Franklin Street Bakery Opens New Bakery Building on Franklin Avenue

Franklin Street Bakery (FSB), a wholesale commercial bakery with retail operations at Marshall Field's and other locations, was experiencing growing pains. A booming demand for FSB's pastries, breads, and made-to-order personal gourmet pizzas by restaurants, hotels and retail establishments had caused FSB to blossom beyond its leased facility on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. A new facility was needed, and while Wayne Kostroski and Mark Haugen, co-owners of FSB, wanted to stay in FSB's current neighborhood, where many of FSB's employees live, no appropriate building was available.

FSB turned to John Erhart and Sue Steinwall to find a business solution for FSB's dilemma. After John spun-off FSB into its own legal entity, Sue worked with FSB and the American Indian Neighborhood Development Corporation (AINDC), an entity that owned land in the Franklin Avenue neighborhood, to build a building from the ground up to house FSB. Sue and FSB were able to successfully work within the AINDC's grant restrictions to establish a relationship whereby FSB would lease the property and soon-to-be-completed building from the AINDC, with an eventual option to purchase both the building and the land. The transaction is not only a success for FSB, but also a success for AINDC, as it assists in its goal of urban renewal of the economically-blighted East Franklin Avenue area, a home to Minneapolis's largest Native American population.

Wayne Kostroski, a highly successful and nationally-known restaurateur whose extensive background includes experience with some of the country's finest restaurant and hospitality companies, works with Fredrikson & Byron for legal and business solutions relating to Franklin Street Bakery, and Cuisine Concepts, LLC, which owns Tejas and Bar Abilene.