Space Aliens to open Jan 26 in Grand Forks
The newest Space Aliens Grill and Bar location in Grand Forks, ND, is scheduled to open a week from Monday, on January 26. Space Aliens has seven locations in North Dakota and Minnesota.
When I drive by, I have been curiously watching the development of the building as it is transformed from a Boston's Gourmet Pizza, which closed last year after the building was purchased to make way for Space Aliens. The former Boston's building is being renovated and added on to, but I'm not exactly sure how it will look and how they will change it to include some of the outer-space themed architectural elements that make Space Aliens restaurants stand out. Here's a press release I received this morning about the Space Aliens opening:
Space Aliens Grill and Bar Set to Open on January 26
The new Space Aliens Grill & Bar at 3250 32nd Avenue SW in Grand Forks, will open to the public on Monday, January 26. It is the newest of seven Space Aliens locations in North Dakota and Minnesota.
"We think this is a huge opportunity," said Abe Sakak, Chief Operations Officer, who has been associated with the Space Aliens brand since 2006, "Space Aliens presence in Grand Forks will provide the residents with more family dining choices as well as job opportunities within the community."
More than 80 full-time and part-time employees will be hired to service the restaurant's total capacity of over 200 guests.
"The Grand Forks area and Space Aliens Grill & Bar are a perfect match," says Karsan McGillicuddy, general manager of the new restaurant. "Grand Forks is a great city of wonderful, friendly people. We are confident that our guests will love what we have to offer, and we're anticipating great success for this restaurant."
The new Space Alien's Grill and Bar will open at 11 a.m. seven days a week. The restaurant serves award-winning barbecue ribs, gourmet roasted pizza, giant stuffed baked potatoes and a large selection of sandwiches, salads and appetizer items.
"We have something for everyone on our menu," says McGillicuddy, "and we especially cater to children with our Galaxy Games arcade and Area 51 room for birthday parties."
Posted by: Schuster80 on 1/16/2009 at 10:36 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink
My new Prairie Business blog is up
Just a quick note to let you know that I have set up my new blog Prairie Pulse, which serves as the first blog in the history of Prairie Business magazine. Late last year I reluctantly shut down Biz Buzz after moving from a business reporter at the Grand Forks Herald to editor of Prairie Business. Feel free to check out Prairie Pulse. I hope you like it. I also added a link from the blog to an online survey to see what readers think of Prairie Business magazine, so feel free to also check it out and let us know what you think of the publication.
The new blog will be a little bit different than Biz Buzz, which focused mainly on Grand Forks-area business news, particularly news regarding changes to stores and restaurants in the Grand Forks area. The new blog will continue to focus on business news, but will have a bigger footprint, representing Prairie Business' readership, which includes all of North Dakota and South Dakota and part of Minnesota. It will also focus more on the economy and specific industries like energy and agriculture that help drive the regional economy. There will still be some retail news, but there will be less individual store/restaurant/shopping mall news.
Thanks for all the kind words that were expressed by readers of my last post. Unless something changes, this will likely be my final post on Biz Buzz. Thank you for reading and please check out Prairie Pulse and give it a chance as I slowly build it up.
Posted by: Schuster80 on 1/05/2009 at 1:47 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Farewell, Biz Buzz
I regret to report that I will no longer be contributing to the Biz Buzz blog. I started the blog a year ago and I enjoyed building it up and creating a healthy dialogue about local business news. Unfortunately I do not have the time to continue to work on Biz Buzz since I am no longer a business reporter for the Grand Forks Herald. In addition, much of the blog's content came as a result of information I learned through my beat responsibilities at the Herald. I have started a new job as editor of Prairie Business, a monthly magazine published by the Herald that covers business news and trends in North Dakota, South Dakota and western Minnesota.
It is my hope that editors and reporters at the Herald will at some point continue to post on the blog. I'm sorry that I will no longer be able to update the blog.
UPDATE (1/5/09): I have started a business blog at Prairie Business, though it will focus more broadly on business issues affecting the entire three-state region and will have less emphasis on Grand Forks retail news. Thanks for reading my blog.
-- Ryan Schuster
Posted by: Schuster80 on 11/08/2008 at 8:01 AM | Comments (27) | Permalink
Local layoffs on the rise
After avoiding most of the ill effects of a struggling national economy and the roller coaster financial markets, it appears that the local area is finally feeling some of the effects of the national economy's struggles. While the local area is still believed to be in better shape than the rest of the nation, we may face some more layoffs and minor contraction the rest of this year and next year. The long-term effects are not expected to be extreme locally, but falling oil and commodity prices don't appear to be good signs for the state's oil and agriculture industries.
Earlier this week Cirrus Design Corp. laid off 30 workers at its Grand Forks plant less than two months after the company laid off 29 employees at the plant. Including layoffs at its larger plant in Duluth, Cirrus has laid off about 20 percent of its work force since September. The Cirrus layoffs on the heels of the closing of the North American Foods (or RDO) plant and J.R. Simplot laying off 30 workers in August. Pugsley's in Devils Lake and Motor Coach Industries' Pembina plant have also had recent layoffs.
The recent layoffs are mitigated by the fact that there are more jobs than takers (more than 1,000 unfilled jobs in Grand Forks area, more than 14,000 unfilled jobs statewide). While some have questioned the quality of jobs and salaries and benefits being offered, Job Service North Dakota officials say there are good jobs out there and that those being laid off appear to be often landing in jobs that fit their experience with comparable salaries.
What do you think of the local economy?
Posted by: Schuster80 on 10/30/2008 at 8:32 AM | Comments (26) | Permalink
Darcy's Cafe reopens
Darcy's Cafe on North Washington Street in Grand Forks reopened today under new management after being closed for about a month (an update to an item in my previous post). Former UND hockey player Paul Murphy will manage the cafe and said he is in the process of purchasing it from the Fonder family (the transaction could be completed by early 2009). In the meantime Murphy is leasing the space and will be running the cafe along with two other employees with part-time help from his wife and mother.
Darcy Fonder, who owned the Bronze Boot and Darcy's Cafe, died in August 2007. Since Fonder's death, his family has run both businesses with son Terry Fonder overseeing operations at the Bronze Boot and hiring managers to run Darcy's Cafe. The Bronze Boot will not be affected by the changes to Darcy's Cafe and will remain open under its current ownership.
Murphy said he didn't expect much to change at Darcy's Cafe and that he plans to run it "for the long run." He said he will attempt to attract more UND students to the cafe with its affordable prices. Starting today, the cafe will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. After Thanksgiving it will also be open on Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
What do you think of the change in management and pending ownership change? Are you relieved that Darcy's Cafe has reopened? What makes Darcy's Cafe unique?
Posted by: Schuster80 on 10/23/2008 at 10:39 AM | Comments (11) | Permalink
Retail Rumblings
Just a few quick notes. I've been busy lately and I'm just getting around to these (I hope to have more for these in the Herald sometime this week):
-- The TCBY/Great American Cookie shop in the food court at Columbia Mall closed earlier this month. The mall's general manager declined comment about the reasons for the closing. No word on what will replace TCBY in the food court or when that might happen. My guess is the mall will add one or more food court tenants by the end of 2009 and will attempt to fill out the food court to coincide with the future renovation of the Target space (no further details have been released on that yet).
-- Darcy's Cafe on North Washington Street in Grand Forks has closed. A sign on the door of the popular cafe said it is closed "until further notice" and directs customers to eat at the Bronze Boot. I hear Darcy's Cafe will soon reopen under new management, but I don't have any details confirmed yet.
-- I wrote about this but never got around to blogging on it, the Beyond Juice fruit smoothie and sandwich shop by Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks opened earlier this month. A new teen and junior resale clothing shop called indigo also opened nearby on Aug. 19 in the former Curves space near Jimmy Johns. The new resale clothing shop will hold a grand opening on Friday and Saturday.
Posted by: Schuster80 on 10/20/2008 at 1:31 PM | Comments (19) | Permalink
UND student economic impact tops $180 mil
The annual economic impact of UND's student body on the Grand Forks metro area is an estimated nearly $183 million, according to UND's student senate. The estimate includes the impact of UND students attending classes on campus during the nine-month school year.
Student expenditures during the nine-month period, including child care, auto payments, groceries, shopping, entertainment, dining out, gas, textbook and supplies costs and electronic communications, total an estimated $101.7 million each year. According to the report, the student body also holds more than 5,000 jobs in the community and another 4,300 jobs on campus, further contributing to the economic impact numbers. Of course the true economic impact of UND on the local area and region is much greater if all the jobs and salaries of UND employees, not just students, spin-off companies, contracts with local companies, tax revenues, state and federal funding, impact of UND home athletic events on the economy, etc. were taken into consideration.
How big of an economic impact do you think UND has on the Grand Forks area? What would Grand Forks be without the university? It seems that UND has a much bigger economic, image and cultural impact on Grand Forks than NDSU has on Fargo. How much of a role can UND play in Grand Forks' continued growth and the further diversification of the local economy?
Posted by: Schuster80 on 10/20/2008 at 10:04 AM | Comments (9) | Permalink