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After string of closures, some Grand Ave. businesses vow to stay
Juut Salon is vowing to remain despite vacancies. Red Balloon Bookshop just had a record holiday season and is focused on the future.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Grand Avenue has long been a key business district in St. Paul. With dozens of retail stores and restaurants stretching across three miles, the corridor serves several neighborhoods and also attracts customers from throughout the region.
A string of high-profile closures and vacant store fronts along portions of Grand Avenue have prompted questions about what is happening in the area, but according to the Grand Avenue Business Association (GABA) there have also been 11 new businesses along the corridor in the last year.
So what is really happening?
For years, the intersection of Grand Avenue and Victoria Street has been a focal point of retail traffic, with plenty of loyal customers.
“I love Grand Ave, especially Cafe Latte,” said Aisha Eady, who says she makes a special trip to the the intersection from her home in Bloomington once every month or so. “There’s a lot energy in this area, there’s a lot of fun things to attend. It’s really an awesome, sort of centerpiece of St. Paul.”
But Eady says she’s noticed more and more change during her last few trips to pick up a few of her favorite truffles.
“You see the construction paper up in the window and you just kind of wonder what’s happening?” Eady said, referencing what used to be the Pottery Barn across the street. “It’s really kind of concerning.”
The closure of Pottery Barn in early January, marked the latest of several retail business to vacate two, large buildings near the intersection in a little more than a year. In that time, no new tenants have emerged.
“We had J Crew, Lululemon, Anthropologie, Pottery Barn… a lot within this block here,” said Accala Sullivan, Salon Manager at Juut, recalling the exodus.
Sullivan says Juut has managed to weather the inevitable drop in foot traffic that has followed the closures, thanks to their own loyal customers – many of whom book appointments in advance.
But in-store sales of hair and beauty products remains uncertain, after nearby Salut Restaurant also closed it’s doors in January.
“You definitely feel it when restaurant (closures) happen,” Sullivan said. “Because when people are in the area (to eat), they will bop over for this item or whatever it might be.”
Despite that uncertainty, Sullivan says Juut’s owner remains optimistic about the shopping district and customer base, and she says they have now responded – in writing – to questions and concerns about the salon’s future.
“We actually received information from our owner just yesterday morning, that we’re staying here in St. Paul,” Sullivan said. “I think it’s needed. Just to make sure that this community is supported. For sure.”
Juut isn’t the only business vowing support in the face of the uncertainty. Despite the vacant store fronts nearby, the owner of Red Balloon Bookshop, Holly Weinkauf, says the children’s book store is coming off a record holiday season.
But Weinkauf says foot traffic in January has taken a hit.
“We’re sad that we lost (Salut) as a neighbor,” Weinkauf said. “Especially during the warmer months, having that patio filled with people was always a great thing for business.”
As a GABA board member, Weinkauf says it’s true that other areas of Grand Avenue are enjoying a period of growth, but she would describe the area around her business differently.
“We’re definitely in a state of transition,” she said.
While some of that transition can be attributed to general shifts towards online sales and more sporadic foot traffic following the pandemic, she says you can’t tell the story of the transition at Grand and Victoria without acknowledging the property owner tied to all of the vacancies.
Earlier this month, KARE 11 reported that the closures in the area were all happening in the two retail spaces owned by the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS), which is one of the nation’s biggest public pension funds.
“The local leasing agent responds, but when we get to the regional level, we don’t get a response,” Grand Avenue Business Association President Chris Jensen said back in January. “Their portfolio is so large that they don’t have any idea the effect this is having on our community.”
As the vacancies began piling up, a group of business, neighborhood and city leaders came together to work on a plan to seek answers and open a line of communication with STRS about what is happening.
“We just wanted find out, what are the things we can do to help engage with that property owner?” Weinkauf said.
With all of the spaces now sitting vacant, Weinkauf says the hope is that STRS is will to break up the large footprints once occupied by those large national chains, in favor of smaller or more flexible options for local businesses.
It’s a stategy already utilized in the building shared by Cafe Latte, which STRS also owns.
“Having those stores on Grand Avenue, maybe at one point, was a valuable thing,” Weinkauf said. “But now, I think people are looking for more unique destinations that give them a different kind of experience.”
It’s a strategy that makes sense to Eady.
“I don’t think I ever came down here to see a Lululemon or a Pottery Barn,” Eady said. “I can get that in other places.”
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Officers provided medical aid but the man died at the scene.
MINNEAPOLIS — One man is dead after a party escalated to gunfire early Saturday morning, according to Minneapolis police.
Minneapolis officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation on the 1700 block of 26 Ave N around 6 a.m. Upon arrival, they found a man with life-threatening injuries.
Officers provided medical aid until EMS arrived, but the man died at the scene, according to a Minneapolis police press release. After investigating, officers believe that a fight broke out at a nearby party and spilled out into the street, escalating to gunfire.
Minneapolis police said upon arrival, they arrested a man for disorderly conduct as he was still fighting and refusing to leave. It is unclear if this man was involved in the shooting.
“Today, tragically, another family has been ripped apart by gun violence,” Chief O’Hara said. “Our investigators are committed to solving this crime and giving a voice to those who can no longer speak for themselves.”
Minneapolis police and investigators are looking into the shooting to determine more. If you have any information, call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or contact them online at this link.
This story is developing and updates will be published as more information is available.
Minnesotan are using absentee ballots far more they did in 2016, the most recent non-COVID presidential election year.
MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds of thousands of voters have already decided to vote absentee this year, but those ballots won’t be opened until Election Day. That’s one of the reasons elections officials are working to assure us those ballots will be protected until then.
“We always have, but we’ve increased those security measures throughout,” Blaine City Clerk Cathy Sorensen told KARE.
“Here at City Hall the ballots are stored in a room that only election officials have the key to. We have re-keyed that lock to make sure it’s not a master key that anyone can get in there.”
During the pandemic, people got used to the idea of throwing their ballot in the mail or handing it to somebody at a curbside drop-off site. This new way of doing things caught on with a large segment of voters.
As of Oct. 17, more than 337,000 absentee ballots have already been accepted statewide. That many more have been sent to voters but haven’t been returned and accepted yet.
“During the COVID election in 2020 people got used to it, they got a taste for it and they trust it,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told KARE.
“So, that accounts for the surge and the increase.”
And yet, not everyone is convinced the mail-in system is foolproof. In the KARE 11 MPR News Star Tribune Minnesota Poll taken in late September, only half of respondents said they think those absentee ballots are protected from fraud.
About 38% said they believe mail-in ballots are vulnerable to fraud and 12 % said they weren’t sure about it.
That’s why we’re seeing efforts to by elections managers to show how the system works ahead of Nov. 5.
“With absentee ballots, there’s a couple of steps that are involved,” Simon said. “You have to see if the person did it right. Did they sign it? Did they have a witness sign it? Did they do it right? Then, and only then, can you count them.”
The job of reviewing incoming absentee ballots is done across the state by bipartisan absentee ballot boards. We saw one such board – Mark Olson and Terry Wold – on Thursday afternoon going through ballot envelopes and paperwork at Blaine City Hall.
They were checking to see if the outer ballot envelopes matched with the voter’s application for the absentee ballot.
“The judges are looking at the signature envelope, which is just like signing the roster on Election Day, because when they’re voting early it is Election Day to them,” Sorensen said.
The ID information used by the voter on the signature envelope – the driver’s license number or last four digits of the Social Security number – must match the information on the application form. Same goes for the voter’s signature. The one on the envelope must match the one on the application.
The bipartisan ballot board is dealing with paperwork and ballots that are still inside an envelope that’s inside yet another envelope, so they can’t see how the person voted as they’re deciding whether to accept it.
The absentee ballot will be rejected if those key factors don’t match. They can also be rejected if there’s no witness signature, or if the witness isn’t a registered Minnesota voter. In those situations, the elections offices contact the absentee voter to offer them a chance at a do-over.
If the ballot is accepted, the unique bar code on the signature envelope is scanned into the State Voter Registration System to create a record that the person voted absentee. It enables absentee voters to track the status of their ballots on the Secretary of State’s online ballot tracking site.
It also ensures that someone can’t vote again in person on Election Day and that a person can’t cast multiple absentee ballots. Voters may receive multiple absentee ballot applications from multiple sources, but ultimately, they’re only allowed to cast one ballot tied to their unique voter information.
As the election nears the ballots are removed from their signature envelopes but won’t be counted until Election Day.
“After our ballots are sent to Anoka County, they’re opened up, and the signature envelope is put aside. Inside is a ballot envelope – their actual ballot is inside an orange-colored envelope – and that’s put aside. So, now we know this particular voter voted, but we don’t know how they voted.”
In the past, the influx of those absentee totals has created speculation that “new” ballots were being added after the counting had ended. That’s not the case.
“If there are late arriving batches of absentee ballots those are going to take longer. That’s just sort of common sense,” Simon said. “And that means they might be added later.”
In the meantime, those ballots will be secured. In Blaine you need a badge key card just to get to the floor where the election equipment is kept.
“Even getting into the actual election cage there’s an old school padlock that only election officials have,” Sorensen said.
“Again, it’s just one more layer to make sure we have that chain of custody and that confidence no one was able to access without one of us.”
The State Patrol advises that drivers should find another route Saturday morning.
MINNEAPOLIS — A crash Friday night killed one and closed northbound Interstate 35W, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
The crash occurred on I-35W and Washington in Minneapolis around 10:30 p.m., according to the State Patrol website. Gordon Warne Zieman, 61-year-old man from New Brighton, died in the crash.
The State Patrol reports that Zieman was traveling northbound on I-35W on a Harley Davidson motorcycle when he lost control and struck the rear of a Toyota Camry. The 20-year-old driver of the Camry had been trying to merge onto I-35W from the right shoulder when he was struck.
A 20-year-old man from Cottage Grove did not sustain any injuries. Zieman was wearing a helmet, according to the State Patrol report.
The State Patrol advised drivers early Saturday morning to seek other routes as they investigate the crash. HCMC Ambulance, Minneapolis Fire, Minnesota Department of Transportation, Hopkins Police and the Hennepin Medical Examiner responded to the scene as well.
This story is developing and will be updated as more information is available.
