Fargo-Moorhead developments information

[MoreFM]

In respect to multi-story buildings, I have doubts about this. When you look at the Fargo area there is so much area to grow outward, this is a deterrent to spend more to build-upward than to just build outward. Just something to think about.

[wilson]

Originally Posted by MoreFM

In respect to multi-story buildings, I have doubts about this. When you look at the Fargo area there is so much area to grow outward, this is a deterrent to spend more to build-upward than to just build outward. Just something to think about.

Why not build upward if you can? If you only biuld outward, then you just have a huge sprawl, and it takes forever to drive everywhere.

[NanoBison]

I think they way our downtown will evolve is slowly but surely. We'll continue adding people with these small and medium projects until it hits a certain point/level of available services in retail and commercial in the area. Once it hits that, I wouldn't be surprised to see some taller buildings going up for residential and commercial services since they feed off of each other.

We need to continue supporting developments like these. While it's disappointing it's only 5 storys tall, it's still more and more folks coming downtown (and it replaces that UGLY theatre building). Keep building projects like this and the apartments to replace the Mark Building (old ugly house) and we will get our towers eventually.

One of the good things about going this route, is it gives us more time to work with the FAA and Fargo Airport to maybe relocate that runway (very short asphalt runway) so it's not pointing directly downtown and limiting our building heights.



On another note, I agree, we need some more variety for other food locales. I'm sorry but Paradiso and Mexican Village don't cut it in terms of Mexican... the Chinese food buffets are also low quality according to my buddy from Japan (Tokyo).

[NysOne]

Juano's has great Mexican food...Juan is from Mexico...see the great article in OPEN magazine.

[HarleyGal]

Originally Posted by NysOne

Juano's has great Mexican food...Juan is from Mexico...see the great article in OPEN magazine.

I definitely agree about Juano's having great Mexican food! Aladdin's is also good for Greek-style food. I like Lonestar over Texas Roadhouse for steak - and I also heard a rumor that Outback will be coming back when they build the new Hilton next spring. It was supposed to have a Cheesecake Factory, but that company isn't doing so hot now, and the Hilton really wants a big name restaurant in the hotel.

[F-Misthebest]

jeez i hope that's true. i really wish they come back soon.

and some news...

Toyota store coming along
Jon Knutson, The Forum
Published Thursday, September 11, 2008

Fargo’s Tim Corwin Toyota is building a new store, which is expected to be finished late this year.

The new building at 222 40th St. S. will have 62,000 square feet, compared with about 25,000 square feet at Corwin Toyota’s current location, 201 40th St. S.

“We’re selling more Toyotas and we need more space,” said Dan Wilson, vice president of Corwin Automotive Group.

Among other changes, the new location will have 38 service and maintenance stalls, compared with 12 at the existing site.

The new location also will have a display area for hybrid vehicles.



Toyota’s hybrid vehicles include the Prius and Camry cars, and the Highland SUV, according to the company.

Hybrids will account for

7 percent of the car market in 2015, compared with 2.2 percent in 2007, according to a prediction from J.D. Powers and Associates, a global information services provider.

The new Fargo Toyota store also will feature an improved customer lounge, Wilson said.

The current Corwin Toyota location eventually will become the home of Corwin Honda, now at 303 38th St. S.W., Fargo.

The existing Corwin Toyota location will receive an extensive renovation before Corwin Honda moves in, which is expected to occur in late summer of next year, Wilson said.

The new Fargo Toyota location is part of the Toyota company’s new Image II store design.

So far, 146 dealers have enrolled in the store design program, with 51 projects completed, according to the toyotaimageusaii.com Web site.

The site includes images of some of the Image II stores around the country.



Readers can reach Forum reporter Jonathan Knutson at (701) 241-5530

[F-Misthebest]

Jimmy Johns is now open on 12th Avenue North now finally. The Silver Moon supper club is really making headway as well as Gangter's Subs downtown.

[F-Misthebest]

ND cities improve ranking for creating and improving jobsForum staff report, The Forum
Published Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Three North Dakota cities significantly improved their ranking in the 2008 Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities Index for small metro areas.

From their 2007 rankings, Bismarck rose from 42nd to 15th, while Fargo moved from 36th to 17th and Grand Forks went from 90th to 50th.

“The significant improvement in these rankings is evidence of North Dakota’s strong economy, diverse community offerings and good quality of life,” North Dakota Commerce Commissioner Shane Goettle said. “It is also strong evidence that local leaders and business people are working hard to support a growing economy that is creating news jobs while the opposite is true in many other states.”

The Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best Performing Cities Index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. The components include job, wage and salary and technology growth.

The annual index provides a snapshot of where America’s jobs are being created and sustained. Midland, Tex., is the top ranking small metro city (population 235,000 or below). Couer d’Alene, Idaho, Bend, Ore., St. George, Utah, and Grand Junction, Col., completed this year’s top five, in that order.



Other cities in our region are Sioux Falls:23, Duluth, MN: 167, Rapid City: 66, Sioux City: 111, Lincoln, NE: 146

[F-Misthebest]

The new building being built downtown for NDSU says that they will have some big box retail. I think a Trader Joes would do well. I think the Green Market was here just a little ahead of its time. Now would be the best time for a grocery store to go downtown. I'm very interested in seeing the drawings for the new building.

Also I saw Chicago at the Fargodome yesterday. Very well attended. However, we really really really really really need to get this Performing Arts Center underway. Because the Fargodome just doesn't cut it. The Fargodome is meant for sports and conventions, not theatre. We need a space for performing arts. The Broadway Series, the FM Ballet, FM Jazz Arts Group, and the FM Symphony could use the space. I'm seeing the Symphony tomorrow btw.

[F-Misthebest]

Project on Fargo's downtown 'superblock' clears hurdle to raze Lark Theater
Helmut Schmidt, The Forum
Published Friday, September 19, 2008

FARGO - A major redevelopment on one of downtown Fargo's “superblocks” was approved for a five-year tax exemption from the city's Renaissance Zone Authority on Friday.

The $18 million to $20 million Cityscapes Development project will raze the old Lark Theater/Cinema Grill at 630 1st Ave. N. and in it’s place put up a five-story retail and apartment complex designed to serve the burgeoning population of North Dakota State University students downtown, developer Mike Bullinger said.

“It’s long overdue to do something on this lot,” Bullinger said. “This is the best use of that property that we could come up with.”

Bullinger told authority members that he was still negotiating to bring in a large firm to anchor the retail area on the first floor.

The other four floors of the building, expected to have apartments to house more than 200 students, will be marketed and rented in partnership with NDSU, Bullinger said.

Read more Saturday in The Forum

[F-Misthebest]

Hey everyone should go to www.cityoffargo.com and check out the Discover Fargo Video Tour. It's pretty sweet.

[F-Misthebest]

www.fargodowntowner.com updated

[Greco Roman]

Originally Posted by F-Misthebest

About the airport and flights, that's so awesome! August statistics at Hector rose 16.8% over last year, and with the added flights it's only going to keep rising.

Where is this story about the airport?

[F-Misthebest]

www.fargoairport.com Click on the News Releases tab and read August Statistics and anything else that you want to.

[BigTicket]

I was very happy to see the bulldozers over at the Old Cinema Grill tearing down the building. That is another eyesore gone from this town and in its place will be a nice five story building. Can't wait to see a few drawings of it, NDSU hasn't moved into downtown and its impact is already being felt, its going to be interesting to see how everything looks 10-20 years from now.

Some more info from the Forum..

Demolition begins on the east side of the old Lark Theater and former Fargo Cinema Grill, on the corner of First Avenue and Roberts Street in downtown Fargo on Monday morning by Olaf Anderson and Son, general contractors. A building that will house office and apartment-living space is planned for the space. The 600-seat theater firstopened in November 1970. Since then, the building has housed a dance company, a golf store and a church, to name a few.

[F-Misthebest]

Beer lovers to get new bar
Helmut Schmidt, The Forum
Published Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Fargo bar owner hopes to create a place for local beer aficionados to toss one back by the end of the year.

Randy Thorson on Monday said he plans to open J.L. Beers, an on-sale and off-sale specialty beer bar, at 518 1st Ave. N., which is now an empty space next to 1st and Deli.

On a 4-0 vote, the City Commission approved letting Thorson transfer a Class CD liquor license he acquired last year from the former owner of Just One to the First Avenue North location.

Thorson said remodeling would begin today on the site.

“We just want to continue with the success of downtown,” Thorson said. “It’s kind of a fun project.”



In other business, the commission voted 4-0 to approve the city’s 2009 budget.

The $66.4 million budget is $6.6 million more than the 2008 budget, but the mill levy will stay the same at 58.24 mills, documents show.

“We’re doing what we can here in Fargo to hold the line” on property taxes, Mayor Dennis Walaker said. “Right now, things are good in Fargo and we hope to keep them that way.”

The name J.L. Beers is a nod to the memory of the late Jim Lauerman, Thorson’s friend and the longtime owner of Lauerman’s Chili, Sandwiches & Beer, Thorson said.

The CD license allows for the sale of beer without any requirements for food sales, City Auditor Steve Sprague said. The license is held by Old Broadway Corp.

Thorson and Warren Ackley, partners in Global Development, bought the building at 514 to 520 1st Ave. N. several weeks ago.

Thorson is also an owner of the Fargo bars Borrowed Bucks Roadhouse and the Old Broadway, and Mr. G’s nightclub, Sprague said.

Thorson originally planned to move the license to 64 Broadway, the former Lauerman’s building, which he purchased last year.

But he and Ackley sold 64 Broadway to Fargo-Moorhead radio personality Scott Hennen early this year. It is now the home of Hennen’s talk radio station 1100 AM The Flag, and 106.9 FM, a classic rock station known as The Eagle.

Thorson hopes he can work with the owner of 1st and Deli. He suggested customers could take advantage of the co-location of the businesses – there is an interior door connecting the two – and purchase sandwiches at 1st and Deli and beer at J.L. Beers.

“We think it’s a nice tie-in with the deli next door,” Thorson said.

1st and Deli owner Shari Wise said she hasn’t talked with Thorson about such an arrangement.




Readers can reach Forum reporter Helmut Schmidt at (701) 241-5583

[F-Misthebest]

Bye bye Lark.



hey sorry bigticket i didn't see you posted this already

[BigTicket]

Thats all right FM, I definitely don't mind seeing that picture of the Lark being torn down again.

Staying on topic of the old Lark building, The Forum had a sketch of the new buidling and also some talk of a little controversy surrounding the project...



Process irritates committee member
Helmut Schmidt, The Forum
Published Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ten years of property tax breaks were approved Tuesday for a planned five-story retail and housing complex to serve North Dakota State University’s growth in downtown Fargo.

While the second of two big tax breaks for Cityscapes Development won unanimous support from the Tax Exempt Review Committee, the process didn’t.

Jim Buus, a member of the city’s Tax Exempt Review Committee, questioned whether the City Commission turned the approval process on its head by voting Sept. 6 to say it backed developer Mike Bullinger’s plans for 630 1st Ave. N.

“I was not comfortable that this project was brought to the City Commission first,” Buus said, adding that it could be interpreted as a slight to the committees and the citizens serving on them.

If the pattern continues, he said, “that will make these committees irrelevant.”

The committee approved 10 years of payment in lieu of (PILOT) property tax breaks for the $18 million to $20 million building proposed on the site of the old Lark Theater and a parking lot. With a five-year Renaissance Zone property tax exemption gaining committee-level approval last week, the completed building is in line for 15 years of aid.

City Administrator Pat Zavoral said the project was floated with the commission first to be sure it had support. Zavoral and City Attorney Eric Johnson said the unusual move was made because too many projects received committee approval in the past, and then were “shot down” by the commission.

“I think it has a chilling effect on committees like this,” Buus countered later, adding that with the commission publicly backing a project, it would be hard for a committee to deny a tax break.

Mayor Dennis Walaker also said the move was unusual, but done at the request of the developer.

“We rely heavily on the expertise of the committees,” he said.

City Planner Jim Gilmour said developers seeking tax increment financing often approach the commission first because those projects are complex and can involve a lot of staff time and expense.

The Tax Exempt Review Committee also debated the accuracy of City Assessor Ben Huschka’s early estimate of the building’s value.

While Cityscapes and JLG Architects of Fargo estimate the cost of construction for the building to be at least $18 million, Huschka said the ultimate value of the structure could be much less – $10.5 million to $11.5 million.

If that pans out, it would drastically lower the city’s expected tax revenue after the tax breaks sunset.

The City Commission is to vote on final approval for the tax breaks on Oct. 6, Gilmour said. No property taxes would be paid on the building for 10 years, and on 25 percent of its assessed value for five years.

The committee pressed Huschka to explain the differences in expected value.

Huschka and Gilmour said it came down to calculating the current value of similar retail, residential and parking spaces in downtown Fargo.

“The market is what it is,” Huschka said. He said the extra costs of construction involved in the project – removal of tons of buried debris and the need to sink caissons more than 100 feet to bedrock – “may not add to the ultimate value.”

Huschka later said the value of the building won’t be truly known until it is complete.

Cityscapes officials hope to complete construction by August 2009.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Helmut Schmidt at (701) 241-5583

[F-Misthebest]

NDSU breaks 13,000 mark
Amy Dalrymple, The Forum
Published Wednesday, September 24, 2008

North Dakota State University charged past several milestones Tuesday.

Enrollment broke the 13,000 mark for the first time, with official fall numbers totaling 13,229 students.

The freshman class of 2,661 students is NDSU’s largest ever, 495 more than last year.

And – perhaps the most-anticipated milestone for Bison fans – this fall marks the first time NDSU has enrolled more students than the University of North Dakota.

NDSU has 481 students more than UND’s headcount of 12,748.



UND spokesman Peter Johnson said university officials are happy for NDSU’s success.

“We think that anytime any of the institutions in the university system grows, that’s good for all of us,” Johnson said.

UND’s enrollment grew by 189 students, a 1.5 percent increase over last year’s official tally of 12,559.

NDSU gained 702 students over last year, a 5.6 percent increase.

Prakash Mathew, NDSU vice president for student affairs, said the nearly 23 percent jump in freshman enrollment is “unheard of.”

He attributed the growth to the quality of NDSU’s academic programs, which have become known nationally and internationally.

This fall’s freshman class includes 264 new Presidential and Presidential Honor Scholars, who have a minimum ACT score of 29. That’s about 100 more than NDSU had last year.

NDSU also has 11 National Merit Scholars, compared to four last year.

International student enrollment also hit an all-time high at 963 students.

Graduate student enrollment increased by 42 students to 1,818.

UND continues to boast the largest graduate enrollment in the state with 2,135 students, an 8 percent increase from last year.

Johnson said UND’s strategic plan is for graduate students to make up 20 percent of the university’s enrollment.

UND’s enrollment includes 1,942 new freshmen, a 5 percent increase.

Officials are pleased with the quality of the freshman class, Johnson said. This fall there are 203 Presidential Freshman Scholars, who have a minimum ACT score of 29.


Other eastern North Dakota campuses reported stable or growing enrollments:


- North Dakota State College of Science reported 2,545 students, a 5.3 percent increase over last year’s headcount of 2,417 students.

President John Richman attributed the growth to the college’s accessibility. NDSCS serves students at the Wahpeton campus, the Skills and Training Technology Center in Fargo and through distance delivery.


- Valley City State University reported 1,019 students, a 3.8 percent increase from last year’s tally of 982 students. President Steve Shirley said new programs and collaborations with other universities have driven the growth.


- Mayville State University reported 789 students, a 2.6 percent increase from last year’s headcount of 769.

Mayville State had enrollment declines of 8 percent and 9 percent the previous two years. President Gary Hagen said the turnaround is in part due to growing enrollment in distance education.


- Jamestown College reported 1,020 students, stable from last fall’s enrollment of 1,024. The college saw an increase in new freshmen and transfers and a 6 percent increase in students from out of state.




Readers can reach Forum reporter Amy Dalrymple at (701) 241-5590

[Pappy2000]

Originally Posted by F-Misthebest

Hey everyone should go to www.cityoffargo.com and check out the Discover Fargo Video Tour. It's pretty sweet.

I wish they would put something together to show what the city's officials view as a future for Fargo.