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| Brigitte and Lon Feia
are partners in marriage and in ownership
of the Carmichael Centre business condominium
building set for construction. Photo by
Randy Hanson |
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Lon Feia discovered just how expensive commercial property
is in Hudson when he started looking for a new home
for his cellular phone store.
With land and construction costs at current levels,
it would have been too expensive for him to put up a
building for his small business alone, he says.
Presented with that dilemma, but unwilling to give
up on having his own shop, Feia thought of building
a condominium.
The idea has blossomed into the 23,838-square-foot
retail, restaurant and office facility planned for construction
between the Target store and Culver’s restaurant
on Carmichael Road.
The groundbreaking for the two-story Carmichael Centre
is set for Monday, May 9.
“We thought if we could do it as a condominium,
other owners of small businesses like us would be able
to own their own top-flight retail space at a fraction
of the cost of owning their own building,” Feia
said.
His partners in the project are his wife, Brigitte,
and brothers Chad and Branden McDonald of Hudson. Together,
they’ve formed a limited liability corporation,
CBL Partners, to develop the project.
Like other condominiums, the shops and offices of Carmichael
Centre will be individually owned, while the common
areas and exterior of the building will be jointly owned
by all the unit owners. The tenants will form an owners
association to manage the common areas of the building.
Feia said tenants also will be able to lease space
with the option to buy.
Most of the 11,642 square feet of retail and restaurant
space on the ground floor of the building is spoken
for already.
Feia said the group bringing a Bruegger’s bagel
shop to Hudson has signed a letter of intent to locate
in Carmichael Centre and is waiting for approval of
the site from corporate headquarters.
The restaurant would occupy a 3,637-square-foot space
behind floor-to-ceiling curved glass at the front of
the building.
The Bruegger’s franchise will be operated by
brothers Walter Jr. and Troy Longen of Hudson and Tom
Jenkins of River Falls.
A Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches franchise has
purchased a 1,514-square-foot unit on the ground floor
of the building, Feia reports. He said the owner and
proprietor of the franchise is Jeremy Cudd of River
Falls.
Also slated to occupy ground-level units are The Country
Store of Roberts and Feia’s own ExcellCom store.
The Country Store owner Cal Joski is planning a 4,658-square-foot
showroom for his line of home furnishings and Amish-made
furniture.
Feia opened his Hudson cellular phone store three years
ago. It’s currently located in a commercial building
at 206 Second St., across from the street from Econofoods
City Market.
He opened his first ExcellCom store in 1992. It is
located in a Maplewood, Minn., building that he owns.
A plan by Frisbie Architects of River Falls shows space
for seven office tenants on the second floor of the
building.
One of those will be a start-up company, e-buckmail.com,
that Feia and Chad McDonald are forming.
The business will transmit digital photographs taken
by a customer’s camera over the cellular phone
network to the company Web site, where customers can
view them.
The cameras are equipped with a motion detector that
commands a picture to be taken when deer or other game
happen by.
Feia says hunters are already using the “game
cams,” but have to return to the woods to collect
the images. He and McDonald have obtained a patent for
the system that will send the photos to the company
Web site, and then notify the customer by e-mail that
he or she has “buck mail.”
“It means you can monitor your deer stand or
your summer cabin from anywhere in the world,” Feia
said.
He said a total of seven spaces, including room for
an 1,800-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor,
are still available.
“We’d love to talk to professional people,” he
said. “We’re looking for people that want
to lease with the option to buy, or to buy. It’s
just a great location.”
The brick, glass and metal structure was designed by
Matt Frisbee of Frisbee Architects.
“We did not want another square box. We wanted
something that had some unique, but classic, designs
to it,” Feia said.
The section of curved glass extending from ground level
to the roofline provides a dramatic focal point for
the building. The stair-step-like footprint of the building
on the north side also is a departure from the routine.
Mayor Jack Breault and other members of the Hudson’s
Plan Commission complimented the developers on the appearance
of the building in recommending approval of the plans.
Feia said that as longtime residents of Hudson, he
and the McDonald brothers wanted to construct a building
that would be an asset to the city.
“We’re trying to build a community,” he
said of the future tenants. “It sounds lame, but
we really want a community of business owners that want
to control their own destinies.”
Persons interested in purchasing or leasing space in
Carmichael Centre should contact Feia at (715) 222-2442.
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