Bizbeat: Businessman with a history expands to Hastings

Richard "Jake" Jacobson, known for painting his strip club pink after losing a decade-long court battle with the tiny city of Coates, is expanding his liquor sale business into Hastings.

Jacobson convinced officials in Coates, on Hwy. 52 near Rosemount, to let him reopen his former bar in November, but only for off-sale liquor sales. Last week, he won approval in Hastings to open an off-sale liquor and tobacco store in a vacant space adjoining the Spin City laundromat near Vermillion and 16th Streets.

"He's selling liquor without entertainment," said Mayor Paul Hicks, recalling Jacobson's strip club days. "He passed the background checks and did the insurance paperwork. I don't have any concerns ... It is off-sale."

Jacobson gained notoriety in arguing that his nude dancing club was protected by the First Amendment. He lost his court fight in 2002 and was ordered to pay the city's legal fees. He paid in coins -- 600,000 pennies he dumped on a sagging table at a Coates council meeting.

Then he tried to get a slate of candidates elected to City Council to gain a majority which would approve his strip bar.

Jacobson was charged in October 2002 with conspiracy to commit voter fraud for getting 94 patrons and friends to register using his Coates bar as their home address. But he was acquitted by a jury, whose verdict was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2007.

Hastings Clerk Melanie Mesko Lee said the council voted unanimously last week to approve licenses for Jake's Discount Liquors, whose request was on the consent agenda. Jacobson and a store manager sat in the audience.

Jacobson said he is expanding to Hastings so he can buy larger volumes of alcohol at lower prices to enable his two stores to better compete with chain liquor stores. He said he will remodel and hopes to open the 3,100-square-foot store by April.

"I think he's taking a new direction," Hicks said.

"I'm just trying to make money," Jacobson said. He said the off-sale liquor business was "more competitive, but less stress" than running strip clubs. He still runs a strip club in Bock, Minn.

Menards may supersize in Apple Valley

Some major developments are shaping up in Apple Valley near Menards and Home Depot, along Flagstaff Avenue and County Road 42.

Hebert's Apple Valley Business Campus is on the northeast corner of 147th Street and Flagstaff. The southwest corner is occupied by a Menards store.

Apple Valley plans to extend 147th Street this year from Flagstaff east to Johnny Cake Ridge Road.

The city Planning Commission voted 6-0 this month to approve Hebert's request to subdivide 27 acres of industrially zoned land into two lots and two outlots, Nordquist said.

The commission wasn't as enthusiastic about a request by Fischer Sand and Aggregate to rezone 25 acres from Sand and Gravel to Retail Business to prepare for a new Super Menards, Nordquist said. The new store site is south of County Road 42 and across Flagstaff from Home Depot.

"The Planning Commission is very concerned" about adding that much retail space at that location because it conflicts with city land-use guidelines, Nordquist said. He said the commission voted 4-2 against the request. Fischer told the panel he will address their concerns by suggesting project conditions that he will present soon, Nordquist said.

Lakeville Crossing gains a big tenant

Lakeville has landed a high-end recreation product retailer to fill the space vacant in the Lakeville Crossing shopping center since a Kowalski's grocery left in 2007.

Family Leisure expects to open this spring. It sells patio furniture, hot tubs, pool tables, games tables and similar items. The building, located near the corner of Cedar Avenue and 160th Street, is owned by Paster Enterprises.