Gang of Four: "Destroy Capitalist Lapdogs from Target!"

If there's been a success story in the Twin Cities, it's the journey of University Avenue over the past twenty years - from blighted, seedy strip to fairly thriving area; east of Lexington, waves of Asian immigrants have taken over whole blocks, and are renovating the place to a degree that amazes people who remember the area from the mid-eighties.

West of Hamline, the area is dominated by big box retailers - Rainbow, Cub, Borders, Menards, Walmart - who have brought jobs and retail to the area that most other city neighborhoods don't have. While there are legitimate economic concerns about the impact big box retailers have on small local economies, the fact is that nobody was moving businesses to the Midway before the Midway Center started expanding fifteen years ago. The center has played a pivotal role in the boom in jobs and property values that we've seen in the Midway in the last decade or so.

Of course, things like free-market jobs and property values make the Gang of Four on the St. Paul City Council - Jay Benanav, Kathy Lantry, Dave Thune and Debbie Montgomery - sad.

There's a Target store at Hamline and Uni; it's small and old by Target standards. Target is trying to upgrade these older stores in high-density areas to the new Super Target model - which earn a lot more per square foot (and, for those of us who buy food, has the best grocery prices I've seen among the majors) than the older, smaller stores. Target bought out a Sheraton that abuts its lot, with an aim to expanding their site.

And big expansion means big pork for the Gang of Four's big constituents.

They were close to a deal, y'see. And then...:

Council Member Jay Benanav asked to delay the vote one week on behalf of fellow Council Member Debbie Montgomery, who was huddled in her office with several Target representatives. The two spearheaded a last-ditch effort to win several commitments — such as set percentages of minority contractors — from the retailing giant in exchange for the right to build a 184,000-square-foot grocery and retail outlet in St. Paul's Midway area.

"If Target doesn't move off their current position, I'm not going to vote for it," Benanav said after the meeting. "I was sitting in the council meeting thinking it was done. … They had given up enough that I was ready to support it."

Benanav would not say just why the vote was delayed, but it appears to be over the wording of a resolution approving the deal.

Target representatives left City Hall without commenting, but the company released a strongly worded statement later in the evening.

"We are disappointed that at the 11th hour the City Council delayed approval on the site plan for the Midway SuperTarget. In our experience, we've never been subjected to such unrelated mandates placed upon a $30 million privately financed project," the company said, adding that it worked with the community and that the project would benefit the area.

"We have serious concerns when elected officials use that process to limit competition or pursue agendum that works to the detriment of the guests and communities that we strive to serve. … Further delays and such mandates will jeopardize this project."

Both sides are playing hardball, of course.

But it's going to be interesting seeing how this project proceeds.

Posted by Mitch at May 18, 2006 08:22 AM | TrackBack