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Friday, May 21, 2010

A Matt Look email to me on concretifying a ditch at the failed town center site.

Matt wrote:

I never thought I would see the day when a progressive takes shots at building a new park.

Again, if you are going to blog about something....it might be within your best interest to get all the information before you stick you neck out (publicly) and get it stepped on.

1. Park dedication funds were paid by the residential units in Town center for the park they were promised, as part of the plan, before they bought in.

2. Park dedication funds cannot be spent anywhere else or on anything else, but parks.....not even park maintenance.

3. This park is the same park that was planned as part of the development.....that same park that Strommen loved and must have been ecstatic about when we approved it.

4. In the depressed economy in which we find ourselves, we are seeing request for proposals coming in as much as 30% less than they were coming in a year ago.

It would be completely insane to argue that funds expressly for this purpose should not be spent NOW, in light of the incredible value we are getting. Would it be better to generate .3% interest on the money and wait for the market to rebound and RFP goes up 30%?

Please tell me I misunderstood/read your blog?!!?


I may be missing something, but he does not seem to be saying that concretifying the ditck under Rhinestone at Town Center, and the cost of it, is sound, although that's implied.

How it will bring restaurants, all I care about since that is the promise made to me and the rest of the citizens, and Acapulco is the lone milestone that way, may it succeed.

But dropping more public cash down the rathole, why?

And an amphitheater is such a dumb idea I wonder whose brain fart it was, initially, while what i do know is the Met Council had a hand in things. It sounds like something Natalie and John Feges worked out together - that sound and that appealing.

Yet they are building it, and I look at it so far in the ground, and I want Russell Crowe at the dedication. That and the chained tigers and other fighters, all gala, all that. Or cap it and call it Thunderdome.

Dumb as dirt. And Matt, that step on the throat stuff, stuff it. My take on the situation is that you guys stepped on another anotomical part.

__________UPDATE_____________
Another email from Matt, this one can stand on its own, and in quick communicaiton, I don't mind the spelling detail, and I find the content worth reading - no neck stepping phrasing in the way here:

[...] You apparently are ranting about restaurants. For you information, 2 restaurants are coming to town center. Acalpoco (or however you spell it) and Wells Catering has plans drawn up for an upscale lunch spot.

Interesting enough, we did sit down with the owner of the old Vinyard, in an effort to entice him into Town Center. He wouldn't even consider it until there was more establishment/buildout.

It has been said that restaurants are now the new "anchor" concept for developments....ie they bring traffic. It used to be Target, however the paradigm has shifted. The problem is old school restaurant do not believe in that paradigm yet. Until they do, you will probably not have business owners assuming the risk of being first into a development.

Thought I would bring you up to speed on current event restaurant news.

John Dehen did not vote for the contract because he believes that we should not do anything and let the market decide. The reason we are trying to do something, is to build a concept that people can buy into.....build amenity into the project so as to sell a project....maybe to a large medical campus....who may be very interested in quality of life for employees. The market right now is willing to invest in something "special"...something unique. Same old is not selling today.

I tend to be a Laissez-faire market guy myself as well. I struggled with the contract, as to whether support or not. I do think with the right catalysts we will be able to be first in the running when the market softens. It is at that point that we need to have our ducks in a row in terms of what we want. I voted for the contract largely because I didn't think it prudent to plan when the market turns. The VA, possibly a large outdoor retailer, maybe a medical campus, could be the necessary catalysts to kick start the market, at least artificially in Ramsey

The concept I buy into is sit and wait and see what happens. If it remains a failure on the ground and you have cut your losses to what history's handed, it's better than a failure on the ground with more gambled on it.

You revise the Feges-folks' visions, you may simply have to pay again, revising the revisions.

My crystal ball says you could be front running the competition in a wrong direction, one the market does NOT choose, and what's your advantage then? Money is money, spent once, spent twice, and I doubt the Landform crystal ball is more certain than what you'd want to not be gambling with public money.

You can like the gamble in the abstract. But if it was your own money would you so freely give it to consultants?

____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
Let me summarize. I don't think there's much return to pushing on a rope, and neither Matt nor Bob Ramsey thinks that. The difference is I think it's exactly what they are doing, and they disagree.

Matt is correct, Bob told me and I forgot, not only is Acapulco committed and is almost installed and ready for business, Well's Catering has also committed to a dining site nearer to city hall.

Each is a benefit to have available. Every reader is encouraged to give them attention and patronage so that they succeed, prosper, and stay in business.

No disagreement over other things should detract from everyone being thankful for the two. And supportive in favoring them as a first choice, especially the nearer Ramsey Acapulco as an option to the Riverdale branch. Hopefully, their Ramsey site might prove to be quieter and a more restful place to dine than at Riverdale. Their food has always been excellent. I am unfamiliar with Well's but have heard positive things.

And everyone should realize that without enough business the venture will close. Canyon Grille, was a culinary asset that did not return enough business to continue, and we lost it. Whatever restaurants Ramsey attracts, we should want to keep. Ricebox, in the strip mall at Hwy. 10 and Sunfish Lake Blvd., is another asset readers should know of. Vietnamese cuisine. Very reasonably priced.

FURTHERMORE - I will concede a step further than Matt mentioned. There is the Subway sandwich shop, which I do not consider a restaurant but more a take-out. There is Caribou Coffee, which arguably fits the coffee - bakery scenario, but the range of sweet rolls is limited, bakery wise. But rolling those two into the other two, Bob and Matt have a point. There has been movement, and the Caribou and Subway were early entrants. If Well's Catering's restaurant outlet approaches the quality Canyon Grille offered in Coon Rapide before closing, that would be outstanding, and again, I have heard positive things about their quality and capability.

I will wait and see, and probably did the republishing and ranting prematurely and out of frustration dating back years beyond the original mid-year 2007 first posting to at least the Anoka County Union's reporting of May 2002 mailings about restaurant preferences. That is eight years ago. A long time frame. Only one sitting council member dates back to the Town Center Task Force cheerleading days.

Wells and Acapulco are fair milestones.

In hindsight I would not have pulled the trigger on the "restaurants" rant if I had slept with it unpublished and reread it in the morning.

FURTHERMORE - While the exact Anoka - Ramsey border is a bit funky at the Hwy 47 and Hwy 116 intersection, there's a Subway in that area and another Caribou, a Dunn Brothers, plus the Azteca restaurant which is excellent. Whether it's in one town or the other, it serves Ramsey, and residents should appreciate that. However, it has nothing to do with the Town Center promotion, and serves people particularly well who are closer to it than to the Town Center site. Finally, Ramsey does have the one soup and sandwich outlet at the daycare center on the north side of Hwy 5 where Sunfish Lake Blvd. has its north ending. I have never been there.

FINALLY - Margaret Connolly sent a helpful email, "I think the name of the deli by the daycare is Cubby's and we have stopped there and it was very good.  I hope people support it.  It remains interesting to me that the area of 47 has a nice area of businesses and more diverse business than town center without the government push."