Many face debt in retirement

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Candace Renalls

Financial planners have long advised those approaching retirement to become debt-free. And a big part of that is getting mortgages paid off.

But according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, about 40 percent of people age 60 to 64 are carrying first mortgages. And about 20 percent have second mortgages and home equity lines they are using.

But wait, it gets worse.

Only one in four people nearing retirement have enough money saved in retirement accounts that experts say they’ll need.

“Too much debt, too little saved,” is how consumer advocate Clark Howard summed it up on his Headline News cable TV show.

The moral of the story is to start saving when you’re young, he said.

“The more you save through the years, the more power and control you have over your future,” he said. “You want to retire on your schedule? Then save, save, save.”

 

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Involta now expanding to Boise

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Candace Renalls

Construction of Involta’s new highly secure data center in Duluth isn’t even complete and the Iowa-based company is already expanding elsewhere.

Boise, Idaho.

The company is growing rapidly with its systems for secure storage of critical information for health care, government, business and others.

In Boise, Involta plans to begin construction of a new data center in the next 15 to 20 months. And it announced last week that it has acquired the assets of SolutionPro, a data center in the Boise that serves clients in the Rocky Mountain region. That company will continue operating as a division of Involta.

Involta is part of an emerging industry that establishes centers in less congested areas of the Midwest that are away from dangers of natural disasters, terrorism and civil unrest. After establishing data storage centers in Iowa, it expanded to Akron, Ohio. Then Duluth,  and now Boise.

In Duluth, Involta is building a $10.5 million, 24,000-square-foot center at Rice Lake and Arrowhead roads that’s set for completion by September. And Involta is converting part of the former Daugherty  Hardware building at 421 N. Sixth Ave. E. into a satellite data storage center, largely for Essentia Health Systems, one of its clients which owns the building.

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Nasty year at pump expected

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Candace Renalls

The weekly report on gas prices from MinnesotaGasPrices.com appeared hardly worth noting at first. Prices increased just a half cent per gallon in the past week. That brings it to an average of $3.26 per gallon for regular unleaded statewide, below the national average of $3.34 per gallon. In Duluth, you can find prices ranging from $3.24 to $3.29 per gallon today.

So compared to the sharp ups and downs seen last year, prices haven’t changed much in Minnesota in recent weeks. Compared to a year ago, however, they’re about 17 cents per gallon more than a year ago.

We’ve told you that what goes on in the Middle East can affect domestic gas prices as well as the fickle stock market. But it was the brief,  but grim comment from petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan that came with today’s weekly report that got my attention.

He wrote: “I’m sure this leveling off in retail price won’t last terribly long as tension mounts with Iran. I still expect 2012 to be a nasty year for the typical motorist.”

So brace yourselves for a “nasty” year.

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Country Living features Bagley’s

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Candace Renalls

Check out the February issue of Country Living magazine. On the last page, downtown Duluth’s own Bagley & Co. takes the spotlight.

It’s for a regular monthly feature called “Portrait of America” which highlights longtime family-owned shops and businesses in communities across the country. Bagley’s, which some have called the Tiffany’s of Duluth, certainly qualifies. First opened in 1885 as F.D. Day & Co., it became the Bagley family business five years later when Cassius Bagley became owner and changed the name.

It’s been at the same location at 315 W. Superior St. all these years. And the dark paneling and mahogany wall display cases installed in 1904 are still there, keeping the shop’s old world character alive. Bagley’s great-grandson, Rick Heimbach, took over in 1985.

As for the Country Living presentation, it looks very familiar. It shows the shop today compared to years ago, in pictures taken from the same angle. The News Tribune did the same thing with my December 2010 feature story on the shop to mark its 125th anniversary. But while we compared the shop’s look today to a picture from 1904, in side-by-side pictures, Country Living compared its look today to the store’s 1940s look.

Both comparisons are striking.

The News Tribune’s story somehow found its way to the magazine, which resulted in the Country Living article, Heimbach says.

“They saw it,” he says. “They got people out there looking for those kinds of things to make a story out of. And I think that’s how they found it.”

A lot went into the magazine’s one-page presentation. A phone interview and two lengthy photo shoots last fall, after the first shoot didn’t quite get what they were looking for.

In the the magazine’s photo, Heimbach stands proudly behind a display counter, while in the background a clerk is helping a customer, just like in the 1940s picture they used.

Nice touch.

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Taste of Saigon is alive & well

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Candace Renalls

When we reported that the Saigon Cafe on West First Street in downtown Duluth had closed, the other Saigon restaurant in Canal Park started getting phone calls.

And they weren’t all for takeout.

Callers asked whether the Taste of Saigon restaurant was still open. It was an easy mistake to make for those who just glanced at the headline, “Duluth’s Saigon Cafe closes” or didn’t read the Nov. 8 story carefully.

“They didn’t distinguish between the two Saigons,” said manager Duy Nguyen. “Word got around that the Saigon had closed.”

But a month-and-a-half later, the calls continue. People walk by the restaurant in the DeWitt-Seitz Building and happily say, “I’m so glad you’re still here, ” or they say, “Oh, I thought you were closing.”

“We say , ‘No, no, no,’ ” Nguyen said, in response to the closing comments.

So be assured, the Taste of Saigon at 394 S. Lake Ave., is still open and doing just fine.

And the other Saigon restaurant at 114 W. First St.? A Giant Panda Chinese restaurant is supposed to open there.

 

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Downtown sports more holiday lights

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Candace Renalls

If it seems like holiday lighting has gotten a boost in downtown Duluth again this year, you are right.

There is,  indeed, more lights gleaming on the Skywalk bridges, more of those bridges topped with a trio of lighted trees (my personal favorite) and more of downtown’s real trees strung with lights. There’s more swags and snowflakes, more lights near Fitger’s Brewery Complex. And this year, there’s lighted trees and deer along Fifth Avenue West.

There’s even more holiday lights along Harbor Drive.

“We did more lighting along there to provide a better transition between Bentleyville and Canal Park,” said Kristi Stokes, president of the Greater Downtown Council.

And you can thank the late Duluth philanthropist, Julia Marshall, for all that.

Last year, a $30,000 grant from her trust  and a $10,000 match from the Greater Downtown Council made downtown more festive to go along with the then-new 120-foot-tall lighted tree in Bentleyville.

This year, the trust came through again, but with an even bigger, $45,000 grant that also was matched with $10,000 from the Downtown Council.

Like last year, the money went towards installation and needed electrical wiring as well buying more lights and decorations that will be used for years.

“We keep trying to add more,” Stokes said.

By the way, Marshall was the daughter of Albert Marshall who founded the Marshall-Wells hardware business in Duluth. She was active in the community and supported many projects. But she always had a special love for downtown. She died in 1994 at age 98.

Those who knew her have said she would be happy to see her money go towards making downtown more festive for everyone to enjoy.

 

 

 

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Country bar coming “soon” to downtown.

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Candace Renalls

For more than a month, the sign in the window at the former European Bakery in downtown Duluth says Spurs on 1st, Duluth’s newest country bar, is “coming soon.”

And for weeks, I have tried to find out more.

Nick Patronas, who owns Aces on First next door is apparently behind the venture. But he’s not talking. Or at least, he’s hasn’t returned my phone calls.

Building owner, Joe Kovich, also is keeping mum.

“I can’t comment,” he said. “ I have signed a confidentiality agreement (with the tenant).”

A country western bar at 109 W. First St. would be the only one downtown, and one of the few in Duluth. And because of that, it just might work.

But “soon”? I don’t think so.

The space is in rough shape. Much work will be needed to transform the first floor of the 1888 building into a decent tavern.

Workers have been gutting the entire first floor where the bar will be. And by the looks of things during a recent visit, it’s going to take some time. My eye caught on the tall ceilings, architectural features denoting another time, and wallpaper still on some walls that probably dates back 100 years.

According to a workman, Patronas is aiming to maintain a lot of that character, including tin ceilings that have been carefully removed for restoration and reuse and ornate radiators that the worker said Patronas likes and wants to keep.

If they can do all that, it’ll be worth the wait.

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Games shop pleads for sales

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Candace Renalls

It was an unusual move to save a fledgling local business.

But if it works, who’s to judge?

Dragon Port Games & Comics hasn’t just been selling games and comics in downtown Duluth since 2008, it regularly hosts gaming events and tournaments and is a sort of drop-in center for avid gamers.

But located on the downside of Superior Street at 3 S. Fourth Ave. W., the little shop can easily be missed by potential new customers. And with sales down this year, co-owner Donny Krosch Jr. is taking a hit. And he’s worried.

“November was particularly bad,” he said. “So we’re in a tight spot with some bills. We’re in a situation where we need to get sales in, and we’re in some trouble.”

The gaming community — who are into board games and role-playing adventure games — had rallied behind the store when it first opened. Maybe they would again to keep it going.

“If this is a bad month, there’s a chance we will have to close or do something really dramatic,” Krosch said.

So on Monday, Krosch sent out an e-mail plea to his friends and to Dragon Port’s Facebook friends, asking them to buy something at the shop, perhaps a holiday gift for somebody. The e-mail didn’t end with those receiving it. Some forwarded it to others to get the message out. And it soon was posted on the Perfect Day Duluth blog.

“We need you to help us out this holiday season,” Krosch pleaded in his e-mail. “In the next five weeks, in order to fend off some serious negative changes to the store, we need to have a big sales month. If this doesn’t happen, the future is bleak.”

To help boost sales, the store also has a 20 percent off sale going on.

“We love everything the gaming and comic community has done for us, and we hate to ask for more, but we have little choice,” Krosch wrote. “ So if you enjoy our events, our staff, and everything we try to help bring to the gaming community, we need your purchases sooner rather than later.”

So far, the unusual plea seems to be working. Sales are up a bit. But the true impact will take time since Fridays and Saturdays are the shop’s busiest days and it has some big events coming up: Friday Night Magic, Warhammer Fantasy Tourney on Dec. 3, Gaming & Comic Auction on Dec. 10 and Warhammer 40k Tourney on Dec. 17.

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The new Walgreens opens Friday

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Candace Renalls

Walgreens officials had been downright secretive about the opening date for the new Walgreens store on Duluth’s East Superior Street.

But now they’re talking.  It will be this Friday, Oct. 14.

For weeks the new Walgreens,  which replaces an existing store 1½ blocks up the street, looked pretty much done, down to the landscaping. That prompted many to wonder when it would finally open.

But now the new shelving is getting rapidly stocked with merchandise that’s been shipped in or brought over from the old store where shelves are emptying.

That old store – which I had thought was just fine —  is now looking pretty shabby in comparison. It’s dwarfed by the new store which is  bigger, cleaner and neater. And at night it’s actually aglow, sitting prominently on its slightly elevated site at East Superior and 12th Avenue East near the city’s medical district.

Employees say they’re excited, though the big Thursday night move will be a logistics challenge or maybe even a nightmare. Plans are for the 24-hour business not to close. Business will simply shift overnight from the old to the new store. Once the new store opens Friday morning, the old store will close for good.

 

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The maintenance base’s silent tenant

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Candace Renalls

So the former Northwest Airlines Maintenance base in Duluth has been empty since Cirrus moved out in 2009, right?

Not exactly.

In a cordoned off area in the middle of the cavernous hangar, an uninflated dirigible lies flat on the floor wrapped in a tarp.

It’s been there for a couple of years now. And it remains there even as AAR Aircraft of Illinois is deciding whether to move into the facility and set up another airplane maintenance base.

The owner of the dirigible, Information Systems Laboratories or ISL based in Alabama, is a developer of high tech unmanned dirigibles for military use. It’s paying about $1,500 a month to simply store its blimp there, more if they actually work on it.

The facility is big enough to accommodate the blimp fully inflated with helium  which is why ISL picked the site. They did inflate it inside the building at least once. Even at 100 feet long and five stories  high, the airship only fills one-fourth of the hangar.

ISL had planned to assemble the airship in Duluth for military use, probably in the Middle East. But those plans hit a snag so the dirigible has been lying flat on the floor of the hangar for two years. It only takes up about 20-feet-by-10-feet of floor space in the 189,000-square-foot facility.

But if AAR Aircraft decides to move in , the blimp will have to go.

By the way, others have approached the Duluth Economic Development Authority, which owns the facility, about storing other items in there. One was the City of Duluth which wanted to store voting machines in there. But DEDA officials have resisted all other requests except one from the Duluth Fire Department to store its decontamination unit in there. So when it’s not in use, that’s where it’s parked.

 

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