Twin Cities Business Roundup, 7/4 – 7/11

Your business week, 7/4 – 7/11

Holiday Stationstores sold to Couche-Tard, a Canadian convenience store company.

• Holiday was founded in Minnesota in 1928 by the Erickson family. It is now one of Minnesota’s largest private companies, with 522 stores operating across 10 states.
• Holiday’s headquarters will remain in Bloomington, MN.
• Due to a confidentiality agreement between the two companies, the price of the sale was not disclosed.

Minneapolis

510 Lounge now open in the former La Belle Vie space at 510 Groveland Ave.

• Large shoes (plates?) to fill: La Belle Vie was commonly regarded as the best restaurant between Chicago and Los Angeles.
• As well as being a more casual (yet still upscale) place to get food and cocktails, the space will be used as an event center and private dining room.

A peek at Peavey: The redesigned plaza on redesigned Nicollet Mall will look something like this once finished:

Dulono’s Pizza in Uptown closes unexpectedly.

• The Uptown staple, known for late night pizza, two-for-one beer specials, and for being one of the last bastions of the old Uptown cool, closed apparently due to disagreements with the landlord.
• Operations will be consolidated at the new location in Minneapolis’ Warehouse District.

The X-Games begin in Minneapolis tomorrow, 7/13.

• Read our article on it here: The X-Games arrive in Minneapolis

Mariucci no more? Sorta. But not quite: 3M is now owner of naming rights to the U of M hockey arena, yes, but the official name is 3M Arena at Mariucci.

• So, compromise?
• And does this mean Williams Arena, aka “The Barn” is soon to get a new name as well?

St. Paul

Transit plans for either bus, bus rapid transit (BRT), or modern streetcar from downtown St. Paul to MSP airport gaining steam.

• 6 different options will be submitted to a public policy committee this month: 4 proposed streetcar lines that would connect to LRT at different junctions, one proposed BRT line, and one proposed traditional bus line.
• The streetcar line could cost up to $1.2 billion.
• The policy committee will gather at Union Depot on July 13 to discuss possibilities.

TIF funds needed for MN United soccer stadium.

• TIF (tax-increment financing) would go towards cleanup of the polluted Midway site where the stadium is to be built.
• This adds an extra $825,000 – $1.18 million to the bill.
• The plan will be reviewed by the City Council next week.

Metro

Toppers Pizza looking to expand into the suburbs.

• The company hopes to open 10 new franchise-style locations in the near future after opening the first in Blaine.

Tennant no tenant: The clean supply company Tennant Co. is building a brand-new headquarters in Golden Valley.

More new foods from General Mills: We talked last week about the launch Oui, a French-style yogurt brand. But the Golden Valley-based food giant isn’t stopping there.

• Take a look at the full list of items hitting shelves: New foods add to summer fun

Mall of America is adding a second mini-golf course, and a Gameworks as well.

• This marks a continued emphasis by the country’s largest mall to supplement shopping with destinations and activities.
• Moose Mountain Adventure Golf already exists on the second level. An arcade/bowling alley, SMAAASH gaming center, and of course, Camp Snoopy Nickelodeon Universe, already exist and will remain.

Beyond

Missing photos: Photobucket to charge for use of already-linked, and formerly-free pics.

• Unless users pay $400, the photos are no longer available.
• Extortion? Ransom? Many users cry foul, as, for the last decade and a half the pictures have been free and ready to use, uploaded to blogs, social media, etc. and now, without warning, they’re simply gone.