By DON JACOBSON • Special to the Star Tribune
In a nod to both the city's history and future, Minneapolis marketing agency owner Scott Petinga plans to make a statement with a recently approved office-retail building to be constructed in the North Loop.
Petinga's growing Akquracy agency and other ventures will take up the office space in the 16,300-square-foot structure, to be named the Bickford in honor of the original 1850s settler. The three-story building will be at the corner of 5th Avenue N. and 4th Street.
But while he feels personally drawn to the history of the neighborhood, Petinga also says his $4 million project — a modern, green-certified mix of office, retail and coffee shop — is a substantial investment in the North Loop's future as a creative industry hotbed.
"I love the whole creative feel of what the North Loop is becoming," the 39-year-old cancer survivor said. "The way I look at it, it's the new creative powerhouse."
With the Olson advertising agency's move last year to the nearby Ford Center and the emerging presences of other creative firms, many of them located along Washington Avenue N., Petinga said the decision to remain in the trendy neighborhood was "an easy one."
Akquracy posted $6.1 million in sales in 2011, an increase of more than 200 percent over three years, earning it a spot on Inc. magazine's 2012 list of the country's fastest-growing private companies. It was ranked as the 20th-fastest growing Minneapolis-area firm. Petinga said in October that sales for Akquracy's data-driven marketing strategies were up 44 percent in 2012.
When the decision was made to move from the firm's current location at 800 Washington Av. N., Petinga said he first considered leasing space but couldn't find anything he wanted. Then, however, he passed by a vacant lot adjoining the Bookman Stacks condominiums, saw it was for sale, and decided, "I need to have it."