Star Tribune
After fires, Grand Marais couple aim to bolster downtown with development
DULUTH — A development that includes an event center, lodging and a restaurant in downtown Grand Marais is expected to fill a void left after a devastating fire destroyed three popular businesses there in 2020.
The owners of the nearby Mayhew Inn hope to build a 14,000-square-foot structure on the former site of a destination restaurant and two gift shops. Sitting within yards of Lake Superior, the two-story development would also include a lounge, rooftop deck and bar and two shops, altogether filling about 30,000 square feet.
With no downtown event space and the loss of several businesses, “it’s so needed,” said Linda Jurek, executive director of Visit Cook County.
Developers Joel and Amy Saint John said that because of the lack of indoor event space, they often need to turn away weddings at their boutique Mayhew Inn. And between Lutsen and Grand Marais, at least a half-dozen restaurants and retail shops either burned or closed in recent years.
“When visitors come up, there are just all these empty holes in downtown,” Joel Saint John said. “We’re just trying to bring new, fresh life back to it.”
At a City Council meeting last week, Grand Marais Mayor Tracy Benson and council members discussed parking and the effect large events could have on nearby businesses, but ultimately approved a land-use permit for the project to proceed. The city’s planning and zoning commission has already approved the project.
The vacant lots left by the fire on Wisconsin Street border Sven and Ole’s Pizza.
The lots have been used for food trucks, including the Crooked Spoon’s seasonal food truck and one for Sydney’s Frozen Custard, also lost to a fire in 2023.
Nathan and Sara Hingos’ Crooked Spoon was among the destroyed businesses. The couple later opened a food truck.
A couple of downtown business owners told the City Council they were concerned about the proposed look of the building. Drury Lane Books owner Kelly Kager said the exterior appears modern in renderings, with not enough detail to get a true sense of what it will look like.
“It does not appear to fit with the aesthetic that we have downtown, and I think that’s a big part of what makes Grand Marais so attractive,” she said in an interview.
She doesn’t dispute the need for development but wants to ensure that plans fit with the town’s character, where downtown’s eclectic businesses are built of brick and wood, said the owner of the 22-year-old bookstore.
Other business owners had concerns about parking.
Joel Saint John said early renderings don’t indicate how the exterior will look, and they do plan to use a mix of brick, steel and wood with large windows. The look will be timeless, he said, and fit in with other commercial buildings downtown.
With city approval, the Saint Johns will move ahead with more detailed plans. They declined to give a cost estimate for the project.
The owners have worked hard to buy the vacant lots and one for parking, Jurek said, while listening to community feedback and scaling plans down to two stories from three.
The building must comply with 30-foot height limits given to downtown structures.
Ten short-term vacation rentals and parking for those units are part of the plan. The event center will likely fit up to 100 people, and the restaurant will have room for 80.
The Saint Johns hope to break ground in September and open around 18 months later.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
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