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Colonnade office building in Golden Valley adds amenities

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Colonnade office building in Golden Valley adds amenities


Instead of heading home after finishing work this past Thursday evening, a group of colleagues mingled in their office building.

The extra hours at work weren’t on the clock, though. The group just conveniently didn’t have to leave the renovated Colonnade building in Golden Valley to have happy hour at a golf simulator.

Adding a bar and a place to practice swings were just a few of the renovations owners Eagle Ridge Partners and BLG Capital Advisors made in an effort to attract and retain tenants despite the prevalence of hybrid work.

“The goal is to lease,” said Betsy Vohs, the designer. “We want a really quality solution that works. It is not just architecture for the sake of architecture. If no one wants to lease here, what is the point?”

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This year, vacancy rates in Twin Cities office buildings reached 14.8% overall and 11.5% along the I-394 corridor where the Colonnade sits, according to data from Colliers, a commercial real estate services firm. The Colonnade building tells a different story, though.

The 355,000-square-foot suburban office space underwent $5 million of renovations in recent months. Now, the building boasts an occupancy rate of 99%, per the owners, and managed to attract and maintain tenants at unprecedented rates.

“Before COVID, you could get away with not investing in your building, and location alone might get leases signed,” said Caroline Heinlein, a senior director with Eagle Ridge Partners. “Post-COVID, employers are looking at their office space more critically and how the building’s common areas and amenities can attract their employees back.”

For Heinlein and Lisa Peterson, who also serves as a senior director at Eagle Ridge, investing in renovating the building was a necessary part of reducing the risk of high vacancy rates.

Realizing it was time to renovate, Heinlein and Peterson decided to hire Vohs, a designer, architect, founder and CEO of design firm Studio BV.

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“The building was built in the late [19]80s,” Vohs said. “The building was in good shape, but the design inside was still left over from the late ’80s. It hadn’t been touched since we renovated it.”

Prior to renovations, the main lobby and atrium consisted of a large water fountain that spanned the entire atrium and floor-to-ceiling pink granite tiling. Today, only the floors still sport the pink tiles, and in place of the “very loud” water feature, Vohs said, there are tables, chairs and couches for sitting, working or socializing.

“In a hybrid landscape, especially in the Twin Cities where the unemployment rate is so low, people want more than their office space,” Vohs said. “… They want a space that feels desirable where they can meet for coffee or meet up with their team. They want more.”

The Colonnade also features a tenant-only lounge and workspace as well as an outdoor patio. Tenants can reserve the spaces and host events for free.

Marc Flanders, a senior vice president and commercial banker at Bell Bank, has been one of the tenants in the Colonnade for more than a decade. He was one of those hanging out after hours Thursday and said he views the renovations of the Colonnade as part of a larger trend in the commercial real estate market.

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“It is really nice to be able to host an event within the building, and there is also free parking adjacent to the building, which is key,” Flanders said. “There were a lot of upgrades made to the building, and it lightened up the building quite a bit.

“More people are returning to the building, and people like to have a place to host and get together with coworkers without having to leave the space.”



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Minneapolis, MN

Minnesota weather: Gorgeous Sunday with a warmer Monday ahead

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Minnesota weather: Gorgeous Sunday with a warmer Monday ahead


A sunny and warm Sunday is in store for the Twin Cities, with even higher temperatures expected on Monday before a chance of rain and cooler air returns later in the week.

Sunday forecast

Local perspective:

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Sunday is starting with some cloud cover before sunshine moves in with highs near 70 degrees around the metro and southern parts of the state. 

Winds will be much lighter than Saturday, coming from the south at 5 to 10 mph with only occasional gusts up to 15 mph. 

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The Brainerd Lakes area will see temperatures in the 60s, while the North Shore will be cooler, which is typical for this time of year. 

Sunday’s weather is expected to be dry and pleasant.

Overnight, temperatures will drop to the upper 30s and lower 40s, with some clouds moving in ahead of Monday. 

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Extended forecast 

What’s next:

Monday could be the warmest day of the week, with highs in the lower 70s for the Twin Cities and some spots in southern Minnesota possibly reaching close to 80 degrees.

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Winds will shift from southerly to southeasterly and then easterly as the day goes on, but should remain light. 

After the warm start to the week, a cold front will move through on Tuesday, bringing a chance for a few rain showers in the early morning. 

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Temperatures will likely drop to the upper 40s by Wednesday and Thursday, with another front possibly bringing showers late Friday into early Saturday.

The rest of the extended forecast calls for temperatures close to or just below average, with highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s.

The Source: This story uses information from the FOX 9 weather forecast.

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Minneapolis, MN

Man found dead in south Minneapolis house fire

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Man found dead in south Minneapolis house fire


Firefighters are investigating the Minneapolis’s second fire fatality of the year after a man died in a house fire Saturday afternoon. 

Fatal fire on 28th Avenue South

What we know:

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According to the Minneapolis Fire Department (MFD), fire crews arrived shortly after 1:00 p.m. and found smoke coming from the second floor of a single-family home on 28th Avenue South. Bystanders alerted firefighters that someone might be trapped inside.

Crews had to work through heavy debris to reach the upstairs area. It took about 40 minutes to fully put out the fire.

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During the primary search, firefighters found a man in his 60s dead on the second floor. No one else was found after searching all the floors.

Minneapolis Animal Care and Control took in a dog found outside the home.

Assistant Chief Wes Van Vickle said, “The department is grateful to the neighbors who alerted fire crews that someone may still have been inside, allowing them to act quickly.”

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Fire safety reminders and community response

What they’re saying:

“This afternoon’s tragic loss of life weighs heavily on all of us, and we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” said Van Vickle.

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He also encourages the public to regularly check and maintain smoke detectors and fire extinguishers at home.

There were no other injuries reported. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner is working to confirm the man’s identity.

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What we don’t know:

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and the man’s name has not been released.

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Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump

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Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump


ST. PAUL, Minn. — Organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies across the country are predicting that the protests against the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration could add up to one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history, with Minnesota taking center stage.

Organizers say more than 3,100 events have been registered in all 50 states, with more than 9 million people expected to participate.

And they’ve designated the rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul as the national flagship event, in recognition of how the state where federal agents fatally shot two people who were monitoring Trump’s immigration crackdown became an epicenter of resistance.

Headlining that observance will be Bruce Springsteen, performing “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote in response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and in tribute to the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets over the winter. Springsteen’s Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, which has a “No Kings” theme, kicks off Tuesday in Minneapolis.

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Minnesota organizers have told state officials they expect 100,000 people could converge on the Capitol grounds, where last June’s event drew an estimated 80,000 people.

The St. Paul rally will also feature singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda,Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of other activists, labor leaders and elected officials.

The White House dismissed the nationwide protests as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.

“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

Rallies are also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. Countries with constitutional monarchies call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.

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For those unable to attend in person, another activist group, Stand Up For Science, is hosting a “virtual and accessible” event online.

National organizers told reporters in an online news conference Thursday that they expect Saturday’s protests to be larger than the first two rounds of No Kings rallies, which they estimate drew more than 5 million people in June and more than 7 million in October.

“This administration’s actions are angering not just Democratic voters or folks in big blue city centers – they are crossing a line for people in red and rural areas, in the suburbs, all over the country,” said Leah Greenberg, the other co-executive director of Indivisible. “The defining story of this Saturday’s mobilization is not just how many people are protesting, but where they are protesting,”

Two-thirds of the RSVPs have come from outside of major urban centers, Greenberg said, listing registration surges in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well in competitive suburban areas of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

“Millions of us are rising up from all walks of life, from rural communities to big cities at No Kings,” said Katie Bethell, executive director of MoveOn, another major organizer. “And as we do so, we will send the loudest, clearest message yet that this country does not belong to kings, dictators, tyrants. It belongs to us.”

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Copyright © 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.



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