Kiger's Notebook

Collaboration rolling toward Rochester streets

While it isn't street-ready yet, several of Rochester's public transportation businesses are trying to put together an alliance to pool their resources and ultimately improve the experience getting from Point A to Point B in the Med City.

Details are still being hammered out and nothing is finalized yet, but it sounds like it will probably happen.

I chatted with someone involved with deal. He wasn't comfortable being identified yet, but he did offer a few insights of what might be coming down the road.

The businesses involved would retain their individual identities. However, they will join forces to handle needs they have in common, fleet maintenance in particular.

"The alliance wants to ensure a seamless experience for customers by providing a prompt, efficient and more consistent transportation service across all product lines," he said. "A world-class medical center deserves a world-class transportation system and we intend to deliver."

That sounds like a lofty goal that fits well with Mayo Clinic's Destination Medical Center initiative.

One interesting element is that it involves many types of transportation as well as bringing direct competitors together under the alliance's umbrella.

While these local businesses might not make it all the way to their targeted destinations, the journey itself sounds like one that could improve what happens on Rochester's streets.

I'll keep tracking this one. Stay tuned.

Holiday to close the "runt" of SA C-store litter

It looks like the addition of Holiday gas stations to Rochester will mean the subtraction of a current station from the market.

The buzz going around South Broadway is that when Holiday takes ownership of the six SuperAmerica stations in Rochester on May 1, one of them will go dark.

Officials with Bloomington-based Holiday have not responded to inquiries about changes in the Med City. However, there is evidence to support this closing theory. Rochester building permits show that Holiday signs are going up at all of the Super America stations, except the one on South Broadway.

People in the neighborhood around the station say they are hearing the store is closing because it's the smallest in the batch. The 18-year-old Broadway station is 1,900 square feet. By comparison, SA's station on Second Street Southwest is about 1,500 square feet larger.

Of course, having a Kwik Trip station right next to the South Broadway SA probably didn't help its perceived viability.

If that station does go dark, it will be interesting to see what happens next. Holiday does have a history of selling its "surplus real estate," so there's a good chance that lot will go on the market.

For obvious reasons (see previous sentence about Kwik Trip), it will probably not become another gas station.

So what could go there? 

I'd say a coffee shop, small diner or even a fast food place (Dare I say… White Castle?) could be reasonable options for that high traffic area along South Broadway.

Even a bar might work there. Remember, Beer Bellyz is a converted Holiday gas station.

Tech columnist on Decline and Fall of IBM

I've pointed out the writings of well-known tech columnist Bob Cringely and his dire (and sometimes accurate) predictions about IBM.

As a long-time tech writer, he seems to have to pretty good grasp of how IBM has changed over the years. He has always been very critical of Big Blue's management, which he sees as creating profits at the expense of their employees instead creating of good technology.

Cringely's latest prediction is that IBM will withdraw its 401K contributions for its employees. They have already made some significant changes in that area, from shifting from making 401k contributions in every paycheck to doing it just once a year.

I wonder what local IBMers think about that. Is it possible? Could that be in the works?

The Decline and Fall of IBM is the headline of Cringely's latest column as well as the title of an e-book that is releasing soon.

Here's an excerpt from the column:

IBM is in trouble, you see, serious trouble caused primarily by executive corrosion from within. Not only did Big Blue miss its earnings target last quarter for the first time in years, if the rumors I am hearing are correct the company’s primary response will be to screw U.S. employees even more than they have already.

The rumor I’ve heard is that IBM, which not long ago changed its 401k contribution policy to push what had been a biweekly payment into an annual one right at the end of the year, may have decided this year (and in the future?) not to make any 401K contribution at all. Since IBM’s U.S. employees can divert up to eight percent of their gross compensation into the 401K and IBM has traditionally made a comparable matching payment, this possible change in compensation policy could save the company close to $1 billion.

In one sense one might ask what’s wrong with that? Companies have to do what they have to do in this economy and workers sometimes suffer. But for IBM it indicates the company is getting near the bottom of its bag of tricks for maintaining earnings growth toward that ambitious 2015 goal of $20 per share. Management seem to be down to three ideas to improve the numbers: 1) savage the 401K plan; 2) sell the low-end server business to Lenovo for a reported $2.5 billion, and; 3) expect a miracle called PureSystems.

 

 

 

Appeals Court reverses ruling on Rochester Buffalo Wild Wings dispute

The owners of Rochester's Crossroads Shopping Center feel vindicated by a  Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling in their favor in a long-running battle over a proposed Buffalo Wild Wings.

"I've always said, 'If anyone in the courts follow the law, we'll win,'" says Bob Meek, who owns Crossroads with Vic Scott. "It gives me faith that the judicial system is functioning properly. I was starting to have my doubts."

After losing three battles at the planning commission, the Rochester City Council and then in Olmsted County District Court, Crossroads won the legal war in the end.

Monday's ruling reversed a June ruling by Olmsted County Judge Nancy Buytendorp that dismissed Crossroads' lawsuit against BWW owner Graf Enterprises and the city of Rochester.

The dispute was over the city's approval of  Rochester businessman Tom Graf's plan to build a 7,000-square-foot Buffalo Wild Wings in the lot in front of the Crossroads center. Graf introduced the development plan in 2011, when he purchased Pannekoeken Huis restaurant, demolished it and then filed to build his second Rochester BWW on the site.

"We are extremely disappointed in the appellate court ruling," Graf said Monday afternoon.

What does this mean for his plans to build a second Buffalo Wild Wings and his ownership of the land surrounded by Crossroads property?

"We are taking a look at our options," he said.

Parking is at the heart of this dispute . The city-approved plan called for 55 parking spaces — 35 on Graf's plot of land and 20 spaces in the surrounding Crossroads parking lot.

That calculation was made with the understanding that the proposed restaurant is part of the business center. Otherwise the proposed restaurant would require 88 parking spaces.

The Crossroads owners long have said that the city ordinances were not being followed and that the plan took their property away and gave it to Graf for his use.

"For a developer and a shopping center, excess parking is money in the bank," said Meek.

In the appeals court ruling, the judges sided with Crossroads' position, writing "Because Crossroads' protectable right to the parking spaces on its property is placed in jeopardy by the city's actions, Crossroads has standing, its claim is ripe and the district court erred by dismissing the claim on justiciability grounds."

The ruling stated that the city staff did not follow Rochester's own ordinances in regards to what is part of a business center and if Graf had enough control of the Crossroads' parking spaces to warrant allowing him to use 22 of them.

City Attorney Terry Adkins said that the ruling means that the city planning department will now need to "strictly" apply the ordinances.

For his part, Meek said he was relieved to have the case resolved after so long, though he still feels it should not have played out the way it did.

"I think it is terrible that a private party like us had to spend so much on a lengthy case just to prove the city wasn't following their own rules," he said.

Rochester's DMC tight rope walk - Looking for people for article

Last week I interviewed a few local leaders about the DMC tight rope walk, particularly after last week's political chatter about Rochester being boring.

It seems the path is between "Rochester needs money to be better" and "Rochester is a great city."

I'm looking for to interview folks who normally don't get quoted in the newspaper for feedback on if Rochester actually is dull? Dull or not, everyone seems to have ideas about what this city needs to improve the quality of life here plus add some zest to the community's personality.

Beside looking for the opinions of average people, I'd also like to chat with some young doctors as well as some patients visiting here for medical treatment.

If you are interested, please contact me at jkiger@postbulletin.com or 285-7798.

Deal to buy ex-People's Energy Co-op building in works

People's Energy Cooperative moved out of Rochester and into a newly built complex outside of Oronoco last spring.

Since then, its 42-year-old headquarters at 3935 U.S. 14 E. has stood empty.

Now a deal is in the works s a local buyer is stepping up to make an offer on the former People's complex. It includes a 13,000-square-foot office building and a 40,500-square-foot warehouse/shop building.

Hamilton Real Estate had listed the property at $2.8 million. I believe the offer in the works is for $2.4 million.

Look for all of the details on this to come out in the PB.

Plug pulled on IBM's record breaking computer Roadrunner

IBM's record-breaking Roadrunner supercomputer was the fastest computer in the world when introduced five years ago.

But this week, it was retired and soon will be dismantled, surpassed by other machines in the fast-evolving world of supercomputers.

The Roadrunner, which owed much of its hybrid design and manufacture to Big Blue's Rochester campus, was the first machine to break the computer industry's "sound barrier" in 2008 by clocking a petaflop or one quadrillion calculations per second.

“We just all looked around and said, ‘We made it,’” stated Peter Keller, who was part of the Rochester manufacturing team that recorded that historic milestone on May 25, 2008.

The plug was pulled on the $121 million supercomputer on Easter Sunday at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

"Roadrunner, while I would not define it as strictly obsolete, it has been surpassed by newer technology," said Kevin Roark, of Los Alamos. "It's perfectly normal. …This is the natural progression."

Roadrunner's duties are being shifted over to Los Alamos' Cielo supercomputer, which is made by Seattle-based Cray Inc. Two years younger than Roadrunner, Roark describes it as faster, smaller, less expensive and more energy-efficient than its IBM predecessor.

Until it was shut down, Roadrunner ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week since being delivered to the laboratory via 25 trucks.

While it now is being experimented on as it waits to be dismantled and shredded, Roadrunner took Los Alamos' work on the United States' nuclear weapons stockpile to a new level.

"It has performed remarkably well. It has really helped us solve some fundamental problems that were essentially unsolvable before a computer of its speed," Roark said.

It wasn't just its speed that made Roadrunner so groundbreaking. The revolutionary hybrid design that coordinated the use of different types of computer chips, including Cell chips originally designed in Rochester to be used in Sony's PlayStation 3 video game system.

"Roadrunner was a truly pioneering idea," said Gary Grider, of Los Alamos' High Performance Computing Division, in a statement. "Roadrunner got everyone thinking in new ways about how to build and use a supercomputer."

Los Alamos teamed up with IBM to build Roadrunner from commercially available parts. They ended up with 278 refrigerator-size racks filled with two different types of processors, all linked together by 55 miles of fiber optic cable.

The supercomputer has been used over the last five years to model viruses and unseen parts of the universe, to better understand lasers and for nuclear weapons work. That includes simulations aimed at ensuring the safety and reliability of the nation's aging arsenal.

Roadrunner was the world's fastest computer for 18 months. At its peak, it was two times faster than Blue Gene/L, which was IBM’s star machine and the fastest computer in the world in 2007.

Its historic speed kept Roadrunner on the Top 500 Fastest Computers list, despite being outdated. It still ranked as 22nd fastest machine in the world in November.

IBM had four of the top 10 fastest computers on that November list, and all had roots in Rochester. Sequoia, a BlueGene/ Q, took the No. 2 spot behind Cray's Titan. Other BlueGenes — Miram JUQUEEN and Fermi — locked up the fourth, fifth and ninth spots.

New salon concept ready to launch in south Rochester

A new twist on hair salons is ready to roll into south Rochester.

Austin and Kari Lucas are setting up a Sola Salon Studios franchise in 5,200 square feet of space in Shoppes on Maine. Sola Salon is taking most of the strip of empty spots along the north side of the complex that houses MGM Liquors and the former Best Buy store.

The concept is more like a mall than a traditional beauty salon. It will be a collection of 26 private studios that will be available for lease by licensed stylists and professionals in related fields. Three sizes of models will be available.

"We're not in the salon business," explained Austin Lucas. "We're in the business of putting people into business."

Each studio is its own independent operation with its own name, retail products, prices and hours.

"They keep all of the money. They can start their own salon without any of the usual headaches of starting a business," he said. "This is several steps further than stylists renting a chair, like you see in many salons."

If everything goes as planned, construction should begin soon. The hope is to have the studios ready for tenants by early to mid-summer.

Besides a space, Sola Salon provides the hydraulic chairs, sinks and whatever other basic equipment that is needed.

Access to the studios is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That allows the tenants to be open when they want to work.

Three Sola Salon Studios are open in the Twin Cities, and two others are under construction. This will be the first one outside of the metro area.

Historic Third getting a new bar?

Rochester's Historic Third St. S.W. is really hopping these days with The Tap House, The Downtown Kitchen, Sontes, Bilotti's and, of course, John Kruesel (He is as much of an attraction and landmark as any historic building in downtown).

And now the buzz is that a new bar is in the pipeline for the Med City's coolest side street.

A liquor license request is on the agenda for tonight's Rochester City Council meeting.

The name is The Doggery and the address is 18 Third Ave. S.W. That's old Mercentile Exchange building.

The name on the license is Aynsley Michael Jones. He's a high-profile downtown bartender, who I believe was at City Cafe the last I heard of him.

That's all I've got for now. Not sure where it would be in the building or if it would impact Artistic Framers or Nordic Gypsy.

 

 

 

Mayo Clinic Biz Accelerator already speeding along

Here's some from my 2nd Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator story of the week. I'll have more in seperate post soon.

The just-opened Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator is already bursting at the seams with companies, including some local start-ups that are ready to aim high.

"We want to be the Amgen (the largest biotechnology company in the world) of Rochester," says Dr. John Burnett Jr., who with Dr. Horng Chen founded Zumbro Discovery just a few weeks ago.

The pair develop peptides to help treat medical conditions and two of their previous creations were licensed by out-of-state companies.

"We really had the desire to set something up here," says Chen. And as the inventors, they believe they will be able to better direct the course of the product as well as do it faster.

Their first patented peptide is designed to treat a condition known as Resistant Hypertension. It is generally defined as high blood pressure that standard treatments can't lower. About 10 to 20 percent of people diagnosed with hypertension are believed to be resistant.
It can lead to heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke as well as kidney failure.

The Federal Drug Administration has already given the doctors the greenlight to begin testing on patients with Resistant Hypertension and they hope to do that by the end of the year.

"Being in the Accelerator is great for a young, virtual company like us. It gives a chance to interact with venture capitalists and network with other businesses," says Burnett. "And it is just a short walk from our lab."

The Accelerator offices in the Minnesota BioBusiness Center were packed this morning as crowds of Mayo Clinic administrators, city officials and community leaders packed into the just-completed space to christian is open for business.

It's "business" is to speed up local business development and ultimately create new jobs.

“The Accelerator is an example of the strength of a strong partnership between Mayo Clinic and the community to make it easier and more affordable for companies to start and locate in Rochester,” says Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. John Noseworthy.

A collaboration between Mayo Clinic, the City of Rochester and Rochester Area Economic Development Inc., the Accelerator is starting out with a full boat of tenants that include biotech businesses, medical device makers, software start-ups, venture capitalists and health care consultants.

Funded by $100,000 from Mayo Clinic and $100,000 from local sales tax money, the 2,500-square-foot cluster of offices is located on the second floor of the city-owned Minnesota BioBusiness Center. RAEDI is handling the management and leasing of the space.

“We hope to provide a nurturing space for new company formation in Rochester,” says Jim Rogers of Mayo Clinic Ventures.