Kiger's Notebook

Snap Fitness bulking up

A quick move is making bulking up a Snap for a local workout center.

Snap Fitness in northeast Rochester plans to flex to "about three times" is current size, says Catherine Pinnell, the club's general manager.

The 24-hour center is moving from its spot at 2571 Clare Lane N.E. to a space in a nearby building at 2477 Clare Lane, next to E.O Johnson's office. Both sites are in the Century Square office park.

Look for the move to happen in early June.

Locker rooms are being added along with space for group fitness classes and more exercise equipment, she says.

"While we'll still be 24/7, it will be more of a full-service gym with a wellness approach," Pinnell says.

She has four on staff now, but that number is expected to grow with additional personal trainers and desk workers.

Kara Schuster and John Johnson own the center as well as one on South Broadway that used to be a USA Fitness

Permit for $6M building issued for Elk Run

Here's a little from an article by Jeff Hansel about the first building permit being issued for construction at the proposed Elk Run biobusiness park.

For more on this, follow this link.

A $6 million building at the Elk Run biobusiness park in Pine Island should begin to rise within weeks.

Advocates of the bold $1 billion effort to construct, and draw businesses to, the park believe the first building will start a "chain reaction" of construction, jobs and spending as workers stop to buy meals, gasoline and other products.

"We did issue the building permit for the first building at the bioscience park at Elk Run," Pine Island City Administrator Abraham Algadi told the Post-Bulletin late Thursday.
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Algadi said a "biomedical business" will be the first occupant of 8,000 square feet in the 50,400-square-foot building.

Change coming for Roch. massage biz?

Is there a change on the way for a Rochester massage business?

That's the chatter out and about.

The rub, of course, is finding out if it is true.

I'll let you know.

Tax credits jolt local real estate market

Here's some from my piece on the housing scramble this week as everyone rushes to beat the tax credit deadline

To read the full story, go here:

Two numbers — $6,500 and $8,000 — are electrifying the local housing market, jolting potential buyers and sellers into action to beat a Friday deadline.

"It has been crazy for the last two weeks. Everybody is scrambling," says Rochester Realtor Traci Fogelson, president of the Southeast Minnesota Association of Realtors. "Not that I'm complaining."

As part of the federal stimulus plan, qualified first-time home buyers get an $8,000 tax credit, while move-up buyers get a $6,500 credit. But to qualify, a purchase agreement must be signed by the end of Friday.

Homes are being snapped up by buyers at a rate unseen since the recession started in 2006, real estate agents say.

In Rochester, 1,300 homes are on the market. Of those homes, 69 were first listed for sale last week, 44 percent more than hit the market during that week last year.

During March, pending sales were up 28 percent from a year earlier, with much of the action later in the month.

More on new downtown Roch. photo studio

Here's more on Olive Juice Studios spawning a second, budget photography studio called Apple Juice:

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The creative juices are really flowing in downtown Rochester.

Scott and Kelly Schoeberl, who own and operate Olive Juice Studios, are stirring things up by opening a second photograph studio – Apple Juice.

The concept is to offer Olive Juice-style portraits at a lower cost by streamlining the process and shooting only in-studio photo sessions.

"We run into people all of the time who say they love what we do, but say it costs more than they want to spend," Kelly Schoeberl says. "We just stopped and asked ourselves how do we do that."

They decided a second studio was the answer.

On June 10, the new Juice is slated to open with its own team of three photographers and a studio manager just up the stairs from its parent studio in the City Market building at 212 First Ave. S.W.
Olive Juice's photo team does its work out and about at weddings, in baby nurseries or taking pet portraits in backyards.

To prepare for a session, Scott and his team meet with the clients to plan out a future shoot and then meet again after the shoot to choose photos.

Those photos might be used in custom-designed cards, coffee table books or purchased along with a frame that the Olive staff might actually hang on a client's wall.

In contrast, a session at Apple Juice is done in one visit in the studio with people choosing their photos at the end. No specialty cards or frames will be offered — just simple, quality prints.

"Apple Juice is not meant to replace Olive Juice. We think it will complement it," Scott says.

That also means providing Olive Juice-style energetic, personality-packed portraits.

The three A.J. photogs have been training with Scott for the past two months to create the same vibe in the studio that he does at a wedding or outdoor shoot.

"Ultimately, if you are going to name something juice, it will reflect on us," Kelly says.

Signing on a house this week to get federal credit?

I'm looking for anyone in Rochester, Minn. area who is signing on a house this week to qualify for federal tax credit to include in a Thursday story.

I'd like to include the stories of a variety of buyers, if possible.

Thanks for your help.

Elk Run developer land dispute

Here's my take on the recent land dispute between Tower Investments, the developer of Pine Island's massive Elk Run biobusiness community, and a local farmer:

A contract dispute is kicking up some dust across the highway from Elk Run, Pine Island's proposed biotechnology park.

At issue is part of the farmland that Tower Investments of California is acquiring from land owners, Elmer and Judy Stock.

The land is across U.S. 52 to the west from the primary 2,000 acres Tower has slated for the planned commercial, residential and biotechnology development called Elk Run. Tower describes the parcel in question as "excess agricultural land" that came with the purchase of the Stock farm.

On Tuesday, Elmer Stock, who is now divorced from Judy Stock, reportedly initiated foreclosure proceedings on a portion of the land, claiming Tower was behind in its mortgage payments to him.

Stock could not be reached to comment on this story.

Tower says the fault lies with Stock.

"The Stocks breached our mortgage agreement in 2008. We held back payment of the interest in 2009 because of that breach," said Geoff Griffin, the Elk Run project manager based in Chatfield.

Tower paid all of the outstanding interest in late 2009, when the Stocks "…promised to cooperate in the future and abide by the terms of the agreement."

But that did not last for long.

"Almost immediately they breached the agreement again. Therefore we are in this current dispute," Griffin said.

How does this land conflict affect the planned Elk Run development that includes a 1.7-million-square-foot bioscience research park, along with hotels, restaurants, stores, offices, a medical clinic and a residential neighborhood built around parks and lakes?

It doesn't, according to Tower and the Pine Island City Administrator Abraham Algadi.

"This is an issue that is private, I want to super emphasize that," says Algadi. " It is between two private parties that have no impact whatsoever on progress of the remainder of Elk Run, the interchange or the biotech park."

Chamber cancels Saturday's Eggs & Issues

This e-mail from John Eckerman of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce rolled in this morning.

Unfortunately, our speaker for this Saturday’s Eggs and Issues event will be unable to present. Former state senator and Racino Now President Dick Day had some personal matters come up at the last minute and cannot attend.  

With only a few weeks left in the session it was impossible to come up with another date to reschedule so we are forced to cancel.

Our plan is to host an Eggs & Issues Special Edition, focusing  on the impact businesses will be facing with the passage of the federal  patient protection and affordable care act.  That date is scheduled for June 10th…more details to follow.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Mayo Clinic-linked biotech + $4M stock offering

Here's some a piece I have in today's paper on Nile Therapeutics, a bio firm with deep ties to Mayo Clinic:

A small biotech company working on two cardiac treatments based on research licensed from Mayo Clinic is offering 6.5 million shares for sale to try to raise $4 million.

Nile Therapeutics Inc., a San Francisco biopharmaceutical firm, licenses with Mayo Clinic to develop two natriuretic peptides created by Mayo Clinic researchers Drs. John Burnett and Candace Lee.
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Burnett is also the chairman of Nile's Scientific Advisory Board. Mayo Clinic holds some equity in the company.

The stock offering of 70 cents per unit started Thursday and will end today.

Nile reported losses of $7.9 million in 2009 and $13.1 million in 2008. In 2007, the company raised $20 million in financing and went public through a reverse merger.

The rest of the article is here on postbulletin.com.

Photos adding more Juice to downtown

So the folks at Olive Juice are stirring things up a bit by creating a spin-off of their downtown Rochester photo studio - Apple Juice.

This is a separate studio with its own team of three photographers and a studio manager. It offers lower cost portraits by streamlining the packages and eliminating the "extras," according to the website.

 It is located upstairs from Olive Juice in the City Market building at 212 First Ave. S.W.

Does this remind anyone else of the 80s sitcom, "Too Close For Comfort"? I think I may have watched too much TV in the 80s.

Anyway, I'll have more on this soon…after my morning orange juice.