U

Popular Articles

Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

read more
Informer
by Beth Ewen
March 2003

Related Article

Planning

Read more

Padilla’s New Office Space

Padilla Speer Beardsley
CEO says new HQ
worth the cost

The floors are heated in the two-story atrium, with floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. The gas fireplace in the lobby, the recesses for treasured art pieces, the white-noise system in the 37,000-square-foot headquarters of Padilla Speer Beardsley — they all scream “gorgeous” to visitors and probably “expensive” to business owners.

But Lynn Casey, chairman and CEO of the public relations firm, says increased costs are well worth it, about a year after they first moved in. The firm’s 80 or so employees were housed in two Georgian mansions in Minneapolis for years, as well as in St. Louis Park and in St. Paul.

“Not only were we physically out of space,” Casey says, “but the history of the firm was in those two mansions. The future wasn’t.”

Casey challenged its real estate adviser, Keewaydin Real Estate, to get a space that looked to the future and kept the neighborhood feel. Keewaydin eventually approached the Minneapolis Community Development Agency and developer Ryan Cos. “We are the lead tenant and Ryan owns it,” she says about the building at 1101 West River Parkway.

Her advice for others looking for new space: “I would say, be bold. Be true to your company’s culture and how you operate best within your organization. “The atrium is the embodiment of that philosophy. It’s a lot of open space and it could have been better used financially. But does it make a difference in the wellbeing of PSB-ers and our clients? Absolutely,” Casey says.

“Think carefully who you need to involve, why and at what points in time,” she adds. A committee of employees worked closely with architects throughout the two-year process. Cost is comparable to other Class A space, she says, and higher than the old digs. “We took a deep breath when we were cost comparing. But the psychological cost of too many people too little space, you can’t calculate that,” Casey says.

Lynn Casey, Padilla Speer Beardsley: 612.455.1700; lcasey@psbpr.com

Events

Beth Ewen

Informer Articles

Class in session

Onsite testing lab improves fortunes for Swat Solutions

About five years ago, the owner of Swat Solutions decided to invest in an onsite lab, in Plymouth, to perform quality assurance testing of software for customers. Today that decision is paying off, says John Fox, vice president of professional services.

Flush from Lighthouse1 sale, '07 Upsize Business Builder starts Storyworks Media

"Consumers out there are really confused," says Jeff Fritz, about employees who more and more often these days must choose a so-called consumer-driven health plan. "We in the industry think we have the latest and greatest products and services, but consumers are just dumbfounded.