Mentoring Monday: Meet a powerhouse in the Washington business community — and your mentor (Video)

It’s difficult to get facetime with Washington’s powerful business leaders.

Bridget Fitzgerald, like many, could wait patiently as panels concluded and swarms of men and women gathered around high-profile executives, making it a struggle to get a word in with potentially valuable connections. At the Washington Business Journal’s Mentoring Monday event, however, it was the opposite of that, Fitzgerald said. Because that’s when American City Business Journal markets across the country led one-on-one…

Opus buying 50 acres in Brooklyn Park for mixed-use project

Opus Development Co. is buying roughly 50 acres of land in Brooklyn Park where it’s planning a mixed-use development.

The undeveloped land is at the northeast quadrant of Highway 610 and Zane Avenue, near the Target North corporate campus. It’s owned by TCF National Bank, a subsidiary of Wayzata-based TCF Financial Corp. (NYSE: TCB).

The land is valued at about $9 million, according to Hennepin County property tax records.

The sale closes Tuesday. Minnetonka-based Opus declined to disclose the…

Video game developer on how wearables are changing the industry

With Apple launching the Apple Watch on April 10, wearables will become more mainstream changing the way people exercise, take phone calls and even play games.

Guha Bala, co-founder and president of Vicarious Visions, said that it’s making him and his employees think of gaming in different ways.

“What does that even mean [to play games on your wrist]? You wouldn’t play Skylanders on your wrist as you would on a big screen,” Bala said. “When we think about our industry, it’s not just about a…

Parts of Wade Avenue shopping center to be torn down, replaced with apartments, retail

The longtime owners of the Whole Foods Market-anchored Ridgewood Shopping Center on Wade Avenue in Raleigh have proposed one of the biggest changes to the center since Whole Foods bought the Wellspring Grocery store there in 1991.

Andrew Techet, the third-generation owner of the Ridgewood shopping center at 3514 Wade Ave., has submitted site plans with the city to redevelop part of the site that will enable him to add more retail and commercial space, as well as a six-story tall apartment building…

Wine-and-cheese venue planned for Dilworth Billiards space

Charlotte’s Dilworth neighborhood is about to be Cured.

A specialty cheese-and-wine venture by that name is in the works at 300 E. Tremont Ave. — the home of Dilworth Billiards, which will close on April 30.

For friends and business partners, Lexee Zutz and Meredith Mullins, the shop represents the culmination of years of dreaming and planning.

They’s scheduled to take control of the pool hall space on May 1.

Cured had an unlikely start. The women’s paths first crossed when Zutz worked…