Tag Archives: construction

New downtown streetscape coming?

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Anyone who worked or spent time in downtown Duluth in the mid-1980s knows what an inconvenience it was when the downtown brick streetscape was being constructed. Streets and sidewalks were largely impassable as the bricks were installed and topped off with specialty streetlamps and concrete fixtures.

When finished, however, people — especially the tourists — loved it.

But decades of wear and tear show, patchwork repairs are evident and some posts and fixtures are damaged or missing. A ruptured water main which flooded the street on New Year’s Day on Superior Street near Lake Avenue, revealed the 16-inch diameter cast iron pipe dated back to 1887. And there’s a lot more old pipes under those downtown streets.

Now, with the downtown streetscape about 30 years old, it’s time to replace downtown streets and sidewalks and that aging infrastructure, Mayor Don Ness told more than 400 people at the Greater Downtown Council’s annual shindig Wednesday at the DECC.

The discussion about the reconstruction of Superior Street begins this year, he said.

“We know this is going to be a challenge, but it is much needed,” he said.

The city will seek input from the downtown community on the many aspects involved, including what width the street and sidewalks will be, he told the group.

And, he said, those variables are “much more than the typical street.”

After Duluth, Involta chooses Tucson

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While construction of an Involta data center in Duluth is still underway, the fast-growing Iowa-based company is still apparently busting at its seams.

Involta has announced plans to build and operate a state-of-the-art secure data center in Tucson, Ariz.  And it’ll be bigger and more expensive than its Duluth center at Arrowhead and Rice Lake roads that’s headed for completion this fall.

The Tucson center will cost $15 million and be 40,000 square feet, while Duluth’s center costs $10.5 million and is 24,000 square feet. However, a second phase are likely and a $2.3 million satellite center has been established at Sixth Avenue East and Fourth Street.

The Tucson data center will serve business and other customers from the Phoenix and Southern California areas. The Duluth center will serve customers in the Northland and tap into the Twin Cities market.

Like Duluth, government and business development  sectors in Tucson worked together to put together an incentive package to bring Involta to their city.

Involta built its first full-service data center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2004. It has since built other critical data storage centers in Iowa and Akron, Ohio. Besides Duluth and Tucson, it plans to build a data center in Boise, Idaho, to serve the Rocky Mountain region.

Walgreens opens in October

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So what’s up with the new Walgreens store on East Superior Street in Duluth?

It sure looks done, inside and out. Lights are ablazing at night. The parking lot is paved and marked. The landscaping is done. Even the big Walgreens sign is up.

The holdup must be in the details.

“We hope to have it open in October,” Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger said today.

Exactly when, he couldn’t say. But when moving day comes, it’ll be a moving night. Literally.

“The old Walgreens would close one day, the new store would open the next day,” he said.

The new store, at Superior Street and 12th Avenue East, is 16,000 square feet. That’s bigger than the current Walgreens store that is 1 1/2 blocks to the east and farther from the city’s medical district. Unlike the current store, the new store will have drive-through prescription pickup.

 

Forget Ikea

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OK, you naysayers who scoffed at the very idea of Ikea coming to Duluth.

Who do we think we are, anyway — Bloomington?

Well, we’ll actually give you this one. Even a developer of the Pier B project — an ambitious plan to transform the LaFarge cement terminal site west of Duluth’s Bayfront Park into a mixed-use development — says there’s no way Ikea is coming to Duluth.

“We haven’t talked to them” admits Sandy Hoff.

So why was an Ikea store included in an artist’s rendering of the development’s retail concourse shown on the front page of the News Tribune on Wednesday?

Call it artistic license. John Cook, the artist who drew up the picturesque images of what could be had been inspired by the Scandinavian theme of the retail area that would be connected to a rotunda where the Leif Erikson Viking ship would be displayed. Since Ikea got its start Sweden, he included it in the rendering.

“There’s probably not enough room for them, anyway,” says Hoff of the popular chain of modern-style Scandinavian furniture and accessories.

Local salvager says exodus to Cities OK

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Locals preservationists were irked when a Minneapolis salvager of used building materials got the contract to strip the historic homes being razed for a new Walgreens and more hospital parking in Duluth.

Not only that, the salvager has taken it all back to the Twin Cities to sell. We’re talking architectural features of the late 1800s — woodwork, fireplaces, cast iron radiators, doors, leaded glass windows, hardware, columns, decorative carvings and more.

John McCarthy, owner of North Shore Architectural Antiques in Two Harbors, also bid on the job. But Bauer Bros. Inc.’s bid for $3,000 to $4,000 topped his.

Kevin Bauer, foreman for Bauer Bros., said the building contractor — of course — would go with the highest bidder. Which was him. It’s just business.

Meanwhile, McCarthy didn’t appear bitter about losing the contract when I talked to him Thursday. Nor was he upset to see the historic materials from the houses leave the area.

“No. 1 for me is that they’re being saved,” he said. “That’s why I got into this business. I do it because it’s something I love to do and something I value.”

The houses coming down are the big white mansion built in 1900  at 1123 E. Superior St. commonly called Silver’s for the dress shop it once housed. Behind it, on the lower side of First Street, four houses dating back to the late 1800s are being demolished. Two built in 1891 were designed by reknowned architects Oliver Traphagen and Francis Fitzpatrick.

McCarthy, by the way, happens to be a finalist in a contest to get a downtown Duluth storefront with one year’s free rent and other start-up help from the Greater Downtown Council.  (Now, wouldn’t the former Ace Hardware store at 212 W. Superior St. be perfect for architectural antiques?)

If he wins a Duluth storefront, McCarthy said the additional revenue from a second store would allow him to bid more on bigger contracts like the one he lost to Bauer Bros.

Auto dealers, contractors top complaint list

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It’s got to be tough for car salesmen to shake that shady image.  And it doesn’t help when the Better Business Bureau comes out with its Top 10 customer complaint list and auto dealers, both new and used, top the  list.

That’s what happened with the BBB of Minnesota and North Dakota tallied up the nearly 24,000 complaints it received in 2010 to find out which industries generated the most complaints.

Besides car dealers, contractors also made the list — four times.

Here’s the entire Top 10 customer complaint list:

1.) Auto dealers — new cars.

2.) Auto dealers — used cars.

3.) Siding contractors.

4.) Auto repair and servicing.

5.) General contractors.

6.) Roofing contractors

7.) Construction and remodeling.

8.) Banks.

9.) Window installation and services

10.) Television —cable and satellite.

As far as what industries garnered the most inquiries, that dubious honor goes to general contractors, roofers and remodelers. The BBB also got tons of questions about collection agencies, a reflection of tough times, heating and cooling contractors, mortgage brokers, plumbers, internet shopping and — of course — car dealers.

A CVS/ Walgreens face-off in Duluth?

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The 1200 block of East Superior Street.

It’s an odd place for CVS Pharmacy to establish a foothold in Duluth. On one side is a Walgreens store. On the other side is where Walgreens plans to build a new, bigger store to replace it.

So I called CVS about a month ago, when rumors started flying that the giant pharmacy chain was looking to acquire property that includes the Plaza strip mall on the upper side of the Superior Street and the Super America Station anchoring the other end of the block at 12th Avenue East.

CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis confirmed that CVS has looked at potential locations in the Duluth-Superior area but wouldn’t confirm the Superior Street site. Nor would he comment on rumors that CVS also was looking at a site in Two Harbors.

He said a CVS expansion to the Twin Ports area would make sense. With approximately 7,100 stores nationwide, CVS opens 200 to 300 per year. Some are in existing markets; some are built in markets where CVS hasn’t had a presence, he said.

Like the Twin Ports.

“It’s part of our normal real estate plan to open “x” amount of stores every year,” DeAngelis said. “We have had stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the Duluth market is a natural expansion of our store presence.”

But until a deal is finalized, CVS doesn’t make any announcements, he said.

“There’s no done deal,” he said of Duluth. “We would only announce specific locations if we have signed lease agreements.”

But, I persisted, would CVS open a store across the street from a Walgreens?

“Not usually,” he said. “As competitors we’re not looking to move across the street.”

But — and this is important — he said it wouldn’t stop them.

“As a company, we’re looking for similar attributes and locations,” he said. “It can mean we’re on opposite corners, because we’re both attracted to busy intersections offering high visibility and easy accessibility to our stores.”

The Superior Street site has that. And it’s close to hospitals and clinics, which is the reason Walgreens is planning to build a new store closer to them.

On Tuesday afternoon, Mark Labovitz, one of the owners of the Plaza strip mall, confirmed a sale was in the works with a purchase agreement in hand.

Unless the buyer backs out, the deal will likely close this summer. In the meantime, the developer is negotiating with the tenants to honor agreements, according to Labovitz.

“They have leases in force,” he said. “There are people negotiating with them about what they might want to do in the future. They can make an agreement to modify the agreement which is what the negotiations with the developer are about.”

Among the tenants is Lynn Levin, owner of Plaza Hair Styles. Levin had heard that CVS had put money down for the sale weeks ago. But, she said, tenant leases needed to be settled.

“The owner said there won’t be a done deal until we’re taken care of,” Levin said. “I have been here 32 years, and I feel very comfortable how the owners are handling it.”

Essar Steel gets grant money

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The Essar Steel plant in Nashwauk will receive a $1.4 million grant to bring water and sewer service to the site.

The grant from the Economic Development Administration will help lay the foundation for the new slab steel mill that is estimated to create up to 2,000 construction jobs and cost $1.6 billion, according to a news release from Rep. Jim Oberstar.

A new retail and non-profit center planned for downtown Duluth

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A stroll through Duluth’s new downtown skywalk connection on Tuesday revealed a new long-term venture at 9 W. Superior St.

The Guiding Star Women’s Center plans to open a women’s pregnancy, labor and child care center run by non-profit groups in the summer or fall 2011. In addition, the center could include a coffee shop, a baby boutique and other shops on the ground level of the 16,000-square-feet space over three floors.

The intent would be “that anyone could come in to use in the building,” Leah Jacobson, chair of the Guiding Star Women’s Center board of directors, said of the retail space.

The first two hurdles for the center are getting commitments for up to seven local non-profits to have offices in the center and raising the estimated $2 million in funding to get the center built and begin programming. That capital campaign could take up to a year, with construction estimated at another nine months, Jacobson said.

Once funding is secure, Guiding Star hopes to have a fast construction period based off what Jacobson called “Extreme Makeover: Non-Profit Edition.”

“It’s all for a good cause, so we want to get people on board with that,” Jacobson said. “We hope for an accelerated construction process. When we get the money, we want to go.”

Construction worker tempts fate on job in Duluth

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OSHA caught this construction worker putting himself in a somewhat unsafe position while working on the recently completed Weiland Block development in downtown Duluth. This photo made OSHA’s "Best of the Worst" slideshow from 2007 and 2008.

This picture is very mild compared to the other daring acts. Check them out here.