Development News

One of the most unusual development projects in the Twin Cities is facing a painfully common problem this month --foreclosure.

Schafer Richardson's East Bank Mills development was designed to bring nearly 1,000 new living units to the Minneapolis riverfront but stalled once the recession hit. Now a sheriff's sale is set for Nov. 15, with urgent negotiations underway to keep the project alive.

David Frank, who has been working on the project since his first day at Schafer Richardson seven years ago, says hope for East Bank Mills' future is "tempered with a hefty dose of reality." The project's financing structure, via 24 different banks, would be "unwieldy even in good times," he says.

The developer is pressing ahead on two fronts: trying to bring new money, people, and ideas to the project; and short-circuiting the foreclosure process through talks amongst the various parties' attorneys. But time is short. As Frank noted, when the calendar flipped this week the 15th was in the middle of the page.

East Bank Mills remains an ambitious vision, even languishing on paper. Plans include renovation of the historic Pillsury A Mill, a handsome 130-year-old limestone edifice that was the world's biggest flour mill in its heyday. Designed by Minneapolis architect LeRoy S. Buffington (who had a claim as one of the earliest skyscraper designers), the A Mill towers above Main Street, the oldest street in the city. Other massive buildings in the multi-block former Pillsbury milling complex would also be reused, including a red-tile grain elevator with silos that would remain empty but would support condominiums above.

Does Schafer Richardson regret environmental, historic-preservation and neighborhood planning processes that slowed the project's process? "Not really," Frank says. To forgo those steps is "not really our style."

Source: David Frank, Schafer Richardson
Writer: Chris Steller

The rooftop of the Minneapolis Convention Center is on its way to housing the largest solar photovoltaic system in the Upper Midwest--despite a series of low domes where solar panels won't be installed.

Work is underway on the flat portions of the convention center roof that will carry 2,613 panels. Last month the city issued a progress report as the effort was about a sixth of the way to completion.

One-sixth is also the proportion of the rooftop area that can support the solar installation, including flat and other areas over non-rentable space, according to information provided by Project Manager Brian Millberg and Chris Larson, facility director at the convention center.

Had the convention center been designed to gather solar energy in the first place, the roof would likely generate more power than the facility could use--raising issues about how to handle the surplus. As built, the system will generate 750,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year, all used on site. That would be enough power for 85 homes, and it means 529 fewer metric tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere--the same amount as 60,587 gallons of gas would produce.

Newer facilities can go green more easily by building that way in the first place, but federal and other funds mean Minneapolis won't need to provide capital for the project. "The solar array is not meant to be a cost-saving project but a cost-neutral project that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels," said Jeff Johnson, the center's executive director. 

What's next for solar in the Twin Cities? State funding will pay for solar installations  along the Central Corridor light-rail route, including Fire Stations No. 1 and 19 in Minneapolis, according to Gayle Prest, the city's sustainability manager. "It's a great opportunity to showcase [solar]," she said.

Sources: Brian Millberg and Gayle Prest, City of Minneapolis; Chris Larson and Jeff Johnson, Minneapolis Convention Center
Writer: Chris Steller

The headlines--like "Key to long life? It may be in ... your ZIP code"--oversimplified the findings in a new report on how physical well being is distributed across the metro area.

The Wilder Research study found a relationship between neighborhoods' cultural and socioeconomic makeup and their scores on health measures. But it's a stretch to claim that your ZIP code determines your lifespan, says researcher Craig Helmstetter.

It's also an oversimplification to say that the populations of city neighborhoods uniformly have shorter lifespans than those in the suburbs. Glossed over in media reports was the fact that three ZIP codes within St. Paul and Minneapolis posted health scores as glowing as any in the metro area.

The three ZIP-code areas are contiguous, in a cluster around the two University of Minnesota Twin Cities campuses: 55414 in Southeast Minneapolis and just across the city line in St. Paul, 55114 and 55108, stretching from St. Anthony Park to Como Park.

None are standouts for household income, yet they rival wealthy suburbs in health measurements, with life expectancies in the 83-years-and-up range.

Helmstetter says Wilder's report, "The Unequal Distribution of Health in the Twin Cities," commissioned by the Blue Cross Foundation, didn't put a spotlight on the three inner-city areas that posted high numbers for health partly because data like death-rates are "unstable" where population sizes aren't large.

But taken together, the ZIP codes suggest to Helmstetter that high education levels are boosting health, along with factors like walkable neighborhoods and "great places to recreate, with parks and amenities."

Source: Craig Helmstetter, Wilder Research
Writer: Chris Steller

This month St. Paul held its 30th art crawl, and the semi-annual event has grown so popular that it has spawned a smaller, monthly version. Foot traffic at Saint Paul Art Crawls averages 20,000�24,000, says Robyn Priestly, executive director at the Saint Paul Art Collective, the nonprofit that runs the event.

Spectacular fall weather may have suppressed attendance at this month's three-day crawl. Priestly says reports are still being tallied from organizers at the four "clumps" of studios across the city: Lowertown and downtown; Grand Avenue; University Avenue; and the East Side.

The crawls' appeal is partly architectural, Priestly says: "Looking at the buildings is part of it because these are great old buildings, whether they're the new rehabbed buildings on University Avenue or the old warehouses down in Lowertown."

First Friday open houses occur every month in which the collective isn't mounting an art crawl. The scaled-down monthly crawls feature studios in five Lowertown buildings: Tilsner, Jax, Lowertown Lofts, Northwestern Building and the Northern Warehouse. The next First Friday, on Nov. 5, marks the one-year anniversary of the event.

One of the collective's other projects has been opening a new art gallery in the Northern Warehouse. On exhibit now (call 651-292-4373 for hours): artwork by the collective's past and present board members.

The crawls grew out of open houses held by members of the Lowertown Lofts artists' cooperative 20 years ago. For the first decade they were annual affairs before growing to a twice-yearly event that has stayed true to its original impetus. "It is a giant open house," Priestly says.

Source: Robyn Priestley, St. Paul Art Collective
Writer: Chris Steller

The Twin Cities tied with one other metropolitan region this month in being awarded the top federal grant amount-- $5 million--for sustainable transit and transit-oriented development.

Salt Lake City was the other city to get a full $5 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). (Seattle came close, with $4,999,700.)

The Twin Cities' take will go toward involving local communities in planning transit-related development along five planned and existing routes: Southwest light-rail transit, Bottineau Boulevard, Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit, Northstar Commuter Rail and the Gateway Corridor along I-94 East.

"It's a terrific boost," says Jonathan Sage-Martinson, Central Corridor Funders' Collaborative. The Central Corridor route between the downtowns of St. Paul and Minneapolis, where the region's second light-rail transit line is now under construction, will also see some of the HUD funds.

The kind of comprehensive community planning and design that's been done on the Central Corridor will serve as a model for other transit corridors. Sage-Martinson says Shelley Poticha, director of HUD's Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, often cites Minneapolis-St. Paul as a prime example of a region that has found a way to work cooperatively on both transit and transit-related development. The office distributed nearly $100 million toward like efforts across the country.

The goal is to wrap together economic and workforce initiatives; alternative energy systems; energy efficiencies in housing (particularly rental housing); and green infrastructure such as the stormwater runoff system that will water new trees along the Central Corridor.

Source: Jonathan Sage-Martinson, Central Corridor Funders' Collaborative
Writer: Chris Steller

The four-mile stretch of Hennepin Avenue from Lakewood Cemetery to the Mississippi River is about to undergo scrutiny of the sort Lake Street and University Avenue have seen from photographer Wing Young Huie.

This time, not Huie but another photographer, who takes inspiration from Huie's huge undertakings, will be tripping her camera's shutter from Uptown to Downtown along a major Twin Cities avenue.

Cate Vermeland teaches photography, communication arts and art history at Concordia University in St. Paul. But it was volunteering as an usher at Huie's "University Avenue Project" outdoor slideshow events this year that put her on the path to a photographic exploration of her own.

Vermeland is an Uptown girl. She grew up there in a pre-chain era when mom-and-pop stores prevailed, and she lived on Hennepin Avenue itself for most of the 1990s. "Its great that it's still a walkable street," she says.

Charting Hennepin's changes is part of the point of her project. Vermeland plans to rephotograph views from the archives of Norton & Peel, a local photography firm in business through the 1960s. She'll match the archival image then take more pictures to provide context to the historical pairing.

Vermeland, speaking to The Line by phone from her darkroom, says her approach differs from Huie's somewhat photojournalistic bent: "I come purely out of an artistic tradition." Her photos will explore how architecture along Hennepin creates community, But the pictures, in black and white, are likely to be unpopulated, giving viewers space to enliven the scenes with their imaginations.  

Vermeland and Huie will hold a public conversation about their projects Thursday, October 21 at 5:30 p.m. at 1433 University Ave., St. Paul (near University and Albert), followed at 6:30 p.m. by another in the series of outdoor slideshows of Huie's "University Avenue Project."

Source: Cate Vermeland, Concordia University
Writer: Chris Steller

Class C office space--the kind craved by startups and nonprofits--saw a big occupancy-rate jump over the last year in downtown St. Paul. But that's something of an illusion, according to Eric Rapp, one of the commercial real-estate professionals behind a report released this week by the St. Paul Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).

The Class C market actually held relatively steady in 2009�10, says Rapp, co-chair of BOMA's marketing and leasing committee, which is in charge of producing the organization's annual Office Market Report. But the total amount of Class C space shrunk significantly with Ramsey County's purchase last year of the Metro Square Building on E. 7th Place. That moved nearly 400,000 square feet of office space from Class C to BOMA's Government classification, and bumped up downtown St. Paul's Class C occupancy rate from 63.9 percent to 83.3 percent.

In reality, Rapp says he suspects "nothing major" has changed in the amount of space available in Class C buildings in areas such as Lowertown, where many small companies go in search of economical leases close to the heart of the city. One other change is the addition in this year's report of the Southbridge Office Center at 155 S. Wabasha St. With that addition of 22,000 square feet and without the Metro Square Building, about 140,000 square feet of Class C office space remains ready for new occupants.

The overall occupancy rate in downtown St. Paul inched up from 90 percent in 2009 to 91 percent this year. It's an increment of progress that BOMA's Office Market Report can point to with confidence. "Saint Paul BOMA prides itself on developing one of the most accurate, first-hand, and detailed office market reports in the region," writes BOMA chair Fred Koehler.

Source: Eric Rapp, St. Paul Building Owners and Managers Association
Writer: Chris Steller

Being divided into 84 neighborhoods isn't always an advantage for Minneapolis. It's a daunting number of distinct districts to grapple with, for officials at City Hall as well as community organizers.

But that impressive roster may have helped Minneapolis secure host-city status for the Neighborhoods, USA Conference in 2013. The Mill City outscored four other cities vying for the national organization's annual meeting -- by a large margin, according to Neighborhoods, USA staffer Karen Huber.

A three-person Minneapolis contingent blew away the organization's board of directors with an impressive presentation at this year's conference, held recently in Alaska. Runners up included Rochester, Minn. (in second place), as well as a couple Pacific Northwest outposts: Eugene, Ore., and Tacoma, Wash.

Board members scored competing cities on criteria that included number of neighborhood organizations and their level of activity. (Most--but not all--of Minneapolis' 84 neighborhoods have resident groups.)

Racial diversity was another consideration for the Neighborhoods, USA board, half of whom are African-American. Minneapolis looked better than some places the organization has considered in the past, Harber says, recalling the response to a relatively homogeneous Utah city.

The group met in St. Paul in 1986. The economic downturn of the last few years has made centrally located cities more appealing as meeting places, she says. The cost of travel has cut attendance by the grassroots activists who make up the group's membership, says Harber, from 1,000 before the recession to a low approaching 400. For the conference in Minneapolis, Harber says the group is anticipating 500�600 attendees.

They'll fan out across the city for tours and meals in Minneapolis neighborhoods. Harber says people who come to the conference are "very relaxed" and down to earth. Some are still learning to grapple with grants and making demands on local leaders at city halls. The conference is a low-key event where they can hone those skills. "You don't have to impress the big shots," Huber says.

Source: Karen Harber, Neighborhoods USA
Writer: Chris Steller

Years of fighting ended last New Year's Eve when Exxon Mobil sent the City of St. Paul $5 million to cover pollution cleanup costs at a West Seventh neighborhood site called Victoria Park.The city bought the former oil-tank land for $1, abandoning condemnation efforts and promising to build a park instead of the vast tract of housing that Minneapolis-based Brighton Development Corporation once envisioned.

Now cleanup is underway at Victoria Park that could take as long as two more years to complete. Meanwhile, the precise sort of park the place is to become remains undecided. At issue is whether to put tournament-worthy artificial-turf athletic fields along the site's Mississippi River blufftop expanse.

"A lot of people see the bluffs as prime access to the river," says Tonya Johnson-Nicholie, who represents the West Seventh/Fort Road Federation in the Parks and Recreation Department's planning process. Public meetings still to be set this fall will let neighbors air their views. Synthetic playing fields would bring funds from the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission--funds that the city doesn't have to develop a new park.

Patty Lilledahl, now director of business development and finance at the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority, remembers waiting at work on New Year's Eve day for Exxon Mobil's money to arrive. Based on experts' estimates, the sum is supposed to cover pollution expenses, with some left over for the start of park-creation.

A separate, adjacent site saw the beginnings of Brighton's development get built before the recession set in. Thirteen homes, now bearing For Rent signs, stand next to the former Exxon land. The HRA still owns another seven acres of developable land that may yet become housing along the river. The Exxon and adjacent sites together encompass nearly 45 acres.

Whatever sort of park is developed, "we're thrilled because it just increases the value of the nearby properties," says Lilledahl. She adds that all along, the public purpose of the project--which began more than a decade ago with neighbors seeking a better use for the vacant land--is to increase the tax base and make the site "look a lot more attractive."

Sources: Tonya Johnson-Nicholie, West Seventh/Fort Road Federation; Patty Lilledahl, St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority
Writer: Chris Steller

The name isn't the only thing to be repurposed at the former Stasiu's bar in Northeast Minneapolis, which this week reopens as Stanley's--the English version of the original Polish name.

The bar's handsome radiators have been refurbished and repainted for new life as bases to high tables where customers' legs will dangle, says general manager Carol Hawley.

Then there are the urinals. The handsome relics reach from the floor to nearly chest height, their undulating porcelain forms harkening back to Victorian times. (Indeed, they're said to have been salvaged from Minneapolis' famed West Hotel.) Their purpose remains the same.

Those and the walls are about all of the physical Stasiu's that persists at Stanley's. Gone is the half-timbering on the exterior. Inside, the building at University and Lowry avenues was "stripped down to the studs," she says.

New street-level windows give the illusion of more room inside and out. ("It was kind of like a bunker in here," Hawley recalls.) But the building hasn't extended its footprint--a new patio to the north notwithstanding.

The crooked floor has been leveled and now holds what Hawley calls "an insanely beautiful bar." Work on a stage will be finished in time for Gospel Gossip, the first band to play in the remodeled bar. Christie Hunt, whose band bookings sparked a new scene in Stasiu's waning days, has the music schedule set into December.

A new set of stairs leads to a second floor space where construction will continue to convert it to a room available for rental for parties or, Hawley says, art exhibits. Farther north than other Northeast spots such as the Sample Room and the Northeast Social Club, which have undergone similar transformations, Stanley's is a kind of "outpost for the arts and food and beverage communities," says Hawley.

Source: Carol Hawley, Stanley's
Writer: Chris Steller

On a sunny Sunday August afternoon last year, Leo Kim waded into the stream in downtown St. Paul's Mears Park for a new angle on a scene that had become familiar to him--maybe overly so--after many attempts at photographing it.

"What if I were a squirrel?" Kim asked himself. "What would I see?"

The resulting picture--an intimate view of natural forces set into motion in the city's midst--inspired Kim to embark on a nine-month quest to capture more images of surprising serenity within the city of St. Paul.

Now he's trying to raise $24,000 to publish a book of 96 photos he's calling "Saint Paul Serenity." That's twice what his earlier photo-book of North Dakota landscapes cost, but Kim decided he wants to keep the money in the local economy by using a Minneapolis printer instead of shipping the work overseas. An event on Thursday launches his fundraising effort, which he says is so far going more slowly than did the North Dakota project. He's hoping to get enough book orders to have "Serenity" printed by Christmas.

Kim, a professional photographer, lived in Minneapolis for 15 years before a 2005 move to Lowertown near Mears Park. He found he hadn't created a cohesive series of Minneapolis images--"Someday I will," he vows--but he readily discovered the serene scenes he went looking for around St. Paul.

"The city has done a great job with the landscape," says Kim, an immigrant of Korean heritage who came to Minnesota via Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macao, and Austria--not to mention time spent studying in North Dakota. He says he aspired to become an architect or city planner but couldn't bear to be in meetings. Instead, he seeks out St. Paul's wild side, often finding "I have the place to myself, only a stone's throw from downtown.

"It's amazing."

Source: Leo Kim, Leo Kim Photography
Writer: Chris Steller

Five hundred people packed the Riverview Theater last week to see the "Minneapolis Project 2010" -- a one-night festival of 24 short films about 22 places in the city. Most of the shorts were narratives that one way or another evoked the character of the neighborhoods in which they were set, says organizer John Koch.

The project is akin to recent efforts such as "Paris, je t'aime" and "New York, I Love You," says Koch, who contends that "any city could do this." But it's no one-off for Koch's nonprofit, Cinema Revolution--the same name as his former art-house DVD-rental shop in Uptown. "The Minneapolis Project" is Cinema Revolution's fourth omnibus film screening, a continuation of events that began during the six years Koch owned the shop.

The city's neighborhoods supply both the films' subject matter and their audience. "Most films are made with the broadest audience in mind," says Koch. But the aim of the 18 filmmakers participating in the Minneapolis Project was different: "creating films specifically for a local audience, knowing that a local audience would find value in it."

A moment in which that concept crystalized came during the screening of the project's lone animated short, "Urban Agrarian Woman," a film about the Powderhorn Park neighborhood by John Akre. At one point the heroine rides a flying bicycle past the tower of the former Sears store, now Midtown Global Market, on Lake Street. The audience's recognition of the local landmark was audible. "From that point they were invested in the idea," Koch says. "It's so rewarding to hear an audience of that size (respond)."

That kind of reaction is part of the appeal for the participating filmmakers, particularly those just starting out, for whom the project is important simply as an opportunity for hundreds of people to see their work. They paid $20 per film to participate, the money going toward a $500 prize for a winning film selected by audience vote (still underway online). Koch fronted the money to book the theater, gambling that the box office would cover his cost. Cinema Revolution will hold another group-film screening in December, "Dance Project 2010," with either a second Minneapolis Project or a St. Paul edition next summer.

"There's so much to say" for filmmakers creating narratives about neighborhoods, says Koch. He contributed three shorts of his own, about Dinkytown, Uptown, and Minnehaha Falls.

"I could make 25 shorts just about Uptown," he says.

Source: John Koch, Cinema Revolution
Writer: Chris Steller

Here are the films from "Minneapolis Project 2010," with links to those now available online. (Filmmakers were prohibited from uploading their contributions to the Web until after last week's screening.)

Minneapolis Project 2010 (trailer)

"We Major" by Brian Murnion - Downtown skyways

"The Lovers" by Brian Murnion - Gateway District

"Dischord" by Tyler Jensen and Jaime Carrera - Bottineau neighborhood and Boom Island

"Passing" by Tyler Jensen and Jaime Carrera - Loring Park

"Parade" by Tyler Jensen and Jaime Carrera - Powderhorn neighborhood

"Yesterday" by John Koch - Dinkytown

"Today" by John Koch - Minnehaha Falls

"Tomorrow" by John Koch - Uptown

"You. Me. Here." (trailer) by Corey Lawson - Nicollet Island

"Firmament Collapse" (trailer) by Allen Keating-Moore (Phillips neighborhood)

"Urban Agrarian Woman" (trailer) by John Akre - Powderhorn Park neighborhood

"Raw Honey" by Abdi Hassan and Gabriel Cheifetz (long version) - Cedar-Riverside neighborhood

"Claudia" by Stephen Gurewitz - Northeast

"Loon Lake Dance" by Dave Deal - Lake Calhoun

"Shudder 13" by Dave Deal- I-35W Bridge/Bohemian Flats

"The Gallery" by Todd Wardrope - Whittier neighborhood

"Transfer" by Todd Wardrope - Route 5 Metro Transit bus stop

"Free Puppies" by Dan Dockery - underground

"Band Box Diner" by Amy Mattila - Elliot Park neighborhood

"Wedge Walk" by Sam Thompson - Wedge/Lowry Hill East neighborhoods

"The Rescue" by Yoko Okumura and Elizabeth Mims - Kenwood neighborhood

"Air Conditioner" by Gabriel Cheifetz - Midtown Greenway

"shut(ter)" by Nathan Gilbert - Phillips neighborhood

"Lakewood" by Sam Hoolihan - Lakewood Cemetery

A broad, neighborhood-scale approach to rebuilding city neighborhoods hit hard by bank foreclosures has netted Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity the prize of an appearance by a former president and first lady.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are stopping in St. Paul and Minneapolis this week as part of the 2010 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. The Twin Cities are among only four urban centers the former first couple will visit during the national week-long effort.

In St. Paul's Payne-Phalen neighborhood and Minneapolis' Hawthorne neighborhood, thousands of volunteers will join forces to construct, renovate and do repairs on 26 homes. The high-profile event is meant to focus attention on the need for affordable housing--a need exacerbated in recent years by the wave of foreclosures.

"We serve the seven-county metro area," explains Nancy Brady, a vice president at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. "We do a lot of work in all communities that want us to work with them. In the wake of the foreclosure crisis, we focused on neighborhoods that were most impacted and partnered with those neighborhoods."

That means coordination with local government in each city, as well as neighborhood organization like the Hawthorne Area Community Council and the East Side Neighborhood Development Corporation.

With 14 events during the week, including opening and closing ceremonies, "this is our Olympics," Brady says.

Source: Nancy Brady, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity
Writer: Chris Steller

There's no getting around it: far northern Minnesota struggles through long winters. That's something architects and others in the construction industry can relate to, as they try to survive the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

One Minneapolis firm has kept the lights on during the recession by doing high-quality design work for a demanding client--the federal government.

Julie Snow Architects' new U.S. Land Port of Entry opened for business recently in Warroad, Minn. The firm has developed a relationship with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), a federal agency with a Design Excellence Program that puts architects' plans to the test through an unusual series of peer reviews.

"It's like being back in school," says Matt Kreilich, design principal at Julie Snow Architects.

Julie Snow Architects has designed a U.S. Port of Entry in northern Maine. Another GSA project is the U.S. federal office building at Third and Washington avenues South in downtown Minneapolis, where the firm is one of several contracted to plan renovation work.

The Warroad project has already won a couple of prizes, including a GSA design-excellence honor and a regional WoodWorks award for use of wood in an institutional structure.

The design's strong horizontals pick up the dominant lines of the region's flat landscape. Cedar cladding covers three buildings that are linked by covered walkways. The wood has a black stain on surfaces that are visible from afar for contrast in the snowy environment. But the walls that people are in close contact with carry a clear finish that gives the structures a warm glow, Kreilich says.

An early inspiration for the design was the truck traffic that moves through the facility, bearing loads of cut wood, light colored but with dark brown bark.

The building was designed to meet LEED Silver certification and the firm may go for Gold. Interior furnishings like benches and the reception desk are made with scraps of cedar left over from the exterior.

The design is meant to "add warmth in a cold climate," Krelich says. "Climate is such an important factor to designing buildings in Minnesota. The weather is extreme, severe and constantly changing."

Source: Matt Kreilich, Julie Snow Architects Inc.
Writer: Chris Steller

The unlikely pairing of local history with Segway rides has propelled tour operator Mobile Entertainment, LLC, to success in both Twin Cities. Marketed as Magical History Tours, the $80-per-person excursions are now in their seventh season in Minneapolis and second in St. Paul.

The appeal of joining the lines of "people on a stick" that snake through the downtown Minneapolis riverfront and the elevated outskirts of downtown St. Paul is a "yin-yang thing," says owner Bill Neuenschwander. People enjoy experiencing the novelty of Segways while they take in historic sights and stories.

Many people in other cities have tried to copy Neuenschwander's model but have fallen short, he says. He has tried 27 Segway tours around the country and found some to be joy rides minus the joy. Without the element of history-on-wheels, he says, riding at 12.5 miles per hour from Point A to Point B gets dull fast.

Last year, the St. Paul tours operated out of the Minnesota History Center. This year the Segways have a storefront of their own on Grand Avenue. Next year they'll move to another a couple blocks down the street. (The company will also begin offering tours focused on sculpture and architecture in downtown Minneapolis, and possibly outlying locations like Stillwater or Northfield.)

The tours have proved different in St. Paul, where the emphasis of the narrative is on the Who--colorful personages who populated the frontier town's blufftop Gold Coast, Summit Avenue.  In Minneapolis, Neuenschwander says, the focus is on the What--the technological advances that built the city's industries, especially flour milling.

At 7.5 miles long, the St. Paul tour takes as much time as Minneapolis but is a mile longer--a difference made possible by full-throttle travel on the flats of Kellogg Boulevard between Cathedral Hill and the state Capitol.

Elsewhere on the circuitous St. Paul route, the Segways take an off-beat path that cars, pedestrians, and bikes wouldn't or couldn't follow, Neuenschwander says.

From a Segway perspective, he says, "St. Paul is eclectic, gnarly, and kind of bizarre."

Source: Bill Neuenschwander, Mobile Entertainment, LLC
Writer: Chris Steller