mankato - Connect Business Magazine

September 1, 2009 Daniel Vance

KOSA, Office Space Design, Pheasant’s Ridge

Le Sueur: KOSA, Inc. – Sandra and Jorge Brenes have turned love into a full-time business teaching Spanish.

Mankato: Office Space Design – “I found there wasn’t really anyone competing here in office furniture and design, so I developed my own business plan.”

St. Peter: Pheasant’s Ridge Memory Care Center – “We realized there was a need for assisted living for seniors in St. Peter. From there, we opened a building with 16 assisted-living units three years ago.”

Feature Story

July 1, 2009 Carlienne Frisch

All Pro Media

Although not knowing it, movie producer George Lucas is responsible for the creation and growth of a video production company in Mankato. Rob Petersen, co-owner of All Pro Media LLC, saw his first Star Wars movie in 1977 and said, “I want to do that.

Hot Startz!

May 1, 2009 Daniel Vance

Between The Bridges Healing Center, Cooks & Company, ISJ Regional Women’s Imaging Center

Mankato: Between The Bridges Healing Center – Earlier this year, Dr. Jeff Kotulski began Between the Bridges Healing Center in the former ProGrowth Bank building at 45 Teton Lane.

St. Peter: Cooks & Company – Veteran retailer Carol Hayes moved Cooks & Company last October to 316 S. Minnesota.

Mankato: ISJ Regional Women’s Imaging Center – Chief Radiologist Dr. Michael Wolf helped open the ISJ Regional Women’s Imaging Center in January 2009.

Hot Startz!

March 2, 2009 Daniel Vance

Olive Leaf Pantry, DCS Fitness, WOW! Zone

Fairmont: Olive Leaf Pantry – Selling hard-to-find grocery, dairy, and frozen items benefiting people whose bodies can’t tolerate gluten, lactose, nuts, eggs, soy, tree nuts or other foods.

Mankato: DCS Fitness – “I decided I wanted to begin competing in figure and bodybuilding—that’s what started the idea of opening DCS Fitness.”

Mankato: WOW! Zone – Over the last six years, Pam and Doug DeMarce were regularly discussing “doing something” because of their running out of space on Victory Drive to expand.

Cover Story

March 2, 2009 Daniel Vance

Robyn Waters

Former Target VP and Trendmaster

In 1975, Mankato State senior Robyn Niichel looked like most other students walking across Stadium Road to their parked automobiles. Not much stood out. She hailed from small-town rural Minnesota—even attending a one-room schoolhouse for one year. Only a few years before had she begun controlling her stuttering.

Cover Story

January 2, 2009 Daniel Vance

John Finke

Business Person of the Year 2009

John Finke, our Business Person of the Year 2009 and president of Mankato-based, $155 million HickoryTech Corporation, also accents his conversations with a choice word. It’s “certainly,” an adverb, which means definitely, positively, undoubtedly or unquestionably.

Off-The-Cuff

January 2, 2009 Daniel Vance

Off-The-Cuff

You made it through Election 2008. You survived the senatorial recount—oh, is that another eighteen missing ballots under my desk?

Feature Story

January 2, 2009 Daniel Vance

Dale Brenke – Runner Up

In 1971, 22-year-old Dale Brenke had wrapped up his accounting training at Mankato Commercial College and was wiping windshields and pumping petrol part-time for Bernie’s One Stop service station on Front Street across from Hubbard Milling. The $1.10 an hour pay helped—somewhat. He was actively searching for a better job, but his search had been impeded by a pesky U.S. recession affecting Mankato.

Hot Startz!

November 3, 2008 Daniel Vance

Brunton Architects, RE/MAX

Mankato: Brunton Architects – Brunton Architects, an architecture and interior design firm, opened in February 2008 in the Community Bank headquarters building in Mankato.

Mankato: RE/MAX – Patti Schuch opened a RE/MAX franchise a year ago at 1635 North Riverfront. Before getting there, she had quite the experience growing up.