Take a look back at the top business stories of 2024

FARGO — The top business stories of 2024 include the abrupt closure of a downtown Fargo eatery, the return of a beloved pizza franchise, shoppers’ input on new stores at West Acres, and more.

BernBaum’s, a downtown eatery owned by husband-and-wife team Andrea Baumgardner and Brett Bernath,

abruptly closed Sept. 23

.

According to a police report, the closure followed an altercation between Bernath and an unnamed employee Sept. 21 that led to the departure of several employees. The incident was

addressed in a follow-up story

in The Forum.

The police ultimately found no evidence of a crime and the couple declined to comment further.

In 2016, Baumgardner and Bernath opened BernBaum’s as a New York-style lunch counter in Bernath’s Roberts Street midcentury modern furniture store Mid-Mod Madhaus.

The restaurant mixed his Jewish ancestry with her Icelandic heritage in a variety of sandwiches, spreads, salads and soups.

They moved the eatery to 402 Broadway in 2019.

BernBaum’s appeal was noted nationally by food and travel magazines and newspapers. A 2022 New York Times article, “Geez, Even Fargo Has Gone Upscale,” had reporter Danielle Braff gushing, “as a Jewish New Yorker currently living in Chicago, I can now say that the best Jewish deli I’ve ever visited was BernBaum’s.”

Earlier this year, Baumgardner was also nominated for

Best Chef Midwest in the James Beard

Awards, the highest honor in the American food industry.

Forum reporter David Olson broke the story March 11 that beloved pizza franchise Happy Joe’s would be returning to the FM area.

Dan Labernik and business partner John Krumm opened a Happy Joe’s at 2911 45th St. S. on Dec. 12.

The

restaurant offers pick-up orders and drive-thru

, with a possible delivery option expected sometime in early 2025.

Labernick and Krumm also hold options on two additional possible Happy Joe’s locations in Fargo, one of which could become a full-service restaurant.

Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum

In May, West Acres officials asked its Facebook followers to weigh in on what store they’d like to see open at the shopping center. The officials were preparing to attend the the International Council of Shopping Centers Convention in Las Vegas, where they planned to meet with current and potential retailers, restaurants and more.

More than

500 Facebook followers replied

, suggesting about 130 different stores and restaurants. We looked through the data and compiled the top 10 most-requested stores.

1. H&M
2. Trader Joe’s
3. Nordstrom/Nordstrom Rack
4. IKEA
5. Zara
6. Abercrombie & Fitch
7. Altar’d State
8. Anthropologie
9. Pottery Barn
10. Crate and Barrel

In a follow-up story, we asked West Acres’ Chief Operating Officer Alissa Adams about the probability of the mall securing deals with these businesses. While Adams confirmed many of the suggested stores were already on her radar,

several aren’t quite ready

for a market this size.

“Those would be the IKEAs of the world,” Adams said. “The Zaras, Pottery Barns and Crate and Barrels. They still have a lot of other larger markets beyond the Fargo-Moorhead metro they’d like to fill up first.”

Mason Kramer / The Forum

Early this spring, reporter Tammy Swift pitched doing a story about the fallout from The Hershey Company closing the Dot’s Pretzels factory in Velva, N.D., the birthplace of the popular snack.

Hersey acquired Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels

, along with one of Dot’s manufacturing partners, for $1.2 billion in 2021. At the time, Jeff Beckman, a spokesperson for Hershey, told The Forum he anticipated the Velva facility to “continue to operate ‘business as usual’ for the foreseeable future.”

But that all changed in August of 2023 when Hershey announced it was closing the plant for a number of reasons: the physical limitations of the building, its reliance on manual vs. automated processes, its remote location and a facility “not conducive to scaling” in size.

News of the closure spread quickly throughout Velva, a city of just over 1,000 about 22 miles southeast of Minot. Surprise and disappointment followed.

Especially among city leaders like Mayor Mike Schreiner, who knew that 27 people would lose their jobs

and the city would lose one of its larger businesses and $7,000 in tax revenue per month, Swift wrote.

But good news was on the horizon. Prior to heading to Velva, Swift heard news that Henke was looking for a new tenant for the property.

Reporter Tasha Carvell heard similar rumors and was

able to confirm Tate Howe, a former Dot’s Pretzels employee, planned to produce his new caffeinated candy Get Coffee’d

at the Velva plant.

Howe told Carvell he’d already hired back the old plant manager and five former Dot’s employees. He said he hoped to bring in another 20 workers in the coming months.

“We’re going to try to do what we can to grow this company and add a bunch of employees and support and reinvigorate the community as much as one business can,” Howe said.

Matt Leiseth, the longtime president of Hornbacher’s,

confirmed to The Forum in March he was no longer part of the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo grocery store

chain.

“I love the people I worked with,” said Leiseth, who

started bagging groceries three decades ago at the grocery chain

and worked his way up to president. “I love this community. I’m looking forward to my next steps here in the Fargo-Moorhead area.”

Leiseth said he was unable to comment further on his tenure with Hornbacher’s.

St. Cloud, Minn.-based Coborn’s operates Hornbacher’s as well as Cash Wise grocery stores in the area. A message left with Coburn’s seeking comment about the decision was not returned.

Chris Flynn / The Forum

In September, reporter David Olson confirmed the rumor that a restaurant and pickleball complex was poised to open in the former Family Fare at 2605 Eighth St. S. in Moorhead.

The

business will be called Courts & Pints

, according to Jon Norberg, a hand surgeon in the Twin Cities and the developer of the project.

He said the first phase will be construction of 15 pickleball courts and seven party rooms, with the latter being flexible spaces that can be reconfigured depending on the event.

The second phase of the project includes construction of a coffee bar and restaurant, with the latter offering cuisine Norberg described as elevated pub fare.

Norberg, who grew up in Fargo, is partnering in the project with his brother, Frank Norberg, and longtime friend Kelly Lancaster.

In addition to the pickleball courts and restaurant, Norberg said Courts & Pints will also feature eight lanes of bag toss, something he said will set the Moorhead site apart from similar businesses in the Twin Cities that combine pickleball and hospitality spaces.

David Samson/The Forum

In June, Helmut Schmidt reported longtime Duane’s House of Pizza owner Steve Schultz had sold the pizza parlor’s franchising rights to Slainte Hospitality, a group of investors that also owns the Blarney Stone pubs and the Hotel Donaldson in downtown Fargo.

Jim Poolman, a partner in Slainte Hospitality, told Schmidt the two stores in Fargo and one in Moorhead would continue to be independently operated by each of their owners under the master franchise agreement purchased from Schultz.

He said

additional locations are also under consideration

.

“I’m particularly interested in looking at north Fargo up by the campus” of North Dakota State University, Poolman said. “Or even bringing it to other towns.”

Grand Forks, Bismarck, and Minnesota’s Lakes Country are areas that would be ripe for an expansion, Poolman said.