Questions persist on University SuperTarget liquor store license

By JANE MCCLURE

Midway SuperTarget’s quest to add an off-sale liquor store may not be resolved until late summer or fall.  A two-hour legislative hearing last month ended with technical questions about the concept of a store-within-a-store, including issues of liquor delivery and storage. Until those questions are resolved, a St. Paul City Council decision on the license is pending.

Midway SuperTarget is at 1300 University Ave. Target corporate officials want to remove the store’s café and replace it with an off-sale liquor store. The plans have been on the drawing boards since last year. Union Park District Council (UPDC), which initially recommended approval of the store’s license, asked for the legislative hearing. More than a dozen people attended the July 17 hearing.

The prospect of another liquor store in the area has raised concerns about more access to liquor, public intoxication, litter, negative neighborhood impacts and the efforts to change the Midway area’s image. But much of the hearing centered on technical issues tied to city distance regulations.

The district council, Big Top Liquors, and area residents have questioned whether the proposed liquor store meets the one-half mile or 2,640-foot minimum distance separation required by city code. The city doesn’t allow waiver of the distance requirement, passed in the 1980s and amended more than a decade ago. One key issue that remains is how to measure “distance.”

Big Top representatives contend that the distance should be measured building to building. In that case, the Midway SuperTarget doesn’t meet the minimum distance requirement.

Target officials contend the proper measurement is from the store door because the liquor store would be separated from the main store. Target’s surveyor measured the distance from Big Top to the store door at 2,651.98 feet.

But Jeff Fischbach, a project facilitator for the City of St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections (DSI), said the surveyor measured the distance to the west store doors. The proper measurement should have been to the east store doors, where patrons will enter to access the liquor store.  By his measurement, the total distance is 2,795 feet.

Ellen Saffron and Nancy Rosenberg, co-owners of Big Top, and Big Top Attorney Scott Banas said the distance requirements must be met. They contended that the measurement needs to be from the west building wall near Hamline Ave. and not by the doors. That would mean the distance requirement isn’t met.

“The liquor store is not a freestanding building,” said Rosenberg.

Banas said the distance issue has come up before in St. Paul, including the 2005 licensing of the Wine Thief on St. Clair Ave. Thomas Liquors, which is on Grand Ave., challenged the distance requirement. Banas said at that time the decision was made that the measurement should be building to building.

Nancy Husnik, senior legal counsel for Target, said the measurement should be from liquor store to liquor store. “We’re not seeking a liquor license for the whole store,” she said. Husnik added that the liquor store should be considered a separate operation.

The planned liquor store would have its own door, own cashiers and about a dozen of its own workers. It would have shorter hours than the main store, opening at 10am. City ordinances require the liquor store to close at 8pm Monday through Thursday, and 10pm Friday and Saturday. State law requires it be closed on Sundays.

Once the off-sale license is approved, Midway Target would give up its existing 3.2 beer license and no longer sell beer and malt beverages in its grocery area.

One question Big Top representatives raised centers on liquor deliveries. Target officials said the deliveries will be made at the rear of the store. Liquor can only be stored there for up to 24 hours before it is taken to the liquor store.

Saffron questioned the legality of having deliveries to the larger store. Vang said that is the issues she will research before making a licensing decision.

Target has checked with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety on deliveries, said Husnik. State officials told Target that liquor deliveries can be made to the back of the main store, with 24 hours to move products to the liquor store. She said that is similar to what is done with store-within-a-store arrangements at other retailers. But Vang said she wants to talk to state officials herself and learn more about the issue.

The Midway store would be Target’s third off-sale liquor store in Minnesota. Existing stores are in Otsego and St. Louis Park.