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Photo by Robb Long
Nami server Christian Gyuen adjusts the window shades for diners at the restaurant.
By Michelle Bruch
Some Downtown building owners making rent concessions to keep tenants in business If this were an ordinary economy, a drop in sales at a restaurant like Nami at 251 1st Ave N. might force them to close down.
But the times aren’t ordinary, and Nami’s landlord is working to keep the restaurant afloat.
“In order to help [Nami] stay in business, we’ve been accommodating them at 50 percent of their rent,” said Robert Timperley, manager of the McKesson building. He made the remarks at a public hearing in early March to protest additional taxes his building will incur from the new Downtown Improvement District.
Ji Cho, general manager of Nami, said the restaurant is negotiating with the landlord and details haven’t been finalized. Other building tenants are also working with the landlord, she said, and even business owners that come in to eat say they are asking for rent concessions.
“I think we’re all kind of hurting right now,” she said. “I think that landowners understand that this is a tough year. If they can help people stay it’s best for them and us in the long term. I think everybody’s trying to do the best that we can.”
At the same Downtown Improvement District hearing, Jeff Robinson, the principal owner of the building at 300 1st Ave. N., said he is also slashing rent for some of his tenants. His largest tenant needed to lay off 30 people in the last year, he said.
“We’ve had to reduce rents temporarily to many of our tenants in order for them stay in business and get through these very difficult economic times,” he said.
“Everybody’s doing it. Everyone is seeking rent reductions,” said Andrea Christenson, second vice president at Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. “Part of the problem is if somebody vacates a space because of financing, it would be very difficult to replace them right now. A year from now it would be a totally different story.”
One building owner who spoke on condition of anonymity said he is giving a break to tenants with seasonal walk-in traffic. He’s discounting for a period of time and adding the full cost back into payments spread incrementally through the duration of the lease.
“So far, so good. It’s temporary help and we’ll see what happens after that,” he said.
Another building manager who declined to give his name said rent concessions are a practical move right now. He figures that other landlords with empty storefronts are probably hungry enough to give his troubled tenants money to relocate and rebuild.
“It isn’t always for the altruistic reasons,” he said. “It’s principally economically driven because we understand how much it costs to redo the space and leave it empty for six months. ... It’s just very basic business sense in our industry to keep people who are paying rent, even if in economic hard times you have to do some accommodations, at least on a temporary basis.”
Welsh Cos. Vice President Nils Snyder, who works with tenants at buildings including 50 South Sixth and the Capella Tower, said lease concessions are hitting retail, office and industrial tenants alike. He said that before landlords sit down to renegotiate anything, they want to see that a tenant is making cuts throughout every area of the business — their salaries, vendors, franchisee payments and equipment leases.
Of course, not every landlord is giving handouts.
Welsh Cos. Vice President Jeff Hegg said the Oracle and International towers haven’t needed to make any subsidies, and most of his tenants are faring OK.
“So far there haven’t been any compelling or legitimate financial reasons for doing concessions,” he said. “We feel very fortunate.”
Martha Anderson of Anderson Property Management said most of the East Bank businesses she manages are doing very well. And those that close down are being quickly replaced — she already has a tenant lined up to move into Fugaise, a French fine-dining restaurant on East Hennepin that closed in March.
Most of the tenants asking for rent concessions are “ma and pa” shops in smaller neighborhoods without a strong retail anchor nearby, Anderson said. But the extra cash might be doing the trick. Anderson has worked on two temporary rent reductions that spanned just two months, and those tenants are already back on track to make full payments.
Reach Michelle Bruch at 436-4372 or mbruch@mnpubs.com.
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City declares snow emergency
UPDATED February 8, 2010, 1:28pm
By Cristof Traudes
With snow falling almost non stop since Sunday, the City of Minneapolis this afternoon declared a snow emergency.
Starting at 9 p.m. today, cars will not be allowed to be parked on either side of snow emergency route streets. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow, cars should only park on the odd side of non-snow emergency route streets, and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, cars should only park on the even side of non-snow emergency route streets. Cars parked on the wrong sides of streets will be ticketed and towed.
To look up what streets are affected when, click here. More information is at ci.minneapolis.mn.us/snow.
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Development update :: AIA MN kicks off weekend of pro bono design
By Gregory J. Scott
It could be a scene out of some Bravo reality television show. Beginning at about 8 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13, teams of student and professional designers will have less than 24 hours to turn nonprofit proposals into graphic realities. The one-day scramble is part of the 23rd annual Search for Shelter Charrette, a weekend of pro-bono design organized by the American Institute of Architects Minnesota’s Housing Advocacy Committee. Nonprofits that lack the funds to hire a professional design firm submit wish-list building proposals — anything from a simple redesign of a lobby space to an inside-out renovation of an entire apartment complex. Then volunteer architects, landscape architects and interior designers collaborate to produce visual tools
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Park Board votes to open search for next superintendent
UPDATED February 4, 2010, 9:05am
By Cristof Traudes
President says Superintendent Jon Gurban has done great work but that moving on 'happens as the natural growth of an organization' The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is set to move beyond Superintendent Jon Gurban, voting 6–3 Wednesday night to begin a search for candidates.
It’s the will of Minneapolis’ residents, said a majority of the board that included all three new commissioners. The campaign trail sealed Southwest’s Brad Bourn and Anita Tabb’s decision, they said, while Northeast’s Liz Wielinski said people brought up the issue repeatedly last fall.
But three of the board’s longest-serving commissioners fought back, stringing along a discussion that dominated the night’s meeting.
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'Beyond Our Differences' screening on Friday
UPDATED February 3, 2010, 5:02pm
By Sarah McKenzie
There will be a special screening of the documentary “Beyond Our Differences,” a film exploring the positive impact of religion and spirituality in the world, at the Mayo Memorial Auditorium at the University of Minnesota campus Friday.
Peter Bisanz, the film’s director, will be on hand after the screening for a Q&A session.
Bisanz of St. Paul is the director and founder of New York-based Entropy Films. He is one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders — a group of people committed to turning their visions for positive change into action on a variety of important social causes.
In a recent interview, Bisanz said the concept for “Beyond Our Differences” came about while he was at the Dalai
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Twin Citites janitors vote to authorize strike
UPDATED February 1, 2010, 10:38am
By Gregory J. Scott
A near unanimous vote by over 500 union members has given Downtown janitors the authority to strike. Over 4,000 janitors in the Twin Cities have been working without a contract since Jan. 8. Negotiations with cleaning contractors have made little progress since then, and last Saturday's vote gives the bargaining committee the power to call a strike. Two more negotiation dates have been scheduled over the following weeks, but the affirmative vote means that the janitors who clean the vast majority of Downtown office buildings could walk off the job at any time. One of the major sticking points in talks is the green cleaning agenda proposed by the janitors. SEIU Local 26 has sought a transition to day shift cleaning, which the union argues could reduce
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Northeast spotlight :: Crafty entrepreneurs
By Sarah McKenzie
Stroll into I Like You and you are bound to find something that catches your eye. There are adorably hip outfits for little ones, artwork by notable local artists like Amy Rice and Adam Turman and all kinds of other handmade odds and ends you likely won’t find anywhere else. Owners Sarah Sweet and Angela Lessman recently moved their store to the neighborhood after a couple years in Kingfield in southwest Minneapolis. They plan on offering craft classes this spring to inspire other people in the community to tap into their own creative powers. Sweet recently spoke with the Downtown Journal about the business. DTJ: What do you look for when thinking about items for your store? Sweet: We look for things that you
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Community notebook :: Janitors’ union sets strike vote
By Gregory J. Scott
1 Comment
Janitors’ union sets date for strike voteAfter two full weeks of working without a contract, a union representing more than 4,000 Twin Cities janitors decided last week to set a strike authorization vote over unfair labor practices. The vote was scheduled to take place on Saturday, Jan. 30, at the union’s weekly member meeting. At press time, the outcome was not yet known, but the Downtown Journal has been posting web updates regarding this story at downtownjournal.com. SEIU Local 26 — Minnesota’s Property Services Union, which represents security officers and window cleaners in addition to janitors — had arranged for two additional weeks of negotiations at the end of last year, pushing the final deadline for a new
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Study shows uptick in Downtown skyway traffic
By Gregory J. Scott
If you’ve noticed a bit more jostling during your skyway lunch dashes, you’re not alone. Foot traffic in the elevated corridors jumped 4 percent in 2009, and in some areas pedestrian counts reached a 10-year high. The uptick is the major take-away from a report issued last week from Minneapolis-based Pedestrian Studies, a national consulting firm that analyzes foot-traffic patterns for people whose business depends on that sort of thing — shopping centers, property managers, organizers of public events. Pedestrian Studies founder Peter Bruce has conducted annual skyway counts in Minneapolis since 1991. For this study, Bruce focused on the corridors connected to Downtown’s major buildings, including City Center, Gaviidae Common, Northstar
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Biz buzz :: The Forum
By Gregory J. Scott
New restaurant to open in former Goodfellows spaceA former executive at Cargill is opening a new restaurant in City Center, taking over the space previously occupied by Goodfellows. The new restaurant, called The Forum, will blend comfort-food favorites and traditional chop house fare. It will also offer a “changing destination menu” that every month highlights a different culinary tradition from a region of the United States. Chef Christian Ticarro, executive chef at the Canyon Grille in Coon Rapids, will head the kitchen. The opening is planned for early April. The Forum takes over one of Minneapolis’ most historic spaces, the old Forum Cafeteria, which operated from the 1930s to the 1970s. The space was most recently
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Proposal would double fundraising needs for planetarium
By Cristof Traudes
In a shaky economy, it’s hard enough just to raise money. Try watching thought-to-be-secured dollars fall away. That’s what backers of the Minneapolis Planetarium project have been doing in the weeks since Gov. Tim Pawlenty presented his 2010 bonding proposal, a bill that would delete $22 million that’s been guaranteed to the Minneapolis Planetarium Society since 2005. Without the bonding, the society is looking at more than double the amount of money they need to raise to get the long-planned project up and running. “If the $22 million goes away, I think we have to really reconsider how everything looks,” said Angus Vaughan, president of the Minnesota Planetarium Society. The proposed planetarium would be a $35 million
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A tale of two housing markets
By Gregory J. Scott
// What do the 2009 numbers mean for Downtown? //The number of sales swelled, but median prices plummeted. Affordability reached a record high, but so did foreclosures and short sales. Realtors feel a twinge of optimism, but economists keep a nervous vigil. Since its release two weeks ago, a year-end report on the 2009 Twin Cities housing market has generated mixed emotions and mixed data, matching nearly every encouraging sign of a turn-around with a reason to keep hopes in check. And while real estate watchers metro-wide have chimed in with outlooks for the Twin Cities as a whole, getting an isolated assessment for Downtown has proven more difficult. “We stray from offering specific, neighborhood-level
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