Kiger's Notebook

New Roch. eatery closed for good

After seven weeks and lots of glitches, Dale Kruse decided to pull the plug on his experiment of opening a Meatheads deli and butcher shop.

In early July, he opened the spinoff of his Meatheads business that is very popular iin Red Wing.

While the lunch crowd was OK and showed some growth, the sales of fresh meat never increased at all from that first week.

That, along with a variety of issues with more cropping up each day, convinced Kruse to cut his losses like a thick steak and retreat back to Red Wing.

He closed the doors of the former Taco John's/ Steak Escape over the weekend.

Traficant, "guest" @ Rochester's Fed prison, to leave this week

Former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. of Ohio, who moved into Rochester's Federal Medical Center prison in 2004, is slated to be released and head back to Ohio Wednesday.

During his stay here, he developed a career as an artist selling arts for a time, until the local prison officials pulled the plug on the money.

Traficant was convicted of racketeering, bribery and tax evasion and received an eight-year sentence July 30, 2002. He has been in custody since then. The House of Representatives expelled him.

He had a reputation on Capitol Hill for his wild hair, bellbottom pants and one-minute floor speeches punctuated with the Star Trek comment, "Beam me up."

Today's Biz Buzz - CVS and hot tech start-up

• As the expected October opening of the new Rochester Walgreens drug store draws closer, one wonders how the search by CVS for a possible location is going.

CVS, Walgreens’ arch rival and the second largest drug store chain in the United States, has been shopping for a site in the Med City for quite a while.

So is the forecasted clash of the drug store titans on its way? Well, that fight is still not scheduled.

“I have nothing to report,” says Mike DeAngelis of CVS last week.

• On a very different part of the local business map, a hot, young tech company has plans to roll out a new product this week as sort of an appetizer to a main course that is expected to be served soon.

Don’t expect cheese and crackers, but it could involve Java.

Brand new hotel sold for $14 M

One of the largest Rochester real estate deals so far this year — a $14.1 million sale — was for a new hotel earlier this month.

Apple Nine Hospitality, an offshoot of Richmond, Va.-based Apple REIT Cos., bought the just-completed Hampton Inn and Suites at 2870 59th St. N.W., along Bandel Road, before the first customer ever checked in.

Viking Fund Rochester, which built the 124-unit hotel, sold it.

The transaction towered over other recent Rochester deals with two sales barely topping $1 million in July and one seven-figure June deal hitting $2.2 million.

Big Roch. real estate deal of Aug. = $14 million

Skimming through the latest real estate transactions in Olmsted County, one on Aug. 3 jumped out at me.

A property sold for $14 million in northwest Rochester.

It has been few months since I have seen a transaction break $10 million.

I don't have enough info yet to really under the deal, but I should soon. It might even roll into a story for Monday.

We'll see what surfaces before the insidious weekend overtakes me.

As of last week, Hering Galleries Art and Frame is partially framing Second Street Southwest.

As she announced earlier this summer, owner Carol Warmka moved her operation across that street to the Masonic Center at 2002 Second St. S.W., by Herold's Flags.

 

However, Hering is also still open at 2001 Second St. S.W. in the back of the Moga Square building. But that is temporary.

A University of Minnesota event slated at Hering was a good fit for the new gallery location, so Warmka did part of the move sooner than planned. And once the brightly-colored Hering sign was hung over the door, customers started walking in.

The new spot features small rooms displaying different related artistic themes in settings that make it easier for customers to visualize an art piece in an house.

Warmka says the move has already paid off as interior design shoppers are naturally walking from Real Deals furniture and accessories store to the new Hering gallery and then across the street to Shades of Green

New Walgreens = Oct. opening

It sounds like people might be have the option to shop for their Halloween candy at Rochester’s newest drug store.

Here’s an update from Walgreens’ Vivika Vergara on the giant drug store chain’s plans:

“The location near Broadway and 14th (Street Southwest) is tentatively slated to open in October,” she wrote in an e-mail this week.

How about the 7,000-square-foot Walgreens store proposed for the busy corner of Civic Center Drive and 11th Avenue Northwest — currently occupied by the International Buffet restaurant?

While plans for that project have made it through early approval steps, Walgreens is not officially locked in yet, says Vergara. 

“…We cannot comment on that one because there is no signed lease yet,” she wrote.

And here's a note I got from my CVS drug store chain contact - Michael J. DeAngelis –  about if they will be coming here soon to do battle with their eternal foe - Walgreens.

        Hi Jeff, nothing new to announce at this time, thanks.

 

Unemployment takes a dip locally

Here's a little from a piece by my colleague Mike Klein:

A boost in tourism jobs breathed life into southeastern Minnesota's labor market in July, with employment rising by 200 since June in Mower County alone, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Mower County's jobless rate was 6.2 percent in June, down from 6.8 percent in June but still higher than last year's 4.6 percent. The number of jobless people totaled 1,325, down from 1,445 in June.

The jobless rate in the 11-county region was 7.2 percent in July, down from 7.8 percent in June, but up from 5 percent a year ago. It remains lower than the state rate of 7.8 percent and the national rate of 9.7 percent.

The job market was slowly improving in spring but suddenly worsened in June, so observers were watching July closely to see if the recovery resumed, said Jennifer Ridgeway, DEED labor market analyst.

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A particularly bright spot was the leisure and hospitality sector, she said. After steady job losses for 18 months, the sector gained jobs in June and July compared to the previous year, Ridgeway said. In July, it accounted for 9,508 jobs in the Rochester metropolitan area (Olmsted, Wabasha and Dodge counties), up 2.4 percent from a year ago, even as most sectors stayed steady or declined slightly.

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Ian Freeburg, president of the Rochester Lodging Association and general manager of the SpringHill Suites Hotel, said business at his hotel has picked up in recent months and his hotel has hired a few extra people.

The Jehovah's Witnesses convention, as well as other conventions brought in by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, provided a healthy boost this summer, Freeburg said.

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However, retail trade jobs were down 1.4 percent over the year in the Rochester metro area, so consumer spending is still slow.

Education and health jobs, a powerhouse in Rochester because of Mayo Clinic, continued to gain. The sector accounted for 43,072 jobs, up 1.9 percent from a year ago, in the Rochester metro area.

Fuel Rochester + McMurphy's Thursday = Happy Hour

Here's a quick reminder for all of you business networking-oriented folks out there, young and old.

Fuel Rochester, an offshoot of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce focused on the interests and needs of local young professionals, is hosting a Happy Hour @ McMurphy's, 1201 Eastgate Dr. S.E. Thursday 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Don't worry. Old folks, like myself, are also allowed to attend. However, please try not to be too uncool or fall and break a hip or anything. Heh.

Here's how Fuel is describing the event:

Join us for our monthly Fuel Rochester Happy Hour event at McMurphy's. 

Enjoy drink specials from 5-7 p.m., network with fellow young professionals and Fuel members and learn more about what Fuel Rochester has to offer.

Fuel Happy hours are open to all Chamber members. Fuel members receive one free drink by showing their membership/discount card. 

Attendees will have the chance to sign up for Fuel.

Still growing and shaping up - Gift of Life 2.0 update

The Gift of Life Transplant House 2.0 looks to be very healthy these days as the seasons edge toward fall.

If you don't know, this is the additional housing complex for patients having transplants at Mayo Clinic. It is being built across Second Street from Rochester's original Gift of Life House.

It won't be long, it seems, until this project enters the home stretch.

I vaguely remember back in Nov. 2007 when I first wrote about this project. My, how time flies