Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
The fight to build the Lagoon project in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis is the toughest of his career, says Stu Ackerberg, president of the Ackerberg Group.
With Clark Gassen, Ackerberg wants to develop a parking lot behind the Lagoon Theater, and to re-do the theater property. They plan a residential-office-commercial complex with a public plaza, a new movie house and parking. The original, with 13 stories in the condo complex, was nixed by the city in July.
“I’m still really numb about it,” Ackerberg said when reached a few weeks after the city’s vote. He was confident going into the meeting because a one-time vocal opponent, the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood association, had signed on.
“We brought them from ‘over my dead body,’ to unanimous approval,” Ackerberg says.
Next, Ackerberg’s group convinced the planning commission to approve, after a lengthy and heated discussion, he says. But Mayor R.T. Rybak didn’t like the height.
Ackerberg says Rybak’s opposition was frustrating, because it was vague. “He said, ‘I just think it’s too tall.’ I said, ‘What would we need to do?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know. It’s just too tall,’” Ackerberg says.
In mid-August, Ackerberg presented redone plans, with a 10-story tower, for 112 feet, and three buildings total, not two larger ones. He believes the trouble is worth it for a project he calls “ahead of its time.” “We’ll get it done, but it was a really crappy experience,” he says. The next city vote is set for late October.
Reached in late August, Rybak said he hadn’t seen the latest version, “but I’m excited to and heard that it’s addressed some of the issues.
“Stu Ackerberg is one of the best developers in this community,” Rybak says. “My biggest issue with it was height. We’ve come to a middle ground on that.”
He says Ackerberg’s proposal was dramatically different from the zoning in place (six stories). “When somebody wants to change the rules mid-course, we can do that but not necessarily on his timeline,” Rybak says. “I was opposed to moving way beyond anything we’d had.
“We did what growing cities with good planning do,” Rybak says. “We aren’t desperate. We aren’t negotiating from our knees. We are pro-growth, and we have standards.”
Ackerberg calls the project a legacy to his late father. “We’ve been blessed to make a lot of money in Uptown. And I was born and raised in Uptown. This is giving back and doing the right thing.”
Stu Ackerberg, The Ackerberg Group: 612.824.2100; in**@*******rg.com; www.ackerberg.com
R.T. Rybak, mayor’s office, city of Minneapolis: 612.673.2100; **@**ls.org; www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us
