Bizbeat: Vintage Marketplace to open in Farmington

The merchandise that will be sold in the occasional sale shop soon to open in Farmington is "not your grandma's antiques," said co-owner Nancy Cauley.

Vintage Marketplace will be ready for business the first weekend of May. It will normally be open the second weekend of each month, Thursday through Sunday.

Vintage Marketplace will sell restored furniture and home decor.

Each month, shoppers should expect a changed store with different merchandise, Cauley said.

She said the shop will be "shabby chic," with store vendors taking inspiration from merchandise found in retailers such as Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn.

About a dozen vendors are going to sell their wares in the shop, Cauley said.

The Farmington store is located at 302 Oak St. It's taking the place of The Market on Oak, which moved.

A purchase agreement for the sale of the old Mendota Heights fire hall lot was approved by the City Council last week.

Plans call for the lot to be used by the Fischerville Coffee House to expand. The sale price is $50,000.

The land still needs to be rezoned from residential to allow B-2 commercial uses. At a later time, a project plan for the redevelopment of the lot will need to go before the Planning Commission and City Council.

City Council Member Ultan Duggan said he was pleased with the agreement, noting that the lot had been a "difficult piece of land that we've tried to sell for some time."

City Council Member Jack Vitelli agreed.

Mayor Sandra Krebsbach, however, voiced her concerns about the rezoning, saying that it wasn't appropriate for the site, which is near some homes.

Junk King wanting to expand to Burnsville and beyond

Got junk?

A new full-service junk removal franchise is coming to the Twin Cities area and wants to help with that problem.

Junk King, which uses the slogan "Just dump it!," is expanding in the Midwest and hopes to soon open its first five locations in Minnesota, one of which will be in Burnsville.

The company provides disposal service for a range of items, from old furniture and appliances to yard waste and automotive parts, and from both homes and businesses as long as the junk is not hazardous material.

The California-based company claims it has recycled as much as 90 percent of what it has collected in the last 16 months.

Junk King wants to open a Burnsville location once it gets a franchisee, said Liz Durkin, a Junk King public relations representative. It is also planning to open three locations in St. Paul and Minneapolis as well as a location in Woodbury. There are currently no definite plans for when and where Junk King will open those sites, however, as it looks for franchisee partners.

The franchise, which was founded in 2005, currently has 22 locations across the country.