Local

Rock band Low headlines Minneapolis cemetery concert

MINNEAPOLIS — Indie rock band Low headlines the second annual benefit concert at Minneapolis’ Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery.

Tickets are now on sale for the June 9 performance. Proceeds will help support efforts to restore the historic steel and limestone pillar fence on the cemetery’s border.

Nearly 1,500 people attended last year’s cemetery benefit concert featuring Jeremy Messersmith. That concert was recognized as best community project at the 21st annual Minneapolis Preservation Awards.

The Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery had its first burial in 1853. The cemetery contains the graves of some of the first settlers of Minneapolis.

Tickets are $16 in advance and $20 at the show. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. Opening act Zoo Animal performs at 5:30 p.m. and Low takes the stage at 7 p.m.

Tags:
news, entertainment, music, minneapolis, events, updates

Article source: http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/361369/

Sit-down dining slow to come to North Side

Cheeseburgers, fried chicken and pizza are easy to come by on W. Broadway in Minneapolis, but developer Stuart Ackerberg wanted to attract a different kind of restaurant to his Five Points building.

Something with slow-cooked, nutritious food. A place where families could sit down, workers at the neighborhood nonprofits could enjoy a nice lunch, and suburbanites could head for a drink after catching a show at the Capri Theater down the street.

But after three years of working to attract a restaurateur who shared his vision, Ackerberg has instead agreed to lease space in the century-old building to Northside Achievement Zone, a nonprofit whose mission is to boost school performance in the poorest segment of Minneapolis.

“It’s a great opportunity to have this, but it’s certainly not what we originally envisioned,” he said.

As Minneapolis pushes to draw people and development to the struggling North Side, a difficult question among some business and government leaders has been how to attract higher-quality restaurants to an area dominated by low-end food. City records show that north Minneapolis has more than three dozen restaurants, most of them serving fast food. About a third are chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC.

“There are so many businesses the North Side has real deficiencies in,” said Dean Rose, who is planning a housing and retail development near Five Points. “We need a good sit-down restaurant … that’s healthy and fresh, a place you can sit down and relax and feel comfortable.”

Rose, who is partnering with developer Steve Minn, said he hopes to make a restaurant part of the project.

Yet even as supporters maintain that the demand is there, restaurateurs are not exactly racing to supply it.

The kind of restaurant that is not a franchise “feels very vulnerable in coming to an unproven marketplace,” said City Council Member Don Samuels, who represents the area. “Even if demand is there, they’re not confident enough at this point. … It’s perceptions of safety, it’s the reputation.”

The city “felt if we drew the housing, we could bring the customers in, then everything would fall into line, but it’s not happening as fast as we want it to happen,” said Samuels, whose wife, Sondra, is CEO of the Northside Achievement Zone.

North Side resident Ken Powell is one who would like to see more healthful dining-out alternatives. Powell tries to stay away from high-cholesterol and fried food, but he lamented that “the choices here are slim.”

A study by MJB Consulting in 2007 determined that about $7.8 million spent at sit-down restaurants by people who live on and around W. Broadway went to establishments outside the area. The report, which examined how to revitalize the North Side, said that market provided one of the larger opportunities to recapture lost dollars.

A foothold in neighborhood

A mile north of Broadway, at the intersection of Penn and Lowry, Darryl Weivoda runs the Lowry Cafe next to his hardware store.

When he inquired about a loan to start the restaurant, the banks “weren’t real excited about it” and wanted to charge him a “crazy high” interest rate, he said. So Weivoda took out a home equity loan and last summer opened the cafe, which serves pork chops, meatloaf and salads.

Nearly a year later, the restaurant is not breaking even. But Weivoda is standing firm. “I kind of look at it as … Do you want to get in when [the price is] low and establish it and be here once [the neighborhood] is developed, or do you want to wait around and see if it gets developed?”

Dennis W. Spears, artistic director at the Capri Theater on Broadway, said that a lot of people who attend shows there are looking for a place to eat and drink afterward, and they can do that at the Lowry Cafe.

“We’re hoping that with the redevelopment on the North Side that there’s more that will come over here,” said Spears.

One of the people who declined the opportunity to do business in the Five Points building was Kim Bartmann, whose restaurants include Bryant-Lake Bowl and Red Stag Supperclub.

“The investment required by me wasn’t necessarily borne out given the risk, because in a place where … there’s not much, why isn’t it there? And who’s going to be the first one to go?” Bartmann said.

Bartmann said she is still interested in the idea of a restaurant on the North Side, but doesn’t know the area well and cautioned that many are still scared to go there. “I think there are plenty of people in that area to support a sit-down restaurant, it’s just finding the right level of investment to make it work,” she said.

Ackerberg also drew interest from Marzell Harris, who wanted to open a Louisiana Fried Chicken in the building. But Ackerberg and Harris said they did not agree on the menu for the restaurant, which offers a more upscale version of fast food similar to Boston Market, with dishes such as gumbo and po’boys. The developer wanted healthier food and a bar.

Article source: http://www.startribune.com/local/152116975.html

Spring into Summer Charity Events

WeRaiseIt is an all-in-one online auction platform software for the use by non-profit or charitable organizations that holds online/live auctions. Summer is a great time to hold auction events, and WeRaiseIt would be a great choice to help with all of your auctioning needs.

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) May 16, 2012

The WeRaiseIt Fundraising Web Portal Software offers a platform for credit card processing for online donations, auctions, and the promotion and processing tools for physical event activities. The portal provides a nonprofit the ability to design their own fundraising website based on a large collection of standard customizable templates and host any number of online or physical events. Full scale online auctions can be conducted and the comprehensive features allow for important details like registering silent auction donations, building and printing catalogs and bid sheets. Visitors to the website can give donations, make advanced reservations, purchase event tickets, pay sponsorship fees, participate in online auctions, etc.

The summer is just around the corner, which means getting ready for your summer event. WeRaiseIt is feasible with all types of summer charity events. These events include, but not limited to, charity golf events, marathons, walkathons, luncheons, banquets, camp registration, sports event registration, and many more.

To learn more about what WeRaiseIt has to offer please visit the website or connect with WeRaiseIt on Facebook or Twitter.

About Event Payment Services: Event Payment Services was created by BancCard Financial Services, Inc. (BFSI) to specialize in the fundraising needs of nonprofit organizations. ePSPay ™ and WeRaiseIt are brands of Event Payment Services. Since 1997, BFSI has provided credit and debit card processing, check verification, check conversion/imaging, gift and loyalty card services, and merchant processing terminals. BFSI provides these services through its terminals and web-based software. EPS was created in 2006 to focus on the fundraising needs of nonprofit organizations. BFSI, through ePSPay ™ and WeRaiseIt brands, is an innovator in fundraising tools for the nonprofit world. BFSI, EPS and WeRaiseIt can be found on the web at http://www.eventpaymentservices.com, http://www.weraiseit.com.

Paul McConville
BancCard Financial Services- WeRaiseIt
612.706.5968
Email Information

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/spring-summer-charity-events-151223245.html

A vision to make Bloomington more than a giant parking lot

“They paved Paradise to put up a parking lot.”

So goes the old lyric. Bloomington, however, is aiming for a switcheroo: to unpave those parking lots and put up Paradise. Well, maybe not Paradise, but a kind of new town dense enough to allow apartment living, shopping, dining and — be still my suburban heart! — walking. Seriously, I don’t think I have ever set one foot outdoors in Bloomington that was not in a parking lot.

The vision, embodied in a plan now in the final stages of winning approval, seems hard to grasp when you visit the so-called South Loop, a triangular stretch of Bloomington bounded on the north by Interstate 494, on the south by the Long Meadow Lake and on the west by Hwy. 77.

Looming over the landscape are the Mall of America and Ikea. Hotels and office buildings, most prominently the headquarters for Health Partners, as well as Reflections, two mirror-sided hi-rise condos, sit isolated on large plots to the east like modern-day versions of the dolmens at Stonehenge. The major streets are six lanes wide, designed not to facilitate walking but to stream cars from highway to parking berths.

Frankly, it doesn’t look promising.

But I am rooting for the South Loop plan because it makes a whole lot of sense.

‘Smart growth’

The theory behind it, says Larry Lee, Bloomington’s director of community development, is “smart growth.” There are certain locations where higher density can work well, he contends, and the South Loop is one of them. Already, the area’s offices and hotels, not to mention the vast MOA, draw workers from all over the metro. The light rail has four stations in the South Loop, and the one at MOA, the most heavily trafficked on the line, connects riders to 15 bus lines.

Bloomington Land Use Framework Concept

If more people live in the area, we the public, both Bloomington and state taxpayers, leverage our investments in roads, mass transit and everything else. If we instead continue to encourage people to spread to the far corners of the exurbs, we have to build more roads, schools and other infrastructure to accommodate them. That’s very expensive and very inefficient. Call it “dumb growth.”

Bloomington’s land-use plan leaves most everything where it is now. A large swath down the middle of the area will contain offices to the south and hotels to the north. MOA and Ikea are designated an “entertainment” zone which is, I guess, what shopping is for most of us. But in the southwest and northeast corners will rise condos and apartments to house both those who work in the area and commute into Minneapolis. Surveys have shown, Lee says, that 30 to 40 percent of people in the housing market would like to live without lawns to mow, sidewalks to shovel and traffic to contend with every time they pick up a bottle of milk. Right now, most housing in the metro requires people to do all three.

And the area has a giant amenity — the Long Meadow Lake portion of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a stunningly beautiful wetland that the South Loop plan contemplates connecting to housing via new trailheads and walkways.  If everything comes together, the area could supply everything modern-day families want: city life with flora and fauna nearby.

First step in the plan, however, is a lot of unglamorous road and utility work, chiefly the extension of Lindau Lane to 30th Avenue South to hook the mall up to the Minnesota River. The portion of Lindau coming off the freeway will be lowered. Bridging the road will be a pad on top of which will sit a planned expansion of MOA. That, according to Daniel Jasper, the mall’s vice president of public relations, will contain a luxury hotel, a Mayo clinic office and 135,000 square feet devoted to retail.

That may sound like a lotta retail, but it’s about the size of three supermarkets and a teeny addition to MOA’s existing 2.8 million square feet of retail space. Already set to open in the spring of 2013 is the Radisson Blu hotel on the south side of the mall.

Mall and South Loop plan

My question is: How will the Mall’s expansion — and who knows how big it could get in the next 10 years? — mesh with the South Loop plan for more intimate high density living? The two seem disconnected. MOA is a grandiose structure designed to facilitate cars and delivery trucks; it can function only when surrounded by huge roadways that become barriers to pedestrians. I don’t know if I would want to walk from that northeastern corner to, say, the Health Partners Building. It’s not that far, but in the winter, the prairie wind would blow you down.

In a sense, however, the South Loop plan could never become a reality without the Mall. Last year, says Jasper, it drew 42 million visitors and broke the $1 billion mark for sales. While a whole lot of malls are going sideways, MOA is in a class by itself, says retail analyst Jim McComb, president of the McComb Group in Minneapolis. About half of its customers come from outside a 150-mile radius, many of them from overseas. While gawping at the immense structure, they drop a lot of dough, producing millions in sales and income taxes for the state and property tax revenues for Bloomington.

In its 20 years of existence, the number of (hospitality-tax generating) hotel rooms has risen from 5,000 to 8,000. Perhaps most important, contends Lee, is that the Mall has given the area an identity. “If you say ‘South Loop,’ nobody knows what you’re talking about,” he says. “But you can talk about the Mall, people from all over nod: yeah, I know that.”

Maybe they should rename the area MallWorld or Mallandia or, to get more lyrical, Mallifluous.

Think of the Mall as a petite version of Disney World. Without it, nobody would have heard of Orlando, Fla. The theme parks — love ‘em or hate ‘em, they are what they are — draw millions of visitors and money. Outside the Disney complexes, however, sit a lot of neglected strip shopping centers, ugly hotels, big box stores and suburban sprawl. 

 Bloomington’s planners are trying to do better than that. Let’s hope they succeed.

Article source: http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2012/05/vision-make-bloomington-more-giant-parking-lot

Wyatt Cenac & Ted Leo

Wyatt Cenac & Ted Leo
Event on 2012-06-01 20:00:00
Minnesota Public Radio presents Witsâ„¢ with Wyatt Cenac and Ted Leo at the Fitzgerald Theater on Friday, June 1st at 8:00 p.m. With two seasons under our belt, Wits is preparing for an incredible spring season, bringing some of the country's funniest storytellers and musicians to the Fitzgerald Theater. Host John Moe engages his guests in a raucous discussion and the audience can join in conversation on Twitter.

You most likely know Wyatt Cenac from his work on The Daily Show as a correspondent and writer or from his one hour Comedy Central stand-up special "Wyatt Cenac: Comedy Person." He was also a writer on FOX's animated show "King of the Hill" and did stand-up at shows like "Comedy Death Ray" and "The Tomorrow Show." He starred in the film "Medicine for Melancholy" which was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards.

Ted Leo, loved for his wit and energetic performances, is the front man and main songwriter of the indie rock band Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, a band radio host Tom Scharpling says "embodies the perfect synthesis of head and heart." The band's latest album is "The Brutalist Bricks."

Shows start at 8:00 p.m., but the party starts early. Come at 7:00 p.m. for the Tweet-up. Current DJ Barb Abney will spin some song and you can get yourself one of our drink specials. After the show, we keep the lights on and the bar open, so everyone can join in the conversation and have a Big Ginger®, made with 2 GINGERS Whiskey.

You can purchase a full season ticket package to all six Wits or create your own package to a minimum of four shows. When you purchase the Six-Show Package or the Choose-Your-Own-Show Package you will receive a .00 discount off the price of each single show ticket. All single show tickets are .00. Minnesota Public Radio Members receive a .00 discount of the price of each ticket.

at The Fitzgerald Theater
10 East Exchange Street
Saint Paul, United States

Minneapolis panel recommends demolishing Peavey Plaza (update)

Posted: 1:54 pm Thu, May 17, 2012


By Mark Anderson
Tags: Gary Schiff, Heritage Preservation Commission, M. Paul Friedberg, Minneapolis City Council, Peavey Plaza, Tom Oslund

Residents told a Minneapolis City Council committee on Thursday that Peavey Plaza’s current design isn’t welcoming to many people, especially those with disabilities. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

After a Minneapolis City Council committee listened to 90 minutes of testimony Thursday on whether to demolish downtown’s Peavey Plaza, members finally agreed with a city employee.

“It’s pretty simple,” said Mike Kennedy, director of transportation, maintenance and repair for the Minneapolis Public Works Department. “Peavey Plaza was built in a different era, and it has outlived its useful life.”

The council’s Zoning and Planning Committee voted 6-1 to override an April 17 recommendation by the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission to block the plaza’s demolition until a lengthier study of its historic value is completed. The committee’s decision is a recommendation to the full City Council, which will consider the issue on May 25.

Preservation activists have asserted that the Heritage Preservation Commission’s delay is required by Minneapolis statute because city staff reports acknowledged that the plaza meets standards for historic protection. The plaza was designed by the renowned landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg in 1971.

But Council Member Gary Schiff, the chairman of the Planning and Zoning Committee, said the requirement applies only to sites that already have an official historic designation, and Peavey Plaza does not.

The dispute made it to the pages of The New York Times, which reported Thursday that Friedberg had offered design ideas for correcting some of the plaza’s failings.

Members of the committee made it clear that their goal now is to build a new plaza that will be financially sustainable and serve the needs of more people in the community, especially those with disabilities.

City Council President Barb Johnson said her goal was to expand the plaza’s accessibility.

“I’m stunned, when I’m there, at how much space can’t be used easily” because of the steeply raked concrete levels, she said. “Peavey Plaza is an important gathering place, and it needs to support use for all people who live downtown.”

Some of the changes are needed to fix major structural problems on the site. The plaza is built on multiple levels of concrete that sink 17 feet beneath street level. There are tall cylindrical fountains and a large reflecting pool at the lowest level.

But Kennedy said the pumps, plumbing and filtration systems for those water features have failed and will be very expensive to replace because of their age and because they are buried in the levels of concrete.

“We’re deferring maintenance on the plaza because we don’t have the money to do all these things,” Kennedy said.

The plaza also poses accessibility obstacles. Only one accessible ramp enters the plaza, and it must be entered on the back side of Orchestra Hall, beside the building’s loading dock.

“Peavey Plaza was built in a different era, and it has outlived its useful life,” said Mike Kennedy, a Minneapolis Public Works director, at Thursday’s hearing. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

“I’m all about preservation but not if that prevents accessibility,” said Phil Ailiff, a downtown resident who uses a wheelchair. “I can tell you, Peavey Plaza as it stands is a very unwelcoming place for people with disabilities.”

Gina Bonsignore, a landscape architect from St. Paul, urged the panel to proceed with the study to gain a better measure of the site’s historic and architectural value.

“This was designed and built in an era where energy was returning to central cities, and much of that energy was coming from the urban design” that was developing, Bonsignore said. “Peavey Plaza and the Nicollet Mall were big contributors to that movement.”

But Council Member Lisa Goodman said the extent of repairs would push the project beyond what’s eligible for historic protection.

“When we make all the changes that everyone agrees on, it’s just not preservation anymore,” Goodman said.

Schiff said the Planning and Zoning Committee’s action leaves room for more debate on what will be included in Minneapolis landscape architect Tom Oslund’s new design for the plaza. Changes could reflect more of Friedberg’s original design, he said.

One of Oslund’s ideas is to bring the plaza up close to street level to make it more accessible, more functional for events and more visible.

The plaza’s neighbors complain that fights, drug and alcohol use, and public urination are common there because the sunken design shields the activity.

Stewart Higgins, owner of Brit’s Pub, which is near the plaza, and a resident of Symphony Place south of the site, said those factors drive many people away.

“It’s been a magnet for public nuisance and petty crime for as long as I’ve lived here,” Higgins said.

The city’s Planning Department asked Mortenson Construction to estimate the cost of rebuilding the plaza, with accessibility improvements and a storm water management system. The estimate was $8.7 million, said Peter Brown, a project consultant with the city’s Public Works Department.

The current estimate for a new plaza design and overhaul is between $8 million and $10 million, Brown said.

The Minnesota Legislature approved $2 million in bonding authority to help pay for repairs on the plaza, and the rest will be raised in private donations.

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Article source: http://finance-commerce.com/2012/05/minneapolis-council-panel-approves-peavey-plaza-demolition/

Dining with Dara: Urban fish farms may transform Minn. food scene

by Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl

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ST. PAUL, Minn. —
When you think of Minnesota fish, you naturally think of 10,000 lakes, a boat and a line, and a campfire fish fry. But that may be changing, as our regular food and dining critic Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl is here to tell us about the new indoor trend for Minnesota fish.

Moskowitz Grumdahl, senior editor for Minneapolis St. Paul magazine, toured a couple of new aquaponic operations in the Twin Cities and talked about them with MPR’s Tom Crann.

Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl:
First let’s get some terms clear. A few weeks ago we talked about hydroponics — the system of growing vegetables in greenhouses such that their roots are in a water-and-nutrient bath. Aquaponics is hydroponics plus fish.

Tom Crann: What kind of fish?

Moskowitz Grumdahl: Great question. There are two aquaponic operations underway in the Twin Cities, each with a different fish, and each very different.

In St. Paul, the fish is tilapia, and the plans are beyond ambitious. A group of investors led by the Minneapolis marketing guru Fred Haberman is transforming the big old brewhouse of the old Hamm’s Brewery into a fish and produce farm.

Crann: If I remember correctly, the old Hamm’s Brewery is a huge site.

Moskowitz Grumdahl: Vast, enormous, ginormous — the old brewhouse is 55,000 square feet, five floors, with masonry walls four feet thick. They don’t build buildings like that anymore. A hundred years ago the building supported enormous brew tanks, so it’s built to hold very heavy loads of water.

The City of St. Paul has been wanting to redevelop this parcel of land and buildings up on the Payne Avenue hills overlooking downtown St. Paul, and they’re working with the Haberman-led group, called Urban Organics, to get the site up and running again.

Crann: As a fish farm.

Moskowitz Grumdahl: A fish farm and a vegetable farm. Fred Haberman and the city are thinking a lot about the idea of food deserts. The idea is that this Urban Organics will be providing lettuce, kale, basil, and eventually other vegetables from a rooftop greenhouse.

Crann: So the famous water that Hamm’s beer was made from will now be the famous water that fish are grown in. So that’s the St. Paul story. What about the Minneapolis aquaponic operation?

Moskowitz Grumdahl: It couldn’t be more different. While the St. Paul one, Urban Organics, is an enormous public-private partnership, the Minneapolis one, The Urban Farm Project, is a couple guys in a warehouse on a shoestring budget, building fish tanks out of wood and pond liners.

The people behind it are named Chad Hebert and Warren Burgess, and they’ve actually been raising coldwater perch as well as seven types of lettuce, cabbage, strawberries, basil, and celery, and selling them to local restaurants like Heartland.

Crann: Perch? Aren’t perch relatives of walleye?

Moskowitz Grumdahl: Yes. The perch The Urban Farm Project is raising are yellow perch. Hebert told me the reason they aren’t raising walleye is because of walleye’s sharp teeth and carnivorous ways — you’d start with a tank full of baby walleye, and then you’d have two fat ones left!

The University of Minnesota is experimenting with a walleye-sauger cross, which could solve the two problems which have been bedeviling Minnesotans: How to produce local, sustainable food that’s delicious, and how to fish for walleye in January in your bathing suit!

Broadcast Dates

• All Things Considered, 05/17/2012, 3:50 p.m.
• All Things Considered, 05/17/2012, 6:20 p.m.

Article source: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/05/17/dining-with-dara-urban-fish-farms-may-transform-minn-food-scene/?refid=0

Minneapolis Tussles Over Peavey Plaza

But things have changed. These days two of the plaza’s three fountains no longer work, their pumps and lines not easily replaceable. Concrete is stained and crumbling, exposing rebar. The reflecting pool is dry more often than not. And those intimate spaces are occasionally put to unsavory uses. Peavey Plaza’s time may be up. Even as preservationists argue for rehabilitation of what they consider the finest surviving example of Mr. Friedberg’s work, the City of Minneapolis, which owns 75 percent of it, has commissioned a significant redesign of the space. The plaza has become another battleground in the wars being fought around the country between preservationists determined to save what they see as underappreciated Modernist designs and cities and developers pushing to move on.

On Thursday the city’s public works department will appeal the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission’s recent denial of a demolition permit, and if the permit is approved, the issue will be voted on by the City Council on May 25. Fund-raising has begun for a new design by Tom Oslund of Oslund and Associates, a Minneapolis firm, which is expected to cost between $8 million and $10 million, with $2 million provided by state bond funds.

“Even though Peavey Plaza is not a city landmark, the commission is considering it to be an historic resource worthy of further study and possible designation,” said Chad M. Larsen, chairman of the preservation commission.

Whatever it may once have been, the plaza “is not a beautiful space now,” said Gwen Pappas, the director of public relations for the Minnesota Orchestra, which owns 25 percent of it and has used the planned $50 million remodeling of its 1974 building to generate momentum for remaking the plaza. “The concern was if the hall was to get a shiny, new refurbishment and Peavey was left in its current state of disrepair, the discrepancy between the two would be even greater,” she said.

In addition, the city points out that Peavey Plaza meets neither Americans With Disabilities Act accessibility requirements nor sustainable water-use standards, and that it lacks the electrical supplies necessary for outdoor events. Mr. Oslund’s design addresses those issues and also creates a more open space, sunken less deeply below street level.

Supporters of rehabilitating Mr. Friedberg’s design say the city has not met its legal obligation to prove “that there are no reasonable alternatives to the demolition” as required by the code of ordinances on historic resources.

In June a group of people recruited to give feedback on proposed changes to the plaza was shown four concepts with preliminary budgets, said Erin Hanafin Berg, a member of the group and a field representative for the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, which supports saving Mr. Friedberg’s design. In July the group was told that the city would move forward with developing two of those concepts, both by Mr. Oslund: a new scheme and one that adapted the original design.

But at an October meeting, “it was a rude shock when only the new, reconfigured scheme was on the table, and we were told that the restorative scheme was unfundable,” Ms. Berg wrote in an e-mail. In its demolition application, the city maintained that no feasible alternative was available because of the scope of construction and because funders would not contribute millions of dollars to restore the original design.

“There have been some conversations” with potential funders, said Charles T. Lutz, deputy director of the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department. They believe Mr. Oslund’s design “better reflects what is needed on the plaza today,” he added.

Mr. Friedberg had originally been on Mr. Oslund’s team; in an e-mail, Mr. Oslund said he removed Mr. Friedberg after he made it clear that he thought the plaza should not change.

Mr. Friedberg, who has recently come up with a set of design additions to Peavey Plaza that he believes would bring the space “into the 21st century,” said he would be open to more extreme change “if I thought what was being created advanced the idea of landscape architecture and urban culture.” Mr. Oslund’s design, in his opinion, “is not a significant view in that direction.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/arts/design/minneapolis-tussles-over-peavey-plaza.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Granite City Food & Brewery Completes Sale-Leaseback of Troy, Michigan Location

MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Granite City Food Brewery Ltd.® (NASDAQ: GCFB – News) today
announced the completion of the sale-leaseback of its real property in
Troy, Michigan. The Troy location, which represents the Company’s 27^thGranite City location, opened to the public last week.

Pursuant to the sale-leaseback agreement, the Company sold the Troy
location to Store Master Funding I, LLC, a subsidiary of Store Capital
Acquisitions, LLC, for gross proceeds of $4.0 million. Under the same
agreement, the Company now leases back the Troy location over a 15-year
term.

“As originally planned, we entered into a sale-leaseback transaction for
the Troy property to maintain liquidity for future restaurant expansion
and existing restaurant enhancement,” said Rob Doran, Chief Executive
Officer of Granite City Food Brewery Ltd. “Store Capital has been a
great partner to work with and we hope to work with them again on future
restaurants.”

About Granite City Food Brewery

Granite City Food Brewery Ltd. develops and operates two casual dining
concepts: Granite City Food Brewery and Cadillac Ranch All American
Bar Grill®. Granite City Food Brewery is a polished casual American
restaurant that features a great dining experience with affordable,
high-quality menu items prepared from made-from-scratch recipes, served
in generous portions. There is a brewery onsite, serving hand-crafted
and micro brews. Granite City opened its first restaurant in 1999 and is
expanding nationwide; there are currently 27 Granite City restaurants in
13 states. Cadillac Ranch restaurants feature freshly prepared,
authentic, All-American cuisine in a fun, dynamic environment. Its
patrons enjoy a warm, Rock N’ Roll inspired atmosphere, with plenty of
room for friends, music and dancing. The Cadillac Ranch menu is diverse
with offerings ranging from homemade meatloaf to pasta dishes, all
freshly prepared using quality ingredients. The Company purchased its
first Cadillac Ranch in November 2011 and has since purchased four
additional Cadillac Ranch restaurants along with its intellectual
property. The Company currently operates five Cadillac Ranch restaurants
in four states. Additional information about Granite City Food Brewery
can be found at www.gcfb.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this press release of a non-historical
nature constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such
forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those anticipated. Such factors include, but are not limited to,
changes in economic conditions, changes in consumer preferences or
discretionary consumer spending, a significant change in the performance
of any existing restaurants, our ability to continue funding our
operations and meet our debt service obligations, and the risks and
uncertainties described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission on March 23, 2012.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/granite-city-food-brewery-completes-212000008.html

Disney’s Phineas and Ferb Live: The Best LIVE Tour Ever!

Disney’s Phineas and Ferb Live: The Best LIVE Tour Ever!
Event on 2012-10-21 16:00:00

at Xcel Energy Center
199 West Kellogg Boulevard
Saint Paul, United States