, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Monday eliminated the board that has run the state's five vet homes since 1988 and put them under the Minnesota VA....

Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson announces new chief operating officer.
November 20, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Al Gerhardt, a 29-year veteran of the construction industry, is Kraus-Anderson's new chief operating officer. Gerhardt, a graduate of Minnesota State University-Mankato, has been with the company since 1980. Most...

Weapons screening installation begins at Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis.
November 20, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Construction began this week on a permanent weapons screening installation at the Hennepin County Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. Golden Valley-based Arkay Construction Co. is replacing the temporary...

Olsson Associates adds two new employees to Minneapolis office.
November 20, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Olsson Associates, a design and planning firm with offices in Minnesota and six other states, recently added two new employees at its Minneapolis office. Adam Kramer, who has 40 years of water infrastructure...

Scott Sannes joins Minneapolis-based SEH board of directors.
November 20, 2007... Byline: F&C Staff Report Short Elliott Hendrickson, a Minneapolis-based engineering and planning firm, has elected Scott Sannes to its board of directors. Sannes, who has been with SEH since 2000, specializes in planning, finance, public...

Switching tracks? Second phase of Northstar Commuter Rail line loses a financial supporter.
November 20, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The proposed second phase of the Northstar Commuter Rail line has lost a financial supporter, casting some doubts on the long-term vision of a line extending from Minneapolis to the outskirts of St. Cloud. On Nov. 6,...