Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN articles from November 2008

Finance and Commerce Daily Newspaper, MN archives from November 2008

From elections to electricity, the Office of Admin. Hearings touches every Minnesotan's life.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Barbara L. Jones A case involving what may well be the largest fraud scheme in the state's history also had another distinction -- it was the 20,000th matter docketed at the Office of Administrative Hearings. The case involves...

Stock market declines hurt Minnesota's school land trust fund.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Charley Shaw This year's turbulence in the stock market is putting pressure on investments derived from forest lands held in trust for Minnesota's public schools. The state Senate Subcommittee on Natural Resources and the...

Minneapolis ad agency creates ad campaign for New York Stock Exchange.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger It was the best of timing; it was the worst of timing. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the scene of much carnage for millions of shareholders and the focus of workers watching their retirement savings plummet,...

Supporters of Minnesota sales tax increase may spend up to $5M in effort to secure 'yes' votes.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Betsy Sundquist Supporters of the only statewide measure on today's ballot have spent millions of dollars in their effort to persuade Minnesotans to vote for a constitutionally mandated three-eighths percent sales tax - money that...

Richfield-based Best Buy launches teen-focused social networking site to redirect charitable dollars.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Can teenagers change the distribution of corporate charitable giving? Yes, according to Richfield-based Best Buy Co. Inc., which has launched an internet-based @15 social networking effort to provide teens a forum...

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy files for rate increase.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Facing escalating costs to deliver electricity in 2009, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc. on Monday filed a $156 million electric rate increase request with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC). We know...

Ethanol producer VeraSun filing for bankruptcy.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Sioux Falls, S.D.-based VeraSun Energy Corp., one of the country's largest producers of corn-based ethanol, late last week filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. District Bankruptcy County in Delaware. ...

New masonry council works to promote traditional brick, block and stone in Minnesota.
November 4, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson The University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus has enough masonry activity to make the most hardened bricklayer smile. Start with the brick exterior of the $288.5 million football stadium under construction....

Both presidential candidates have expressed support for long range wind tax credits.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Long before Election Day, executives in the fast-growing wind-energy industry already knew they were winners, as Democrat Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, John McCain, both came out in support of tax breaks for...

Woodstock-based Juhl Wind buying Next Generation in wind/solar deal.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Woodstock-based Juhl Wind Inc. announced Tuesday that it is acquiring Next Generation Power Systems - a deal that increases Juhl Wind's focus on energy generation from both wind and solar. The acquisition of Next...

SmithGroup promotes four in Minneapolis office.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff SmithGroup, an architecture, engineering and design firm with offices throughout the United States, has promoted four employees in its Minneapolis office to associate. The new associates are: Michael...

Plymouth-based Van Sickle, Allen & Associates announces two promotions.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Van Sickle, Allen & Associates, a Plymouth-based engineering consulting firm, has promoted Dave Olheiser and K.C. Harris to associate. Olheiser focuses on industrial, port and grain-handling projects....

Minneapolis firm works with companies and brands to create memorable names.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Dan Emerson When Canadian energy firm Encana Corp. needed a name for its new oil-company spinoff, the company turned for help to the experts: Minneapolis-based Strategic Name Development Inc. (SND). Using a methodical approach...

Minnesota's Highway 60 expansion reaches milepost, but completion not expected for another decade.
November 5, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson Expansion projects and safety improvements on Highway 60 have plodded along in fits and starts over the years, much to the chagrin of southern Minnesota motorists who view the inter-regional corridor as a deathtrap....

Election results a mixed bag for builders in Minneapolis area.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson Tuesday's election results brought a mix of reactions from local building industry officials, whose concerns ranged from transportation investment to union-organizing activities. On the local stage, one key result...

Community Development Expo set for Nov. 19-20 in Minneapolis.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Twin Cities Local Initiative Support Coalition (LISC) and the Minneapolis-based Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers (MCCD) are co-hosting the first ever 20/20 Community Development...

Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker completes industrial deals.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker announced two industrial deals that its brokers completed in October. David Stokes, vice president, represented Digital Excellence in the...

National magazine names JB Hudson Jewelers in Minneapolis among 'coolest stores'.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Instore magazine, a national title for jewelry store owners, recently ranked the new downtown Minneapolis location of JB Hudson Jewelers as a fourth place winner in its America's Coolest Stores...

Prime Therapeutics leases 156,000 square feet of office space in Bloomington.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Bloomington-based NorthMarq Brokerage Services announced that it had signed Eagan-based Prime Therapeutics to a lease for 156,000 square feet at the Normandale Lake Office Park in Bloomington. Prime...

Minneapolis-based Techne Corp. taps Bloomington-based NorthMarq for real estate services.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Bloomington-based NorthMarq Corporate Solutions announced that the firm has signed a five-year deal to provide real estate services, facilities management and project management for...

Finance: Election's impact on banking industry.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson Banks know they'll soon be targets of a major reform campaign aimed at fixing regulatory and marketplace failures that have left the U.S. and world economies foundering. Those reforms will be hammered out over the...

National forecast predicts bleak 2009 for commercial real estate.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard A new national study of the commercial real estate industry forecasts that the market will bottom out in 2009 - and pretty much stay there for some time to come. Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009, from the...

Real Estate: Findings of Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009 credible, authoritative.
November 6, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard The findings of the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009 report won't startle anyone working in commercial real estate. That's because the findings are drawn from interviews and surveys with a diverse group of more...

Salaries: Financial sector strong for contracting employment market in Twin Cities.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson The accounting and financial job sectors continue to be among the nation's strongest in this contracting employment market, and salary growth reflects that expansion, according to the annual salary survey produced by...

Banking: Twin Cities financial institutions remain in growth mode despite downturn.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson This year's collapse of a dozen giant Wall Street institutions resulted in pink slips for tens of thousands of financial industry workers. But so far, there's been little spillover impact on employment prospects...

Kraus-Anderson tackles $54M arena in Bemidji.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson The city of Bemidji plans to break ground this spring on a $54.5 million event center project that's expected to generate millions for the local economy and keep construction workers busy for two years. It's also...

Dolan Media Co. CEO: Minneapolis-based company well-positioned to weather economic storm.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard Minneapolis-based Dolan Media Co., parent of Finance & Commerce, reported Thursday that its third-quarter net income was $2.5 million on revenue of $47.9 million. The company's revenue increased 24.9 percent from the...

Southwest Airlines starts Twin Cities service March 8.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger Dallas-based Southwest Airlines will launch service between Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Chicago on March 8, 2009, with eight flights a day connecting Humphrey Terminal with Chicago's Midway Airport....

Lisa M. Brusen joins Associated Bank's commercial banking team in St. Paul.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Associated Bank has named Lisa M. Brusen an assistant vice president in its commercial banking unit in St. Paul. In her new role, Brusen will manage a portfolio of middle-market business clients,...

Lenders, including Mankato-based AgStar, step up with cash for VeraSun.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Sioux Falls-based VeraSun Energy Corp. won a financial reprieve Monday when a bankruptcy court judge in Delaware approved commitments from a group of lenders to provide up to $215 million in...

Vishal Dutt joins Minneapolis-based Hempel Properties as new controller.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Minneapolis-based Hempel Properties announced Wednesday that it has named Vishal Dutt its new controller. In that role, Dutt will work with Hempel's executive team to determine the company's financial...

Partner in Minneapolis office of Virchow Krause wins election to Minnesota House of Representatives.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Keith Downey, a partner in the Minneapolis office of Virchow Krause & Company, LLP, will have a little more on his already busy plate starting next year. Downey, who led the firm's Minnesota...

Plymouth-based Clearfield Inc. chooses its first chief operating officer.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Clearfield Inc. named Johnny Hill to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Hill was previously the Plymouth-based company's vice president of engineering and product management. ...

Eden Prairie-based Video Guidance adds tech, sales managers.
November 7, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Eden Prairie-based Video Guidance, a video, voice, streaming and Web conferencing services provider, has made several new appointments. It named Shawn Deer as senior account manager, John Farr as lead...

Twin Cities retailers facing difficult times as economy stalls.
November 8, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard Just a few years ago, the annual release of the Minnesota Shopping Center Association's (MSCA) State of Retail was usually a cause for celebration. Back then, developers could hardly open new stores fast enough to...

Construction: Builders seek relief from Congress, Obama administration.
November 8, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson Builders are urging the incoming Congress and administration to put a soothing salve on their hurting industry, which got more bad news this week in a report from the Portland Cement Association. Looking for...

Governor Pawlenty touts 'green' jobs plan.
November 11, 2008... Byline: Betsy Sundquist A proposed initiative to create clean and green energy-related jobs throughout Minnesota, partially modeled after the state's sometimes controversial JOBZ program, was introduced Monday by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The...

Minnesota sales tax increase: Beneficiaries seek to influence how revenue is spent.
November 11, 2008... Byline: Charley Shaw With voters passing a state sales tax increase to pay for environmental and arts initiatives, the primary beneficiaries of the dedicated dollars are figuring out how best to take the next step. Arts and...

Eden Prairie-based HighJump purchases BeltTek Design Systems.
November 11, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Eden Prairie-based HighJump Software announced Monday that it has acquired a Canadian software company for an undisclosed sum. BelTek Design Systems based in New Brunswick, Canada, makes software for...

Rochester-based Hardcore Computer creates advanced PC cooling system.
November 11, 2008... Byline: Arundhati Parmar Imagine a personal computer with a motherboard, CPU, graphics processing unit and other major components submerged in a liquid that is lit up with a blue light. Cool, huh? That's the goal - in this case,...

Stimulus package could provide $300 million for Minnesota roads, bridges.
November 12, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson One of Barack Obama's first acts as president could be the signing of a huge economic stimulus bill laden with transportation projects - including at least $300 million for Minnesota's roads and bridges. U.S....

Lobbyist: Lower gas prices helped Minnesota transportation advocates.
November 12, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson Transportation boosters should have no fear of bringing their agenda before the public in future elections, according to a long-time transportation lobbyist who spoke at the Minnesota Transportation Alliance's annual...

Looming debt deadline imperils owner of Ridgedale, Knollwood, Eden Prairie shopping centers.
November 12, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., owner of Ridgedale Center, Eden Prairie Center and the Knollwood Mall, is inching closer to a potential bankruptcy filing. The company's latest quarterly report, filed...

Senator plans 2009 introduction of transmission 'superhighway'.
November 12, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger North Dakota U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, whose website describes the sparsely populated state as the Saudi Arabia of wind, plans to introduce legislation next year that would build a nationwide power transmission grid for...

Minnesota Department of Commerce updates website.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger The Minnesota Department of Commerce is quietly changing its website, offering point-and-click access to individual sites for as many as eight state business segments. At some point soon, the Commerce site is just...

Minneapolis investor Larry Abdo shops 1016 Marquette site.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Minneapolis developer and real estate investor Larry Abdo has put a small, vacant building at 1016 Marquette Avenue in downtown Minneapolis up for sale. Abdo bought the site in March 2007 for...

University Avenue light rail session for businesses planned in St. Paul.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The University Avenue Business Association (UABA) hosts Light Rail Construction Mitigation for Small Businesses program next week on Nov. 20. The session will look at the experience of other U.S....

Consultant Bruce Maus joins Grubb & Ellis/Northco in Minneapolis.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report Grubb & Ellis/Northco Real Estate Services announced that Bruce Maus has merged his consulting practice, Maus Group LLC, with Grubb & Ellis/Northco. Maus will head the firm's Corporate Services...

Austin, Texas-based AIC Ventures buys building for $6 million.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce staff Austin, Texas-based AIC Ventures acquired the 150,000 square foot Signature Aluminum facility in Medina for $6 million. Under the sale-leaseback deal, Greenville, Pennsylvania-based Signature Aluminum has...

Sherwood joins Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report The Minneapolis office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker announced that it has added real estate veteran Frank Sherwood as a vice president in its Corporate Solutions division. Previously,...

St. Paul-based 3M to acquire Italian manufacturing company.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Report St. Paul-based 3M announced Wednesday it is acquiring Grafoplast SpA, an Italian manufacturer of wire identification systems for the wire and cable market. The company did not disclose the value of...

Twin Cities home prices keep dropping: Median now same as May 2002.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard Metro housing prices have dropped more than 18 percent in the past year. The latest numbers from the 13-county metro area, compiled by the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, show that the median sales...

High-traffic at University of Minnesota campus site drives new Opus project.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson Opus Northwest has won final city approvals for its Stadium Village housing and retail project in Minneapolis, and will start construction next spring. The Campus Crossroads development will be built at one of the...

Light rail Capitol route criticized by some Minnesota legislators.
November 13, 2008... Byline: Charley Shaw Rep. Alice Hausman can't do anything about the Capitol area route of the Central Corridor light rail line, but she sure is frustrated about it. The 19-year House veteran, a DFLer from St. Paul and co-chairwoman of...

Minneapolis-based Ameriprise Financial completes acquisition.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Minneapolis-based Ameriprise Financial, Inc. has completed its all-cash acquisition of J. & W. Seligman & Co., a transaction that was announced in July. The acquisition adds $16 billion in assets in...

Wisconsin-based Associated Banc-Corp names Scott S. Hickey as credit officer.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Associated Banc-Corp has named Scott S. Hickey its new executive vice president, chief credit officer. Hickey will assume executive responsibility for the leadership and strategic execution of the...

Edina resident Michael Branham named to financial planners board.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Edina resident Michael Branham was recently chosen to serve a three-year term on the board of directors for the Financial Planning Association, a national industry association. Branham is a financial...

Minnesota manufacturers study R&D tax protection.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce staff Members of the Minnesota Precision Manufacturing Association will meet on Nov. 20 and hear a presentation on how Minnesota shops can benefit from the research and development tax credit and how to take...

John Quinlan joins Minnetonka-based Meristem as risk manager.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Minnetonka-based wealth manager Meristem has named John Quinlan its new managing director of risk management. Quinlan will work with Meristem's Client Advisor team to coordinate the comprehensive...

Minneapolis-based Red Brick Health names John Uribe CFO.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Minneapolis-based Red Brick Health has named John Uribe as chief financial officer. Uribe will be in charge of financial accounting, corporate development, trust and compliance, and legal functions for...

National Transportation Safety Board focuses on gusset plates as 35W hearing begins.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson Ruling out corrosion, existing cracks and other possible factors, the National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday pinpointed steel gusset plates as the initial source of failure in last year's deadly 35W bridge...

Xcel partners with enXco to build Minnesota, N.D. wind farms.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Bob Geiger As part of its strategy to own wind farms and garner valuable federal tax credits for energy they create, Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc. has partnered with Escondido, Calif.-based enXco Inc. to build two wind farms...

Foreclosures growing, but at a slowing pace.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard California-based RealtyTrac Inc. reported Wednesday that the tide of foreclosures is still growing, but at an increasingly slow pace amid legislative efforts to stall foreclosures. RealtyTrac found that the...

Twin Cities executives honored as Top Women in Finance.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson Finance & Commerce has recognized 35 Twin Cities business executives as this year's Top Women in Finance. The winners in this year's eighth annual awards, honored in a Nov. 5 program, come from large companies and...

Twin Cities observers: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac moving in right direction.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Mark Anderson Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered government-sponsored home lenders, launched the latest of the nation's mortgage rescue gambits Monday, and observers in the Twin Cities say it's the most useful so far. ...

New Twin Cities program allows nonprofits to purchase foreclosed properties before auctions.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard In an attempt to mitigate the flood of foreclosures, city leaders of Minneapolis and St. Paul have come up with a program unlike anything else in the country. Debuted Thursday afternoon, the First Look program will...

Geek Squad founder discusses his 'for-profit cult' during St. Paul conference.
November 14, 2008... Byline: Arundhati Parmar A company is a for-profit cult. So says Robert Stephens, founder and chief inspector of the Geek Squad - and he ought to know. His well-known computer-repair service bears many hallmarks of a religious sect,...

What will an Obama presidency mean for Minnesota lawyers?
November 15, 2008... Byline: Barbara L. Jones Lawyers barely have time to celebrate or mourn presidential election results before they start to evaluate their impact on the legal community. What will a change in administration mean to the Department of Justice...

Richfield gets a green school for special needs students.
November 15, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson The South Education Center in Richfield is no ordinary school. The 109,000-square-foot building -- which opened this fall in the shadow of Best Buy's corporate headquarters -- offers a clean, green and energy-lean...

Activists working to ensure all new Minnesota schools are energy-efficient.
November 15, 2008... Byline: Brian Johnson Reading, writing, 'rithmetic - and resources? A new green schools movement - aimed at getting the next generation involved in preserving the environment, and at making sure the schools themselves employ...

Software firm inks big lease in Blaine.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Burl Gilyard In today's tough economy, many companies are sitting tight and holding off on decisions about expanding office space. But not Parametric Technology Corp. (PTC), a publicly traded Needham, Mass.-based software firm...

Land of 10,000 ideas: Minnesotans trot out brainstorms at high tech Minne Demo event.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Arundhati Parmar In the summer of 2002, when Julian Reytel was working on a project in Manhattan, he was struck by how sales associates from little boutiques in the Soho district would step out into the street and holler, Sale! ...

Software, web application ideas abound at Minne Demo event in Twin Cities.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Arundhati Parmar A total of 10 innovations were shown off at last week's Minne Demo, a Twin Cities technology demo and networking event. The ideas were: Sudden Deals Local restaurants, bars, nightclubs and light music...

New Minnesota program aims to help underinsured save on prescriptions.
November 18, 2008... Byline: Betsy Sundquist A new program sponsored by pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies aims to help uninsured and underinsured Minnesotans who can't afford to pay for their prescriptions. The Minnesota Drug Card, available to...

Minneapolis-based Dolan Media Company insiders buying stock.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Finance & Commerce Staff Minneapolis-based Dolan Media Co. announced Tuesday that 17 company insiders bought nearly 450,000 shares of the company's stock last week in the wake of the company's third-quarter earnings statement. ...

Critics say Minneapolis Met Council's 2030 plan short-changes east metro.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Charley Shaw East metro state legislators and local officials think the Metropolitan Council's new transit plan doesn't do enough to help them. The Met Council is done taking public comment on its 2030 Transportation Policy...

Some claimants of 35W bridge collapse in Minnesota will bypass review panel.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Dan Heilman Rather than go before the special master panel created by the state and going for a share of the $37 million fund set up to compensate survivors of the 35W bridge collapse, at least some bridge victims are pursuing more...

Victim of 35W collapse in Minneapolis looking forward to hearing before special panel.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Dan Heilman On the morning of Sept. 15, Erica Gwillim and two friends took a short but meaningful trip. As the sun rose, the three walked up and down the length of the new 35W bridge, accompanied by representatives of...

Dolan insiders buying stock.
November 19, 2008... Byline: The Associated Press Minneapolis-based Dolan Media Co. announced Tuesday that 17 company insiders bought nearly 450,000 shares of the company’s stock last week in the wake of the company’s third-quarter earnings...

Highway 77 bus lane in Minneapolis finished.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff The Minnesota Department of Transportation last week announced the completion of a bus-only turn lane on Highway 77 in Minneapolis, the first in a series of federally assisted congestion-reduction projects...

Former chairman of Associated General Contractors of Minnesota dies.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Jon Carlstrom, former executive with Mankato-based Robert W. Carlstrom Cos. and past chairman of the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota, died last week at his home in Bayfield, Wis. Carlstrom...

Four Minneapolis companies join Minnesota GreenStar as corporate sponsors.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Four local companies have joined Minnesota GreenStar, a Minnesota-based building standards and certification program, as corporate sponsors. The sponsors are: Minneapolis-based law firm Felhaber...

St. Paul Regions Hospital, Kraus-Anderson Construction get safety recognition.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry last week honored St. Paul Regions Hospital and Kraus-Anderson Construction for their workplace safety efforts related to the Regions hospital expansion at...

Waite Park-based Sand Cos. announces new CEO, president.
November 19, 2008... Byline: Finance and Commerce Staff Sand Cos. has promoted Jamie Thelen from company president to CEO. Thelen, who has been with the company since 1996, will oversee strategic planning, visioning, development and new business development...