2012-06-01 Eagan Business NewsSecond Quarter 2012 Vol. 11 No. 2
Business ews
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JOURNAL OF THE EAGAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY
Restaurants welcome
business -friendly rules and regs
Perhaps you're a regular at
Panera Bread at Promenade
Place, picking up Wednesday
morning bagels for coworkers
or dropping by for leisurely
Sunday mornings with family,
indulging in croissants.
Well, don't look now, but that
casual restaurant is becom-
ing a fast-food eatery. What's
changing? Panera is simply
adding a drive-through.
"Clearly, today Panera is a
casual restaurant," says
Mike Ridley, City Planner for
Eagan. "But when drive-
through service is added,
the question is, will the new
regulations define it as a fast-food restaurant?
Yes, they will."
A Panera drive-through will likely please many hungry, on -the -go
patrons like William Fairbanks, served here by Janet Schueller. It will
also change the restaurant's classification from "casual" to "fast food."
m� While restaurant categories make no
difference to customers, categories clarify
expectations for city officials, restaurant
owners and developers.
Previously, Eagan restaurants fell into two
categories, "Class I, which was more formal,
sit-down restaurants, and Class 11, which was
more typically a fast food type," explains
Ridley. "Today, it's more and more difficult
to fit new restaurant concepts, say Chipotle
and Noodles and Company, into one of those
two categories." In addition, old city code
defined restaurants differently than Class I
and Class 11, which made it extra challenging
for everyone involved.
Now that's all changed. In May, the City
Council discarded the two classes of
restaurants, redefining and expanding the
list of restaurant types. Now, there are four
types: full-service, casual, fast food and
delivery/take out.
Existing restaurants are unaffected, but
"when restaurant owners and developers are
doing legwork to determine the best location
for a new restaurant, city code will be much
clearer," Ridley explains, adding that while
fast-food restaurants must participate in a
public -hearing process, alcohol -free casual
restaurants do not have to take that step.
Alcohol licenses easier to get, too
In addition to changing restaurant definitions,
the City Council also modified alcohol license
rules. Now a restaurant no longer needs to
earn 50 percent of its revenues from food
continued on page 2
Second Quarter 2012
Restaurants continued from page 1
sales or seat 50 guests at a time to obtain an
alcohol license.
JOURNAL OF THE EAGAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY
"At the end of last year, we discovered three Eagan
restaurants did not meet the requirements of the 50
percent rule," says Christina Scipioni, City Clerk.
"We wondered if the old requirements still met the needs
of the community and the expectations of the City Council
We brought these requirements to the Council for review,
and they chose to make these business -friendly changes."
Previously, in order to obtain an on -sale wine and/or
beer license, a restaurant not only needed to satisfy the
50 percent food -sales and 50 -seat requirements, but it
needed to provide reusable dinnerware and partial meal
service by wait staff.
No more: Now a restaurant categorized by the new
"casual" definition can obtain a wine and/or beer license if
it meets new requirements. For a beer license, there is no
seating minimum; for a wine license, the State of
Minnesota requires at least 25 seats. The State also
requires at least 30 seats for Sunday on -sale alcohol
licenses.
"Especially for the casual restaurant, the ordinance
amendment brings us more in alignment with what other
cities are requiring," says Scipioni.
According to the new definition, a casual restaurant is
"an eating facility where customers place their order at a
counter and either the customer takes the food/beverage
to a table or wait staff serves the food/beverage at the
customer's table for on -premise consumption. Accessory
use may include take-out food service. No drive-through
service is provided."
If you own a restaurant and are interested in pursuing
an alcohol license, please contact the City Clerk's office
at 651-675-5034. ■
Q&A What skills are the hardest to find in potential employees?
Jackie Chase
Senior Vice President,
Human Resources,
Prime Therapeutics
Prime hires a number of different profes-
sions, but we have the biggest challenge
finding qualified applicants for IT positions
due to the shortage of available IT talent in
the Twin Cities market. Attracting good technology profes-
sionals is key to our ability to serve our members, and we
considered a number of locations outside of Minnesota but
found the best talent pool here. Prime has been flourishing
in this tough economy to the point where we've been hiring,
on average, 50 to 60 new employees per month, including
IT positions, business analysts and pharmacists.
Diane Kaufman
Senior Vice President,
Global Human Resources,
Ergotron '
Finding the right people has been
significantly strengthened with Ergotron's
"People Mapping" program, making the
right hire much less difficult. Ergotron relies
on our own great employees to find potential
new employees. Much more than a referral program,
2 Eagan Business NEWS
People Mapping is part of the company strategy
and culture.
When we need a skill set for a specific position outside of
our existing talent, we use this networked database of
known talent. Compared to past years, our hiring time is
under 30 days and our turnover rate has been reduced
significantly. The numbers, plus our productivity and
performance, demonstrate our success. We tell others:
Use your own outstanding talent to find future talent.
Jeff Zibley
General Manager
Catallia Mexican Foods, LLC
Important factors we look for include being ti
a team player, focusing on satisfying and
meeting customer expectations, attention
to details, problems solving, and an interest `" ;'
in continuous learning. These are important
skills and some of the more difficult skills to find
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JOURNAL OF THE EAGAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY
Is your business (nearly) fireproof?
Most business owners, like most homeowners,
never think a fire will happen to their properties.
Unfortunately, that's not the case.
Just ask restaurant owners Rick Casper of Casper's
Cherokee Sirloin Room or the Ansari family
of Ansari's Mediterranean Grill & Lounge. Both
experienced ravaging fires last year; thankfully,
neither fire resulted in loss of life, and both
restaurants have reopened, welcoming back loyal
customers — albeit months later.
"In this day and age, everything is so sensitive,"
says Eagan Fire Marshal Darrin Bramwell.
"Business owners say sometimes if you're even
down for a day, it can be devastating."
Bramwell has worked with Eagan's Fire Department
for nine years, four of them as an inspector, focusing
on existing buildings. In his new position, he spends
more time on new buildings and remodels, working
with builders and contractors.
"I understand with existing businesses that business
happens and habits start," he says. "With new busi-
nesses, we can help them establish good habits."
Second Quarter 2012
Bramwell welcomes calls from Eagan business own-
ers and is glad to make onsite visits and offer advice.
"Don't hesitate to call," he says. "We're here to work with you."
He notes that business owners want to do what's expected of
them. "When we write up correction orders — maybe an exit sign
light is out or a sprinkler system hasn't gotten its annual inspection
— we give a minimum of 30 days to correct. Most businesses
are responsive and make corrections in a couple of days."
Bramwell also appreciates when business owners moving to
Eagan contact him. "We help them understand storage
arrangements, maximum allowable quantities of hazardous
materials and other Minnesota Fire Code issues."
In the case of Ansari's, the fire broke out above its sprinkler
system and sprinklers did little to help. In contrast, Casper's
sprinkler system helped prevent the fire from gutting
the business.
"We've had some great sprinkler saves," says Bramwell, who
calls sprinklers "very popular among business owners."
At a warehouse on Apollo Road, "some flat cardboard stock
was piled too close to radiant heat and started the pallet on
fire; the sprinkler system controlled the fire and put it out.
In another case, at a mattress store, a light fixture broke and
hot glass fell on a mattress, starting a small fire, but sprinklers
put it out by the time we got there."
To improve your business's fire -prevention strategies, Bramwell
recommends visiting the City of Eagan's website for general
information on prevention and ordinances, City of Eagan's
Facebook page to interact with staff, and the State Fire
Marshal's website, https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/sfm, for fire
codes, checklists, programs and more. "It's a wonderful
resource," he says, "providing a wealth of information for
the public and for fire marshals." ■
Basic questions to ask:
• Are your exits clear of obstructions — both for employees
and firefighters should a fire arise?
• In the winter, has snow been cleared from emergency exits?
• Are batteries in emergency lighting in good working order?
• Is storage kept at the proper distance — from 18 inches to
three feet, depending on facility — from sprinkler heads?
• Do you have non -water-based solutions, i.e. inert gases and
chemicals, also called clean agents, to extinguish fires in
computer rooms, electrical rooms, generator rooms, etc.?
• Do you have proper and well-maintained receptacles for
cigarette disposal?
® EBN is printed on paper which contains a minimum of 10% post consumer fiber. Eagan Business NEWS 3
City of Eayn
3830 Pilot Knob Road • Eagan, MN 55122
Briefly
• PEOPLE: Atina Diffley shares her organic farming experiences
in Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works (University of
Minnesota Press); she and husband, Martin, owned and operated
Gardens of Eagan for more than 20 years.... Blue Cross and
Blue Shield has made several new appointments: Scott Johnston,
vice president, associate general counsel and assistant secretary;
Lori Nelson, vice president of network management; and
Jamie Rice, senior vice president, chief financial officer....
Eagan Realtor Melanie Willy was featured in an episode of HGTV's
House Hunters this spring.
• BUSINESS: Eagan -based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of
Minnesota will pay back state and federal governments $9 million
because of a cap on health plan profits during 2011.... Eagan's
DeCare Dental plans to double the size of its Gilbert, Minn., dental
benefits facility and add up to 120 jobs.... Emergency Physicians
Professional Association plans to open "The Urgency Room,"
a combination urgent care clinic and emergency room, at 3010
Denmark Avenue this fall.... Gopher Resource provided compost
for the YMCA's new community vegetable garden in Eagan, while
Thomson Reuters provided assistance with a tractor, rototiller and
fencing; vegetables grown here will be distributed by Eagan
Resource Center..... Liberty Property Trust, based in Pennsylvania
purchased one of the Eagan Pointe Business Center buildings —
a 117,000 -square -foot facility at 3169 Dodd Road — for $8 million
from American Realty Advisory.... Eagan's City Council approved a
4 Eagan Business NEWS
Standard
U.S. Postage
PAID
TWIN CITIES. MN
Permit No. 4902
plan by Minnetonka -based Oppidan to redevelop a vacant gas
station and car wash into a retail center (at Rahncliff Road and
Rahncliff Court) with four yet -to -be -named tenants.... To celebrate
25 years in business, Sovran, a technology and services provider,
will host "TechFest 2012: Time Capsule" on Thursday, June 14, at
1 p.m., at its Eagan headquarters; to register, visit www.sovran.com.
• GOVERNMENT: Tom Hedges, who has served Eagan for
35 years as city administrator, was one of two individuals named
communicator of the year by the Minnesota Association of
Government Communicators. "It's truly an honor to be recognized for
one's life work," Hedges told the Pioneer Press. "My career has been
dedicated to open communications with residents and the media."...
Business -focused legislative update — signed bills: a bill
authorizing a new $975 million Vikings stadium; a $496 million public
works bonding bill that includes $44 million for restoration of the
Capitol plus other state-owned buildings; a bill making any settlement
agreement that includes a public -employee payout available to the
public; a bill that speeds up state permitting to make it easier for
companies to quickly build or expand operations; a bill that gives
developers more flexibility to build near wetlands; and a bill that
requires independent third -party audits of HMO health plans beginning
in 2014. Vetoed bills: a scaled-down tax bill benefiting businesses;
a bill to lower, then phase out, state business property taxes; a bill
allowing the sale of powerful fireworks in Minnesota. ■