New poll: dog park

Time to change the Grand Forks Life poll again. First, let's take a look at the results of the old poll question. The question was "What would you like to see more of in downtown Grand Forks?" and there were a total of 64 votes. The most wanted addition to downtown appears to be "Stores" which received 31% of the vote. "Restaurants/bars" was another popular answer with 25% of the vote. "Housing" and "Offices" tied with each other by both getting 19% of the vote. Lastly, "Other" got 5% and "Galleries" got just 2% of the vote.

It's interesting to see that people seem to want stores more than anything else downtown (that was my vote, too). I might observe that several stores have opened up downtown in the last few years only to later close likely because of a lack of customers. My feeling is that these stores weren't exactly what people were looking for when the were talking about retail establishments in the downtown area. In my opinion, interested parties should take a look at what kinds of stores seem to go over well in other regional downtown areas and try to repeat the same formula in downtown Grand Forks. With the recent influx of restaurants and - especially - housing, it will be interesting to see if stores will follow suit by locating downtown. It seems like there will be more and more people living downtown in the near future and all of those people are going to need places to eat and places to shop...right? Guess we'll find out soon enough.

Time for the next poll. The new question is "Which GF dog park proposal do you support?". Make your voice heard on this important issue. Don't think that city leaders don't "lurk" on local blogs to try to gauge feelings on local issues. Cast you vote right now!

Shameless self-congratulation

Yippee, the popular North Dakota-based Say Anything blog just listed me on their blogroll. How nice of them! For me, this is a nice end to a very busy month on Grand Forks Life. As I write this, the blog has now had 9,719 visits and 19,128 page views since its start in October 2005. I should remind you that Grand Forks Life wouldn't be a reality if it wasn't for the readers and commenters out there. It makes blogging worthwhile when I see people actually reading and commenting on what I have to say. I never thought that a little blog created by yours truly would amount to much or that anyone would care to listen to me. I hope you'll continue to read GFL as I report on life as I see it in our fair city.

Newsbits: more downtown housing, Space Aliens, Mike McNamara

•Looks like there are more proposals for downtown housing. The Grand Forks City Council Finance/Development Standby Committee is meeting this afternoon to discuss "townhouses/apartments on University Avenue across from Augustana Lutheran Church and second phase of Brownstones". Looks like the developer is already talking about the second Elite Brownstones project which will be right north of downtown. I'm interested in the "townhouses/apartments on University Avenue across from Augustana Lutheran Church"...I haven't heard anything about this project before. Can't wait to hear more. It's amazing how much housing is coming to the downtown area.

Update - 6/1/2006
Tu-Uyen has some more information about the downtown housing proposals.

•Looks like the Space Aliens Grill and Bar chain is still planning to open a Grand Forks location...read more (scroll down to the bottom of the article to see the mention I'm talking about...and I wasn't aware of a new Minot location before reading this).

•Thanks to Tu-Uyen for pointing out to me that Grand Forks City Council candidate Mike McNamara has his own website. It would still be nice to see more of the candidates start blogging in these final days before the June city elections.

New strip malls

I was excited to see the article in Saturday's business section of the Herald about three new strip malls that will soon be coming to Grand Forks. Interestingly, the three malls are all being developed by the same developer - Dakota Commercial & Development - and will all open this fall.

•University Village strip mall (or "Service Village II", but that's an ugly name if you ask me) will be built across the street and to the north of the exisiting University Village strip mall (the one with Club Tan and Jimmy John's). The new mall will be a $2 million dollar, 20,000 square foot, two-story structure. Except for the second story, it should look pretty similar to the current strip mall at University Village. I'm curious if the second story will house offices or residential space. It would be nice to see some larger scale buildings in University Village with commercial on the ground floor and several floors of residential above. The name "Service Village" makes me think that Dakota Commercial isn't planning on this being much of a retail strip mall...more "service" businesses instead. The mall is supposed to have some sort of a coffee shop (I believe drive-thru) and it seems logical to picture Starbucks coming to University Village...at least that's my hope.

•"On 32nd" is a new one-story strip mall coming on 32nd...32nd Avenue, that is. It will cost $4 million and be 25,000 square feet. It will be in front of the new Kohl's store and directly west of Burger King. A Golden Corral restaurant was previously announced for this area, I wonder if the restaurant will be in the strip mall or what? Perhaps Golden Corral will be farther west...closer to 34th Street and Culver's. This strip mall will be the one built in the busiest location so look for "On 32nd" to have some pretty good stores/restaurants. I would like to see a Panera Bread or maybe another Caribou Coffee.

•"Cottage Growth" (or was the article supposed to read "Cottage Grove"?) will be a two-story strip mall on South Washington across from the new Aurora Medical Park/Stadter Center development. This area seems to be really heating up. A Wells Fargo bank and a new Valley Dairy also appear to be on there way to this neighborhood. The strip mall will be 46,200 square feet and cost $6.2 million. This is a pretty big development and it will be interesting to see what comes to such a new part of town. Maybe another Starbucks? And yes, I love Starbucks. Have a problem with that?

Any opinions on what you would like to see come to any of these new strip malls? I'm thinking we could be getting some good new restaurants or smaller stores with around 90,000 square feet of new strip malls. Exciting to see more commercial growth in Grand Forks.

Introducing: Newsbits

This is the first installment of what should become a regular feature here on Grand Forks Life. Some of you will probably recognize it as a blatant imitation of Tu-Uyen's "Quickies" from his City Beat blog. I like the idea of being able to post something about many different topics without having to say so much about each topic. In the past, I have skipped posting about a topic just because I thought the post would be too short. This way, I can group together a couple of different mini posts (maybe related, maybe very unrelated) into one bigger post. I also like having a section like this where I can put up links to some of the more interesting topics that other area bloggers are talking about...it never hurts to do a little linking between blogs from time to time. I'm not 100% sure about the name "Newsbits"...any other ideas or is this decent? I thought of "GrandForksGuy's Briefs", but that just sounds naughty...funny though, huh?

So here goes...

•Tu-Uyen has put up a couple of interesting posts about the upcoming city elections in Grand Forks. Check out this post to see how the candidates score on the ever important conservative/liberal scale. Looks like we have a pretty conservative bunch of candidates. Most conservative: Peder Rice. Least conservative: Tom Potter. Tu-Uyen also has a poll going to see who people think will win in the two competitive wards. It will be fun to see if his results mirror the election results.

By the way, does anybody else get a kick out of the fact that Tom Potter's wife is "Weezie"? I always think of a "deluxe apartment in the sky" when I see that name. In my book, Potter should get props for being the candidate with the best spouse's name.

•Ward 2 candidate Peder Rice has his own blog. The lack of posts makes me think that Peder must be busy hitting the pavement campaigning instead of blogging. Anyways, it's interesting to see a candidate with his (or her) own blog. I would have been happy to see some of the other candidates follow suit. For that matter, it isn't too late...start blogging, candidates!

UND's second largest gift ever

As you're probably aware, this past week, the UND Foundation received their second largest gift ever (right after Ralph's $100 million). The Danley Gift is valued at $10 million and is the bulk of the estate of the late Roy Danley and Elnora (Hopper) Danley. Unlike a lot of big donors, the majority of the Danley gift is not designated for a specific major building project or program. Instead, only $1 million is already programmed for several smaller projects and the remaining $9 million can be used for whatever UND deems "priority needs".

I'm pleased to see that Mrs. Danley's love affair with the natural beauty of the UND campus led her to donate money for several projects in the vicinity of the English Coulee.


The Adelphi Fountain at UND is a century old, but it has been in shameful disrepair for years. To me, it has always seemed to be such a logical symbol for the campus and I'm so happy to see a former student felt the same way. I can't wait to see what the fountain will look like after a thorough restoration project.


The Memorial Wall is a campus project that got plenty of discussion over the past school year, but there didn't really seem to be a push (or funding) to get the project going. Now, the Danley gift will be funding this wall. The wall will memorialize members of the UND community that have died while at UND...one rather prominent figure comes to my mind.


Another interesting project that the Danley gift will be funding includes a new ecumenical "Spiritual Center" near the Memorial Wall and the Adelphi Fountain. It will be used for "meditation, prayer, small worship groups, and weddings." Should be an interesting addition to campus. Its look reminds me a bit of the prairie churches that used to dot the local landscape of the Red River Valley.

Other projects that the Danley gift will be funding includes a garden at the entrance of the new Wellness Center and a "Quiet Room" in the Wellness Center. The quiet room appears to incorporate a labyrinth.

It will be great to see these projects dot the campus landscape in the next few months. It's also going to be very interesting to see what UND determines is a "priority need". Funding for a Division I move? A new indoor running track? I personally would like to see the gift spent on something other than athletics for a change. I can think of many "priority needs" around campus.

Canad Inns to build in Bismarck?

Canad Inns, the Winnipeg-based hotel chain that is currently building a $50 million dollar, 200 room, 13-story hotel and waterpark complex adjacent to Grand Forks' Alerus Center, is now proposing to build a $50 million dollar, 260 room, 16-story hotel and waterpark complex adjacent to Bismarck's Civic Center. Canad Inn's interest in the Bismarck market was first mentioned on Grand Forks Life in early February of this year...check out that post here.

I must say I'm a tad surprised to see Canad Inns proposing to build a project in Bismarck that is so similar (actually...even bigger) to what is currently under construction in Grand Forks. I thought our "destination center" was going to be such a unique thing for a city in a state like North Dakota? I thought that people would come from across the state to visit our waterpark because there would be nothing else like it anywhere else in the state? That is pretty much what Canad Inns said in the past when they were proposing the Grand Forks complex, but now they turn around and propose basically the same project in Bismarck. Hmmm.

Why such a big project connected to a facility like the Bismarck Civic Center? It is smaller than the Alerus Center or Fargodome and gets far fewer events. It is also much older than a facility like the Alerus Center and doesn't have the same level of familiarity or popularity throughout the state and region like the Alerus, Engelstad, or the Fargodome do.

When I think of the long road it took for Canad Inns to actually start construction in Grand Forks, I think I'll believe this project when I see it.

Bismarck Tribune articles about the proposal:
Canadian hotel pitches Civic Center plan
Canad outlines hotel's features

Prairie Pundit

Looks like the Grand Forks Blogosphere is growing. Tom Dennis, editorial director at the Grand Forks Herald, just started his own blog, Prairie Pundit. Looks like he will be blogging about local topics and his apparent Dunkin' Donuts fetish.

I'm curious, is this going to replace the Herald's editorial blog, Northscope?

Either way, I look forward to reading Prairie Pundit and I hope all you Grand Forks Life readers will too. Welcome to the Grand Forks blogging community, Tom!

$$$ for UND?

Rumor has it that there is going to be a very big announcement made on Thursday about a major donation to UND. Supposedly this will be the second largest donation to UND ever, right after Ralph Engelstad's $100 million. Stay tuned for more coverage.

Update - 5/25/2006
UND is getting a $10 million dollar gift from the estate of Roy and Elnora (Hopper) Danley who attended UND in the 1930s. $1 million will go to various campus projects including restoration of the Adelphi Fountain, construction of a spiritual center, construction of a memorial wall, construction of a "quiet lounge" in the Wellness Center, and a memorial garden at the entrance of the Wellness Center. The other $9 million will be used for "priority needs" according to President Kupchella. Read more here.

BIG news about Altru

Altru Health System of Grand Forks announced on Tuesday plans to soon start a new building project that will total $100 million dollars worth of expansion and remodeling of the Altru medical campus and result in the hiring of 38 new physicians and 400 other medical personnel.

Few of you may remember this because I wasn't getting as many readers way back then, but I first mentioned such a project on Grand Forks Life in late December of last year. At that time, I only knew that Altru was talking about what I thought was a $40 million dollar project of some sort...who could have imagined a $100 million dollar project? That's one Ralph Engelstad Arena or two Canad Inns...take your pick, either way the scope of this monumental project should be clear.

This is BIG news...some of the biggest we've heard for Grand Forks in the last few years. The press release from Altru states that the project will "touch on virtually every area of the Altru campus." The face of healthcare is going to be forever changed in Grand Forks.

Some of the projects mentioned:
•"renovation and re-engineering" of the hospital
•"renovation and re-engineering" of the clinics
•a new "ambulatory surgical center"
•expansion of Altru Cancer Center
•expansion of heart and vascular services
•an investment in cutting-edge technology
•an electronic medical records system
•renovation of satellite clinics in the region

Besides the many proposed building projects, the other thing that shocked me when I first heard the news and excites me now is plan for so many new positions: 400 new medical personnel and 38 new physicians. The average salaries for the medical personnal will be $40,000 and we all know how much doctors make...this is going to be a huge economic boost for Grand Forks.

I see Grand Forks residents no longer having to travel 70 some miles down the interstate for certain procedures. I see Grand Forks becoming more and more of a healthcare center.

Something else that still makes me think is the fact that there is a real possibility that the Stadter Center/Aurora Medical Park on South Washington Street (that's what they're calling it, by the way...the Aurora Medical Park) could evolve into a whole new healthcare system with their own hospital. It could happen. I wonder if Altru's announcement changes plans for the developers of that complex.

One report that I saw on tv mentioned that Altru's construction projects would begin soon and another report said that some remodeling projects have already started. I have noticed construction equipment in the rear of the Altru campus recently. It looks like the first phase of this project should get underway in earnest before too long.

I have to say that I'm very impressed with Altru's level of commitment to the community. It makes me feel good when I see a company like Canad Inns willing to spend $50 million dollars on a Grand Forks project and it makes me feel great when I see an organization like Altru willing to spend $100 million dollars on a Grand Forks project. These two entities seem to have plenty of faith in the future of our fair city.

Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting project. I can't wait to see some sketches of some of the proposed building projects.