Biz beat: Lakeville adds senior housing

Work is scheduled to begin this month on Kingsley Shores Senior Living, a $17.6 million senior housing project along Kingsley Lake in Lakeville.

The three-story complex will have 23 independent-living units, 46 assisted-living units, 32 memory-care units and 58 underground parking spaces.

The project is being developed by a business entity of Winkelman Building Corp. of St. Cloud, which also has done senior housing facilities in Olivia, Forest Lake, Willmar, Chisago City, Becker, Monticello, Owatonna and Lonsdale.

The Lakeville complex will be managed by SilverCrest Properties LLC of St. Louis Park when its opens in the fall of 2013. The developers plan to deed to the city a 100-foot strip of public access along the lakeshore.

Doc Popcorn comes to BurnsvilleApple Valley entrepreneur Brian Morse recently opened a Doc Popcorn store in Burnsville Center, in a prime location on the first floor of the Macy's wing. Doc Popcorn features freshly made popcorn in a wide variety of flavors, including cheddar, jalapeno, sweet butter and cinnamon.

The store is the first for Morse, 38, who previously worked for Metro Transit and Northwest Airlines. "It was time for me to do something different, and I had long had a dream of being self-employed," he said. Morse said he checked into several different franchise opportunities, choosing Doc Popcorn partly because of its relatively low franchise entry costs and because "popcorn is something everybody likes."

The new store in Burnsville is the first of three Morse plans to open in the next couple of years. He said he's considering a variety of locations, including downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul as well as outstate communities like Rochester and Duluth.

Doc Popcorn was founded in New York in 2003 and later moved its headquarters to Boulder, Colo. The company's franchising program, launched in mid-2009, has resulted in more than 80 franchise agreements in 29 states, including Minnesota.

State offers flood reliefDakota County businesses and other entities that sustained damages in the storms and heavy flooding that struck the state in mid-June may be eligible for loans from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

The agency has $15 million in flood-recovery funding available under its Minnesota Investment Fund for businesses, cooperatives, utilities and nonprofits in the 15 counties and three tribal lands included in a presidential disaster declaration in July.

In addition to Dakota County, other eligible counties include Aitkin, Carlton, Cass, Cook, Crow Wing, Goodhue, Itasca, Kandiyohi, Lake, Meeker, Pine, Rice, Sibley and St. Louis, as well as the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

Eligible expenses include repairing buildings and replacing fixtures, equipment and inventory. The loans must be closed by Dec. 31, 2013.