Stephen Marks Sr., president and CEO, Tower Investments
Oh Steve, Steve, Steve. You didn’t, right?
Oh yes, you did.
When you’re the president and CEO of a major national real estate development firm, it’s best to develop a thick skin. It’s also probably not a good idea to post public comments to a news website when you’re pissed off at 1 o’clock in the morning.
I could summarize them. But instead, read his rant in all of its uncensored (not to mention grammatically incorrect and misspelled) glory:
I am president and ceo of Tower Investments. An incredible amount time, money and professional expertise has been spent on this project. We have massive support from public officials – why, because they see the tremendous addition to the community with a bio-tech park in their community. Yes, timetables have been delayed and Tower has been under serious confidentiality agreements with prospective users and tenants. if you believe that there are not seriously interested parties to be part of a new bio-tech park 12 miles from Mayo and less than an hour to Uof Minn, you are badly mistaken. This is a multi-year project. The support from the constituients and stakeholders has been overwealming. Frankly, if the public listened to your negative reports, there would be no growth in SW Minnesota along the line of bio-tech, a very strong field. We have continuous meetings with top experts in the field, and the stars must align, size, type space, financing, timing and negotiations over the past 3-4 years in Elk Run. It is my expectation that, unless your goal is roadblocks so you can “i told you so”, why you try to try to support a potential bio-tech park with prospectively several thousand workers over time, then if i were you i would try to help the project, not sandbag it with untrue facts and toal speculation on your part. Join our groups of hundreds that are enthousiastic about the future, In a perfect world, we have the precise space of Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, which took years to develop. Rather than try to tear Elk Run down (which accomplishes nothing for the citizens), whi don’t you take a common courtesy approach to the hard working developers and stakeholders that have worked tirelessly for several years, and give the some slack.
Actually, upon further review, that’s a pretty coherent and reasonable comment. The same cannot be said for the next one:
if you think we are neophites trying to create something out of nothing, i suggest you review our websites: www.towerinv.com and burrill company. burrill is worldrenowned and we are extremely fortunately that he has taken a serious likeing to this project. Burrill travels worldwide continually, just returning from the middle east, russia and south Korea – you check his bio before you throw him under the bus in your narrative. Don’t pass us off as lightweights with no credibility. So it takes longer to get a biotech park right, so be it, would you prefer to run Elk Run off and go back to corn fields? Have you ever funded and managed such an endeaver. You have embarassed us both by your article. This is ludicrous and i feel you owe Steve Marks and Steve Brurrill an apology. This project may or may not succeed, but wih the team and support in place, it is likely to succeed, which is going to make you look like an ass.
Hmmm. Where to start? I guess I should say that plenty of people already think that I’m an ass.
But that’s besides the point. Let me offer my response to Marks:
One more point. If Marks thinks that I’m the only one in Minnesota who’s skeptical of Elk Run, then he should think again.
So instead of calling me names from California on the Internet, perhaps Marks’ energy is better spent getting on a plane to Minnesota and making his case to the people of this state.
Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-St. Paul), the former chairman of the now defunct House Biosciences and Workplace Development Committee, supports Elk Run. In fact, Mahoney was instrumental in helping to secure state dollars for the infrastructure improvements.
But Tower should do a better job at updating Minnesota on where Elk Run stands and offer realistic timetables, Mahoney said.
As far as I can tell, this is the first time Marks has publicly commented on Elk Run to Twin Cities media. Normally, he leaves that inconvenient job to Tower senior vice president John Pierce and project manager Geoff Griffin.
Now if you’d excuse me, I need to find out if my friends, colleagues, cats, and parents think I’m an ass.
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Comments
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No, Thomas, you are obviously not an ass.
In fact that is why your stuff is worth reading. You are willing to make your own best judgments about political/business situations and – as far as I am concerned – they have been pretty accurate.
Keep up the good work.
Bill Gleason, U of M faculty and alum
(and former 3Mer…)
Comment by Bill Gleason — December 15, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
Tom:
Now I know you have been busy watching the damage after you dropped your bomb. No wonder you could not answer your phone. You busy in your glee, self congratulating your little self for making things up and watching from the side line. Does not remind you of something? Myself and countless others would give your rants some credibility if you were to return phone messages and answer simple questions. You obviously fired your salvos of lies and decided to quickly “take your phone off the hook”. That is very irresponsible to say the least form someone pretending to be a reporter, yet refuses to leave out important details shared with him over the phone. Why you decided to tell the story to fit your gloom and doom? I guess the answer would have to wait until you respond. I treated with respect thinking you were a real reporter asking for facts needed to tell/craft a “report”. Instead your entire so called article was an expression of your opinion and yours alone.
If you can answer some simple questions then maybe your cat would not think you are an ASS. Have you ever been to Pine Island? You reported wrongly that the flood will delay Elk Run out of your total ignorance where Elk Run is in relationship to the where the floods were. You did not even bother to look at a map. Is that how much research you do before you put pen to paper? Or are all your rantings amount to nothing more than “stories”??
You will be proven wrong in your speculative reporting and in your hell bent stand to drive away investors who happen to believe in Minnesota more than (it seems) you do. I am not sure how much do you really know about the dismal business environment we are operating in within the State and the Nation, but reading your rants I can for sure say that you know NOTHING about Pine Island, you know nothing about Elk Run, in fact I doubt if you know anything about the very subject you are claiming to report on. I invite you to visit Pine Island for once in your life, visit the site and see for your self what has been done on the ground. The future will proof chicken littles like you dead wrong. you just keep telling fibs.
However, in the future and not just in relationship to Elk Run you may want to start actually reporting, to share the facts with your readers NOT your opinion. Since when opinions became news? I ask that you report the facts or at least tell the story in its entirety. Next time try to report in time not after the Rochester Post Bulletin and other responsible media outlets in SE Minnesota shared the latest detail on the project, beating you and the likes of you to telling the real story time and time again.
Your latest “fishing” expedition found nothing, so you decided instead to make things up and it shows. If you are after the facts, then you can easily find them you just have to be honest, ask the right question, do some basic objective research (I know that is real work) like other reporters do, and talk to people. I mean real people other than your “friends” and your cat.
Comment by Abraham Algadi — December 15, 2010 @ 3:10 pm
Boy is this entertaining. Me thinks some doth protest too much.
Comment by David Swenson — December 15, 2010 @ 4:55 pm
Thomas, I do not know you, but understand the frustration you have. But did you notice in the middle of this project that the country went into the worst recession in history?? Biotech companies, mine included, have had extremely scarce resources (or none) the last three years. Large numbers of strong prospective tenants have gone bankrupt. Companies that would normally jump at this type of opportunity to be in proximity to Mayo and the University of MN resources, have had to postpone as we try to raise capital for such endeavors. Give this worthy project support and encouragement and the corn fields will yield more than cornmeal. Mayo is world class, but biotech will not come there without strong infrastructure. The state investments will be a long term gold mine as companies like Vet-Stem (our vet stem cell company) and many others actually pay better wages that the coffee shop you joke about. Mr. Marks and Mr. Burrill are very bold to have come such a long way, and made such a major commitment, to try to build a dream in the corn fields. But my bet is with them as they are very successful bio-entrepreneurs and visionaries. I have traveled there and seen the opportunity and talked with the Mayo folks. If we could get financing, I would be impatiently waiting for my building to be done in Elk Run. In this market, people willing to invest in your state are a rare commodity… don’t run them off. Bob Harman, DVM
Comment by Robert Harman — December 15, 2010 @ 5:11 pm
Mr. Harman, is Vet-Stem the mystery tenant discussed in these stories? If so, you’d diffuse a ton of the angst in this by saying so.
Comment by David Swensen — December 15, 2010 @ 5:48 pm
Tom, Well done on both articles. Regarding the first, Can God Save Elk Run? The project already has a shaman: http://www.alexstark.com. With regard to the alleged facts that Mr. Algadi says you failed to report. Is Mr. Algadi referring to the wild horse debacle? More retail space than the Mall of America? More lab and office space than two IDS Towers? Or is he referring to the two buildings full of tenants, which they testified (to the Legislature) already existed in March of 2009? Perhaps Mr. Algadi is upset that you failed to mention BBAM’s report to DEED stating that there was financing AND a building already under construction in December of 2009. Or did you miss the three quarter of a million dollar payment of federal tax money indemnifying Tower for the elk herd they may or may not have purchased. The CUP on file in Olmsted County allowed the Hoehne’s to have 100 elk on the property and yet they somehow snuck an additional 500, 600, 700 or 900 animals onto the property. The numbers on the animals are as hard to pin down as the truth about what is going on with this project. It’s hard to know which “fact” Mr. Algadi is upset about since asking questions about the project, any questions at all, causes him to become enraged and to throw out accusations of “sabotage” and opposition to progress. On one occasion Mr. Algadi asked if I would prefer to have my tax money spent here or on “propping up a puppet regime like Israel.” I don’t know how he got from biotech to Israel, but I must say that at this point Israel is looking better and better.
Comment by Mary Hartman — December 15, 2010 @ 6:07 pm
Mr. Lee – well responded. Mr. Harman – your response is thoughtful and kind, but you may not be aware of the timing. Mr. Burill promised a billion bucks in 2009 – the economy was already in the crapper. He later promised an inked deal with a soverieng wealth fund by this fall and then retracted. Mayo and the U of M already have infrastructure in Rochester funded largely by tax payers and few tenants – not biotech. Or are you suggesting some other infrastructure is needed? Since a recent white paper by the Biobusiness Alliance of MN says the state has 36 biotech incubators, it seems like there ought to be infrastructure available. The tax payer funded University Enterprise Laboratories in St. Paul failed in part because it was “too far” from the U of M, according to Peter Bianco. I’m tired of this (ab)use of my tax money.
Comment by Kristi R — December 15, 2010 @ 9:55 pm
Mr. Aldagi, what latest “detail” are you referring to in the Rochester Post Bulletin’s latest promotional puff piece for Elk Run? I didn’t discern any news in that piece. I do, however, recall a few months ago the PB and the Star Trib explaining how only their reporters were chosen to attend a meeting about Elk Run that included you and other public officials from Pine Island and from MnDOT. I’m pretty certain the meeting was in the “dead head” room at the Hoehne farm – well I guess it’s Tower’s farm now (or maybe it’s Griffin’s – or it could be MnDOT’s – with the way real estate transactions have been accomplished and filed, or not filed, with Olmsted County by the Elk Run crew it’s hard to know sometimes) The stories from that meeting clearly stated the intent was to censor–opps I mean “control”- the information coming out about this project. I wasn’t surprised it was happening. It’s been clear for a long time that the Rochester PB functions as a promotional firm for this project. But I was surprised at the PB flaunting censorship so openly. The saddest thing about this project is that it leaves the tax payers of Pine Island on the hook for millions for a pipedream to build a new city in Oronoco serviced by infrastructure from Pine Island.
Comment by Kristi R — December 16, 2010 @ 1:37 pm
Mr. Algadi, why not elaborate on the facts that Thomas supposedly excluded rather than attack the article/author? It would seem you have the forum and audience to clear up some apparent misconceptions…why not do that then?
Comment by confused — December 16, 2010 @ 4:05 pm
Dear Confused. This is not the first time someone has suggested (begged) Mr. Algadi to refrain from personal attacks and to instead provide substantive information or answers to basic questions about the project. It is my opinion that his reluctance, unwillingness, and inability to do so has created a great deal of mistrust. The integrity of the project has been called in to question because of misbehavior on the part of some Tower associates. The response by Tower, MnDOT, DEED, BBAM and Pine Island was not to demand a higher standard of behavior from the individual, but was to attack the person who reported the misconduct and to exert political pressure to keep the story from publication. This is more of the same.
Comment by M. Hartman — December 16, 2010 @ 6:25 pm
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