Business briefs: Anytime Fitness changing locations in Mendota Heights

Anytime Fitness is moving from the Village at Mendota Heights to the other side of Hwy. 110 at the Mendota Plaza shopping center.

The fitness center's grand opening is scheduled for Monday. The gym will fill the vacant spot next to retailer Tuesday Morning.

The new space will be about 5,500 square feet, a step up from its 3,800-square-foot gym at the Village, owner Reid Bradley said.

"We're growing," he said. "We have more members, and we needed more space." In the past year, the gym's membership has increased by 20 percent, Bradley said.

Another reason for the change was the cheaper rent across the street, he said.

The move was sweetened by the recent decision by the Mendota Heights City Council to allow an amendment to the plaza's planned-unit-development agreement so the fitness club could operate 24 hours a day. Currently, most plaza occupants must close by 10:30 p.m. On its website, Anytime Fitness says it's the city's only 24-hour fitness center.

Paying members will have access to the new building all day with the help of key cards. It's important for the gym to offer its facility 24 hours a day because members have a wide range of schedules, Bradley said.

On Monday, the gym is offering incentives such as no enrollment fee and several free personal training sessions with new memberships.

Halloween shop given approvalA Halloween store was given the OK by the Burnsville Planning Commission to sell seasonal goods out of a former Menards site. The City Council still needs to approve the recommendation. The building at 3100 W. Hwy. 13 is still owned by Menard Inc.

For weeks, Halloween store Spirit Halloween was working on setting up merchandise in the vacant hardware store, but then it was informed that the owner needed a planned-unit-development amendment to allow the temporary store to operate.

"We were sort of caught in the middle here where we signed a lease with good faith, we put well over $250,000 worth of merchandise into the building and then found out that there was an issue," Dick Cohn, owner of Spirit Halloween, said at the planners' meeting.

Menard Inc. asked for an amendment to the planned-unit development (PUD) so the Halloween store could occupy the building until mid-November.

While some council members voiced concern that the property owner had not followed protocol, it was agreed that code enforcement would take longer than the Halloween store is proposing to be open.

Lunch to promote green effortsDakota Valley Recycling will host a business lunch with the theme "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ... and Reap Awards" at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center. The event will highlight the recycling department's Awards for Reduction and Recycling of Waste (ARROW) program and provide information for businesses in Apple Valley, Burnsville and Eagan about how to save money while going green.

Several environmental and waste-reduction groups will be in attendance, including the Recycling Association of Minnesota, Minnesota Waste Wise, Dakota County's Environmental Management Department and the Minnesota Technical Assistance Program. The keynote speaker will be Andrew Acho, former director of environmental outreach and strategy for Ford Motor Co. Lunch will be catered by Buca di Beppo. The event is $12 per person.