Lunds wins a Best in Real Estate Award

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal handed out its 13th annual Best in Real Estate awards on Thursday night at the Graves 601 Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Shea projects that were included as finalists included Lunds new downtown Minneapolis store, Rosa Mexicano, New Century Theater and Campbell Mithun Tower. Campbell Mithun Tower won for Best Third-Party Managed Property-Office and Lunds won for Best Retail Development. Congrats to them and all the winners! Click here for more coverage by the Business Journal.


Here are this year's Best in Real Estate winners:

Best Overall

• Winner: Union Depot Multimodal Transit Center

Lease or Sublease—Office

• Winner: Olson

Lease of Sublease—Retail

• Winner: Herberger's

Sale or Acquisition

• Winner: ADC Telecommunications HQ

Lifetime Achievement Award

• Winner: Boyd Stofer, Marquette Real Estate Services

Best Third-Party Managed Property—Office

• Winner: Campbell Mithun Tower

Best Third-Party Managed Property—Retail

• Winner: Oakdale Village Shopping Center

Industrial and Warehouse Development or Redevelopment

• Winner: Allina Medical Laboratories Central Lab

Medical Office Development or Redevelopment

• Winner: Crystal Medical Center

Adaptive Reuse

• Winner: Union Depot Multimodal Transit Center

Hospitality Development, Redevelopment lor Renovation

• Winner: Radisson Blu at Mall of America

Interior Renovation (Build Out)—Office

• Winner: AgriBank

Interior Renovation (Build Out)—Restaurant and Entertainment

• Winner: The Oceanaire Seafood Room

Interior Renovation (Build Out)—Retail

• Winner: Maplewood Mall

Nonprofit and Community Impact Development or Redevelopment

• Winner: Northwest Regional Family Services Center

Multifamily Development or Redevelopment—Market Rate

• Winner: Vue

Multifamily Development or Redevelopment—Affordable

• Winner: Riverside Plaza

Office Development or Redevelopment

• Winner: MoZaic

Retail Development or Redevelopment

• Winner: Lunds

Senior Housing Development or Redevelopment

• Winner: Valley Ridge

Student Housing Development or Redevelopment

• Winner: The Edge on Oak

City Pages Best of 2012

City Pages published the 2012 Best of the Twin Cities issue this week and, as usual, is packed full of great people and places, many of which are Shea clients and good friends. For the full list, go grab yourself a copy while they're still hot or visit citypages.com. Below is an abbreviated list of some of our favorites. Congrats to all the winners!

Restaurants that include design work by Shea are denoted with an asterisk (*). Other restaurants in the following list are some of our favorite places brought to you by great people with great offerings. Congrats to all!

·  Best Restaurant (Minneapolis):The Bachelor Farmer

·  Best Restaurant (St. Paul): *Heartland Restaurant and Farm Direct Market

·  Best New Restaurant: Tilia

·  Best Chef: Steven Joel Brown of Tilia

·  Best French Restaurant: *Meritage

·  Best Italian Restaurant: Bar La Grassa

·  Best Middle-Eastern Restaurant: *Saffron Restaurant and Lounge

·  Best Seafood Restaurant: *Sea Change

·  Best Japanese Restaurant: *Masu Sushi & Robata

·  Best Restaurant for Romance: *Meritage

·  Best Sunday Brunch: Haute Dish

·  Best Delicatessen: Surdyk's Liquor & Cheese Shop

·  Best Kid-Friendly Restaurant: *Brasa

·  Best Restaurant for Dinner With Your Parents: Pat's Tap

·  Best Farmers' Market: Minneapolis Farmers Market

·  Best Burger: Vincent — a Restaurant

·  Best Tapas:Solera

·  Best Desserts:Victory 44

·  Best Ice Cream Parlor: Izzy's Ice Cream Cafe

·  Best Bakery: Salty Tart

·  Best Cocktails: Marvel Bar

·  Best Contemporary Cocktail: The Olivetto, Marvel Bar

·  Best Margarita: Cobra Verde at La Belle Vie

·  Best Martini: *La Belle Vie

·  Best Cocktail for Putting Hair on Your Chest: Cobra Kai at the Strip Club Meat & Fish

 ·  Best Wine List: *Meritage 

 ·  Best Local Beer: Surly Brewing Co.

Best Place to Meet Single Men (Straight): Fulton Brewing Taproom

 

Cupcake wins more than one Cupcake War

We have been working with Kevin Vanderaa for a while now on a second location for Cupcake, his popular Minneapolis bakery cafe. He ran into some battles in St. Paul over parking for the planned Grand Avenue site and Mayor Coleman stepped in to help solve the problem. We are now looking forward to an opening soon! (You can read more by clicking here.) 

On a lighter note, Kevin appeared for the second time last night on the Food Network's 'Cupcake Wars' and walked away with the $10,000 prize for coming up with some wonderful cupcake creations celebrating Nickelodeon's "Yo Gabba Gabba" program. Way to go Kevin!!

‘Yo Gabba Gabba’ gets a sweet spot on ‘Cupcake Wars’

by Victoria Miller, Philadelphia Children'’s TV Examiner

Nickelodeon’s “Yo Gabba Gabba” got a sweet plug last night, when the kiddie show was the theme for an episode of Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars.”

Four returning bakers returned to the cupcake competition to compete for a  spot at the VIP party for the stage show "Yo Gabba Gabba Live."

This cupcake war was quite the battle, as the contestants had to utilize ingredients like blue crab, tuna, pumpkin and corn—you know, anything that shouldn’t be in a cupcake!

The savvy bakers came up with eclectic combos like avocado buttercream and key lime cake with cucumber frosting, to remind kids of Brobee, the green monster on “Yo Gabba Gabba.”

The “Yo Gabba Gabba” character of Plex was also honored with a lemon cupcake with mango buttercream.
“Cupcake Wars” judges Candace Nelson and Florian Bellanger were joined by “Yo Gabba Gabba” creator Christian Jacobs, who in the end voted   Kevin VanDeraa, owner of Minneapolis café “Cupcake,” as the champion. VanDeraa placed second during his first stint on “Cupcake Wars,” so this win was indeed sweet revenge!

Continue reading on Examiner.com 

Restaurant with rooftop dining coming to former Shinders space

Everyone is dying to know who we will be sharing our new Hennepin Avenue space with, but we're still not telling....in due time, people....in due time!  :)  Read on for a teaser:

Restaurant with rooftop dining coming to former Shinders space
By Jeremy Zoss, The Journal

UPDATED April 11, 2012, 4:31pm

The name, operators or concept of Hennepin Avenue’s next restaurant haven’t been revealed yet, but it will have a feature that will get people talking regardless: rooftop dining unlike any the city has ever seen.

The rooftop dining space will feature a four-panel movable wall that folds over itself to open or close the dining space based on weather needs. When open, an entire wall of the rooftop dining area will disappear. When closed, it will function as a standard interior space. No other space in Minnesota uses a similar retractable system, said Greg Houck of Shea, Inc.

The rooftop dining area will seat 128 diners and feature a small prep kitchen, bathrooms and an elevator to the 100-person main floor dining room. The unnamed restaurant will also occupy most of the first floor of the former Shinders building at the corner of 8th and Hennepin. Design firm Shea, Inc will occupy a tiny portion of the first floor and the second floor.

Shea, Inc is designing the restaurant tenant and has worked on several of Hennepin Avenue’s best-known restaurants, such as Fogo de Chao, Solera, Seven, Rosa Mexicano and Butcher & The Boar.

Butcher & the Boar makes impressive debut

Shea-designed Butcher & the Boar has been open for a few weeks now and the reviews are starting to roll in. City Pages writer Emily Weiss calls it "an impressive debut" and claims that after trying several of the dishes, she was in "hog heaven." Read on for her review:

Butcher & the Boar makes impressive debut

Floor covered in pennies, but food is worth much more

Though it wasnt exactly planned this way, it seemed both auspicious and appropriate to visit Butcher and the Boar, in the heart of Minneapolis's Harmon District, the same week that The Hunger Games opened in theaters. Allow me to elaborate. 

Consider the appetite of Suzanne Collins's ravenous fans. They devoured her disturbing allegorical trilogy as if it were grilled meat, and when they were done reading, rereading, and analyzing every last word, all that was left was to await the inevitable: a big-screen adaptation. Similarly, devotees of executive chef Jack Riebel's eclectic cooking have spent years following the trail of his buttery cornbread crumbs from Goodfellows to La Belle Vie (when it was still in Stillwater) to the Dakota, eagerly awaiting the inevitable: the opening of his very own restaurant. So both ventures were hotly anticipated and had established legions of fans, but here's the big difference (and maybe for some a big spoiler): Only one lived up to the hype.

The drumroll leading up to the opening of Butcher and the Boar was long and drawn-out, but the food is better for it. Riebel's original concept was for a downtown haunt that had plenty of beers on tap and would serve a handful of protein-rich snacks. The word was that his sausages would likely be an upscale version (they're served a footlong on a bun specially made for the restaurant by Salty Tart's Michelle Gayer), but from that description it sounds not unlike the experience one could have at Target Field. As plans further evolved, it was decided that the restaurant would focus on one blessed animal: the pig, specifically the wild boar. Yes, most all the dishes here that include pork in some wonderful incarnation actually use the bolder-tasting, but improbably not tougher, ancestor of the domesticated pig. In a sort of parallel move, the drink menu revolves almost exclusively around bourbon, including a toasty and lively single-barreled version made exclusively for Butcher and the Boar by Knob Creek. Showcasing the caramel-colored, badge-of-honor booze is not only a wise choice in terms of how it pairs with their smoky, Southern-tinged food, its also an homage to Riebel's grandmother, who was very partial to Wild Turkey 101.

But these tidbits are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the lore of Butcher and the Boar. The whole place is a veritable treasure hunt, starting with the floor, which is made up of roughly $1,200 worth of literal pocket change, nearly all pennies, which makes it look either like a century-old burnished copper floor or a sophomoric practical joke. Rumor has it there are a few dimes hidden throughout, and their secret placement is the kind of trivial knowledge that might come in handy during a downtown scavenger hunt. The always-bustling bar has a distinctly masculine feel, managing to be chic but not chichi. You can eat here for a perfect on-the-fly, pre-theater dinner and return for late-night snacks and cocktails, especially the done-right whiskey sour, shaken with an egg white, or the Bourbon Shake Up with Old Grandad Bonded, with a bit of simple syrup and no less than a whole muddled lemon in a lowball glass.

Gaze through the panes of glass that divide the bar side from the larger dining room and you might see Riebel, donning a paper butcher's cap and giving mini-tours around the backyard (patio coming soon) smoker. Over the open grill a ruddy-faced line cook is squinting and expertly moving steaks from direct to indirect heat as smoke wafts up and singes what's left of his eyebrows. As he fans the flames, sparks fly, and I'm sure the people at the table closest to him are glad they aren't wearing synthetic hair. But as the food starts to arrive at the table, the sparks really start to fly. The charcuterie in the Butcher section of the menu is the perfect beginning to a meal here, so long as a little offal doesnt scare you. The turkey liver braunschweiger is dark, rich, wild-tasting, and has the exact texture of butter — delicious meat butter. House-made sausages with carefully chosen accompaniments come marching out like a tubesteak parade. Choices include lighter options like the wild rice and walleye with a fish-cake-like texture and the comforting flavors of an authentic Minnesota cabin dinner, or the fully vegetarian chorizo made with pinto beans and piquant Mexican flavors, or the oozy, gooey, full-fat Berkshire pork and cheddar, which is perfectly offset by the sweet, hard-cider-based sauce. Pardon the cliché, but I was in hog heaven.

Salads here are predictably substantial. There's a gem lettuce salad with crispy onions, bell peppers, and a bright vinaigrette that tasted almost of apple pie filling and a bit of the seedy flavor of mustard. The mixed greens salad with hefty chunks of bacon, cornbread croutons, and spicy radishes sliced as thin as butterfly wings would convert any diner who refers to lettuce as rabbit food. Meat and fish plates, as with all the dishes on the menu, are meant to be shared and are portioned that way. A mile-high double-cut pork chop is encased in a crackling layer of delectable fat that's been infused with all the flavor of a southern dessert: pecans, maple, blueberry, and of course butter. The decadent, creamy lobster grilled cheese sandwich is now on my list of the Cities' best sandwiches. Steaks are also given proper attention, and the flatiron, though smaller and thinner than other cuts on the menu, remained tender and juicy and carried the great flavor of the grill with it.

Speaking of steak, the meaty, cedar-planked mushrooms you can order as an à la carte side were a revelation. I don't usually think of mushrooms as juicy, but these were. Something about smoking them leaves the surface layer of the fungi smooth and dry, but one bite releases the meaty mushrooms' moisture, producing a near-steak experience. Other highlights in the sides section include puffy, Fulton beer-battered fries from potatoes soaked in milk before getting battered and fried; super-rich smothered greens with cream, hunks of smoky bacon, and the surprising burn of Fresno peppers; and a whole, skin-on, charred sweet potato, slathered in an umami-rich compound butter.

Haven't had your fill? Desserts are decent. The smoked s'mores are both rustic and whimsical, served on the signature B&B-branded cedar plank they use to prepare a handful of other dishes on the menu. The marshmallows were gooey enough to scoop but solid enough to use a cinnamon-sugar chip to slice down the center, revealing a pea-sized glob of very dark, truffle-like chocolate. The grasshopper pie is a refined take on the Mad Men-era classic, but the crust-to-filling ratio was a bit off. Go for the banana pudding with ginger snap crumbs, topped with lightly broiled meringue. It's sticky, retro, and perfect for sharing.

Perhaps it's too soon to say what the lasting contribution of Butcher and the Boar will be to the downtown restaurant landscape, but what it has accomplished so far is impressive. Its outdoor smoker alone has done the impossible; it's made this part of downtown smell so fantastic you'll want to hang around, ambling down Hennepin just a little slower than when you arrived, your belly rich with wild boar, bourbon, and lingering satisfaction.

Butcher and the Boar

1121 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis
612.238.8888; butcherandtheboar.com

 

Soo Line Building renovation in the Strib

Shea is part of the design team working on the renovation of the Soo Line Building in downtown Minneapolis. On Friday, the Star Tribune announced that the main tenant is moving out, which is a key step in the renovation. Read on for details. 

Soo Line's conversion to apartments is close to reality

Article by: JANET MOORE , Star Tribune
Canadian Pacific workers will move to One Financial Plaza. 

A key step in the renovation of the Soo Line Building into upscale apartments was consummated Thursday when Canadian Pacific Railway, the historic structure's main tenant, announced plans to move out.

The move won't take the railroad's 400 employees very far -- they'll settle into One Financial Plaza, just around the corner.

The glassy 1960s-vintage office tower at 120 S. 6th St. in downtown Minneapolis will serve as the Calgary-based railway's U.S. headquarters, and will ultimately be renamed Canadian Pacific Plaza.
Canadian Pacific has occupied the Soo Line Building at 501 Marquette Av. S. since it took full control of the Soo in 1990. It had owned a majority stake in the company since the 1890s.

The Soo Line Building, once downtown Minneapolis' tallest office tower, was acquired by Village Green Properties for $11.3 million last year. The Michigan-based developer announced plans to renovate the historic structure into 250 upscale apartments as demand for rental units in downtown Minneapolis skyrocketed.

"The Soo Line Building will always hold a special place in the history of [Canadian Pacific], but the move to the newly retrofitted offices, specifically built to the needs of today's railroad, is a good and timely fit for our U.S. operations," said U.S. Vice President Doug McFarlane.

Between its U.S. headquarters in downtown Minneapolis and workers at operations at its St. Paul yard, Canadian Pacific employs about 1,200 people in the Twin Cities. Canadian Pacific is among several large firms with headquarters in the state's largest city -- others include Target Corp., U.S. Bancorp and countless professional services firms.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. However, Canadian Pacific will occupy 80,000 square feet of the 26-story One Financial Plaza, which is also home to the Nilan Johnson Lewis law firm, Clarity Coverdale Fury, a marketing and advertising agency, and the management consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates.
Competition is fierce for top-notch (also known as Class A) office space like the offices at One Financial Plaza, especially since new development remains on hold in a tough economy, according to a recent report by real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield/Northmarq. The report says there are 107 office buildings in downtown Minneapolis, with an overall vacancy rate of 18 percent for the final half of 2011. The city's central business district has a workforce of about 160,000 people, according to the Downtown Council.
A spokesman for Minneapolis-based Hempel, which brokered the deal, declined to release One Financial Plaza's vacancy rate.

Canadian Pacific employees will begin moving to their new offices in a few weeks, with completion slated for August.

Janet Moore • 612-673-7752

KARE 11 visits the construction site of Shea's new HQ

Rooftop restaurants, condos and more development in Mpls.

Written by

Jeffrey DeMars, KARE 11

MINNEAPOLIS - Restaurant rooftops, more than 250 condos and construction in a few key spots in downtown Minneapolis will turn abandoned properties into thriving opportunities in the city.

At the corner of 8th Street and Hennepin Avenue, the old Shinders building has sat empty for the past five years, but a big change is underway to bring the two-story building a step into the future while holding on to its history.

"We do have some original photographs of what it looked like in the '50s," said Gregory Houck of Shea Architects.

The 1950s included Snyder's Drug Store and a current renovation of the building by Shea Architects dusted off some of those memories from days gone by.

"In the terrazzo it says Snyder's," said Houck. "It's very cool and we're going to restore that and keep it. It will be part of our entry."

Shea's offices will take up the entire second floor of the building.

When finished later this summer, it will be an open space which is sandwiched between a restaurant on the street level and the roof.

While a restaurant has agreed to the deal, Shea's is not ready to go public with it yet.

The rooftop restaurant is slated to open at the beginning of 2013 and Shea's isn't the only one building up to look down.

"Right now we're on top of Rush's Bridal shop on the roof," said Terry Jacobs of 9's on the mall.

Rush's Bridal - between The Local and Barrio on Nicollet Mall - also has plans for not one, but two rooftop restaurants.

"We're talking to restaurants; we have [letters of intent] coming in," said Jacobs.

Once a restaurant is on board, Rush's will go to the city for approval. The plan is to start construction at the beginning of 2013.

A little north on Hennepin and it's deconstruction that's underway at the corner with Washington Avenue.

Workers are demolishing the old Jaguar dealership that has sat empty for years to make way for a Whole Foods and more than 250 luxury apartments. The $70 million project is slated to be complete in 2013.

(Copyright 2012 KARE. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)