The other day I got a call from Ursula Brackett. She was frustrated.

“Why,” she asked, “do so many restaurants in Black Hawk go belly up?”

She rattled off the list of places that have gone under in the Piedmont Valley: The Longhorn, Mad Mary’s, Rookies and her own restaurant, the Stone Pony on Sturgis Road. I could add Oma’s Café in Summerset to the list.

Ursula, 67, ran the Stone Pony for four years. She served German and American food. “I just couldn’t hold it any longer,” she said. “There were tons of cars on Sturgis Road, but I couldn’t get more than eight people for lunch. … I did everything but put a naked person on the highway.”

She also complained that the city of Rapid City seems to give tax breaks to bring big restaurant chains to town. I can’t any think of specifics, at least not yet. But I’m sure the new developments on I-90 will have restaurants.

But she does make a point. And I didn’t know what to tell her. At the risk of turning this into a restaurant lament blog, I said I’d put the question out there.

Any ideas why Black Hawk and Summerset have a tough time with restaurants?

In my column this morning I wrote that At Tatiana’s, the Russian restaurant on East North Street, appears to have closed.

I haven’t been able to get ahold of the owners, Gary and Tatiana Grimley, but this morning Lonnie Tutsch of Modern Woodmen said he did talk to Gary a couple of weeks ago. And Gary told him they are closing for good.

The restaurant opened in May in the former Bonanza Steakhouse building. They served a variety of Russian and American foods. More recently, they added Russian beers to the menu — probably the only place in South Dakota where you could by a true “brewski.”

If the restaurant has indeed closed for good, it’s a shame. They are a nice couple, and I really wanted to see them succeed.

If you’d like to read the story I wrote when they opened, click here.

I  heard good things about the restaurant. If you at there, what did you think?

Sorry I haven’t posted anything lately. The Journal sent me on a very tough assignment. … well, not so tough.

Allegiant Air offered me a free ticket to Phoenix to mark the launch of its new nonstop service from Rapid City. I couldn’t accept, but if the Journal paid for the trip …. well, to my surprise, Editor Mikel said, “Let’s do it.”

<>So I did. On Wednesday night I flew with about 130 other heat-seeking Black Hills folks to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The weather was warm and sunny.
But I did, in fact, work. I filed stories and pictures on the new Mesa airport and on the city of Mesa.

A couple of radio station guys were on the same flight. The y showed up at the airport Saturday tanned and tired. I think they had more fun than I did.

Target Stores has finally confirmed that, yes, they are building a store in the new Rushmore Crossing shopping center, but no, it won’t be a SuperTarget.

<>It will be only 132,000 square feet. That’s bigger than the existing store, but smaller than a Super Target. And compared with the Rapid City Wal-Mart, which is 222,000 square feet, it will be downright small.

I’ve got a story to that effect in tomorrow’s paper.<>

Target is the third retailer to submit building permit plans for Rushmore Crossing. The other two are Furniture Row and Scheels All Sports.

For what it’s worth, click here to see the layout plan for the entire project. Pretty much every national chain in the nation and a bunch of Rushmore Mall tenants are listed.

I’d caution, however, that the stores listed here might not actually be committed. I’ve called several of them. They either couldn’t confirm or said they haven’t committed.

If all these stores do indeed set up shop at Rushmore Crossing, the Rushmore Mall is going to have a lot of vacancy.

Anyone have any thoughts on how this is going to play out?

A trip to the new B.E.S. Lighting store is illuminating, to say the least.

The walls, the ceilings and much of the floor space are covered with light fixtures of every shape and style. There are even separate rooms to show off outdoor lighting, home theater lighting and kitchen lighting.

After 23 years at 3409 W. Main St., B.E.S. moved to its new location Oct. 29. The new store has about 2,000 light fixtures on display.

For Curt Beatty, president/owner of B.E.S., the move from the cramped quarters of the West Main Street store to the expansive Tuscany space was illuminating as well. “We were worried we’d have too much (inventory), now I think we need more,” he said.

B.E.S. has partnered up with KT Connections on a home theater demonstration. KT sells the wiring, sound systems and other theater features. B.E.S. handles the specialty lighting – including a ceiling that looks like a starlit sky, complete with meteors.

B.E.S. is second tenant in the new Tuscany Square Shopping Center. The center’s owners bought the former Dan’s Supermarket and they’re turning it into a strip center devoted, as least in part, to home improvement stores.

The first tenant is Black Hills Interiors, a carpeting and flooring store. It’s owned in part by Scott Mueller, a partner in the Tuscany Square roject.

Another signed tenant is Kitchen Tuneup, which will be located in Tuscany Square’s new strip along the south side. Owner Russ Rysavy said he hopes to be in business by early January. Kitchen Tuneup does remodeling and resurfacing work on bathrooms and kitchens. I’ll have more on that later.

Bob Brandt, the builder on the project, said he believes three other spaces might be leased out.

For all the debate about Cabela’s and Scheels, their incentives and their impact on the economy – there’s one group that’s not seeing any impact: Local general contractors.

Scheels has hired Sampson Construction, the Lincoln, Neb., firm doing the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center expansion. And Cabela’s has gone with Kraus-Anderson Construction of Madison, Wis.

On both projects, however, subcontractors are getting a piece of the pie, probably a big piece.

Local general contractors – the few that I’ve talked to — have mixed feelings.

On one hand, they’d like a fair shot at the work. On the other hand, one contractor conceded that if a developer has a good relationship with a GC, it makes sense to go with them. He believes Cabela’s has worked with Kraus-Anderson in the past. He has his own regular clients, and he appreciates their business.

And from what I understand, there’s going to be a lot of work for the subcontractors.

I’ve always wondered why certain builders seem to get a lot of repeat business from certain companies or architects. For example, Rapid City Regional Hospital seems to go with Ainsworth-Benning of Spearfish more often than not.

A reader called the other day to ask me what is going on at the old Knights of Columbus Hall at Fifth and Columbus. Crews are putting in a new, modern-looking entrance on the side, and she was afraid it was going to become a nightclub.

But it’s going to be an office building. McCarthy Properties bought it from the Knights of Columbus back in 2006 The folks at McCarthy Properties have a knack or finding new uses for old buildings. They turned the old Metz Bakery at 12th and St. Joe into space for a computer store, an engineering firm, a gym and a travel agency.

At the time they sold it, the Knights said they couldn’t afford to keep the building after losing their bingo business. They said the statewide ban on public smoking had killed bingo for them.

Here’s the story that ran in February.

A source, who seems to know these things, called the other day to tell me that someone in town is trying to bring in a Tony Roma’s Ribs, Seafood & Steaks to Rapid City.

My first reaction: Ribs? Haven’t we already seen a series of rib joints open and quickly close in Rapid City? It’s a tough business, and I’m not sure why.

Granted, the past rib joints were mostly stand-alone, independent shops with not very deep pockets.

Tony Roma’s is anything but. It’s a huge international chain with 200 restaurants on five continents. And its menu is balanced with seafood and steaks, so it will have a much broader appeal than a ribs-only shop.

But I got to thinking: Why don’t rib joints make a go of it in Rapid City?

Maybe Southern style barbecue isn’t suited to our Upper Midwestern tastes. Perhaps someone should try serving up a slab of ludefisk covered in spicy barbecue sauce. … OK, on second thought that’s a really bad idea.

I personally like barbecued ribs, but I’m a little reluctant to eat them in restaurants. The idea of being seen in public with red sauce slathered all over my cheeks and a pile of discarded bones in front of me – looking like a vegan’s worst nightmare – does not appeal. But that’s just me.

And there are barbecue places that are making a go of it. Mike’s Barbecue on East North is one example. And I’ve been hearing for some time that Famous Dave’s could be coming to town.

We’ll have to see whether the Tony Roma deal actually lands.

I was talking the other day with a developer who has a strip mall he’s trying to fill up. “When are they going to stop building new strip malls around here?” he asked.

He has a point. It seems like Rapid City cycling through another round of too many strip malls.

Think about it:

* Rubloff Development Group’s new strip center between Kohl’s and PetSmart — empty.

* The new strip center on Cambell — completely empty.

* The new center just getting under way on North Haines — empty as far as a I know.

* The Stoney Creek Shopping Center at Sheridan Lake Road and Catron – about half empty, and still more spaces are being built around the corner.

* Tuscany Square on Omaha might be the exception. BES Lighting just opened up a giant new space, and the carpet store, Black Hills Interiors, is already in business there. And Bob Brandt, who’s been doing the Tuscany Square construction, told me four spaces in the new strip center are likely to be filled. I’ll have more on that later.

* At the same time, the big Rushmore Crossing project on I-90 will include a “lifestyle district” that looks a lot like an upscale strip mall to me.

I’m sure there are others. I just can’t think of them offhand.

But I’ve found over the years that location trumps scarcity when it comes to retail centers. If you have a good, high-traffic site, it doesn’t matter how many other strip malls are out there.

Any thoughts?

This is the first entry in the Journal’s new feature, the Daly Business Blog. I’m not exactly sure yet what I’ll be writing about — I’m pretty much making this up as I go along.

But since Talking Business, the Thursday column, is no longer on the Web, I hope I can update the Journal’s online readers about the new businesses, new restaurants, moves and other stuff going on here. I also hope to pass on bits and pieces that didn’t make it into Talking Business.

Based on the e-mails I see, I think there are a lot of online readers who have moved away from the Hills. They want to know what’s going on in Rapid City — without actually having to live here. (I swiped that line from Garrison Keillor.)

Also, I hope this will be a good forum for readers to ask questions, comment and offer up tips on business developments.

So let’s see what happens. …