Pirate’s Cove – a phoenix rising from the recession

by Dave DeMars

news@thenewsleaders.com

Sit down and talk with Jim Brownson about Pirate’s Cove, and it becomes apparent the man has a love affair with the place.

“I spent a lot of time here,” Brownson said. “We came up here a lot because there seemed to be so much to do up here.”

That was in his college days at Hamline University. After Brownson finished college, he became a property developer, joining with other partners to build several developments in and around the Twin Cities.

Recent history

The original Pirate’s Cove restaurant, owned by Roger Kirmeier for nearly 30 years, was purchased by Rick Schafer and his wife in 1997.

An errant spark from an incinerator burning cardboard reached the kitchen area and developed into a roaring inferno Oct. 24, 1998. Firefighters from Rice, Sauk Rapids and Sartell fought the blaze for most of that night. By morning, what had been a thriving business was a pile of rubble and ash.

Schafer continued to try to develop the property despite the loss of the anchor restaurant, but development struggled. So Schafer decided to call Brownson in 2004 and invite him to come up and take a look at the property. He was more than happy to revisit a place of so many happy memories.

Schafer had acquired about 11 parcels of land totaling 365 acres. His original plan called for development of the area including housing, a golf course and some commercial development on about 100 acres with frontage on Highway 10.

“When I came up, I didn’t remember quite how beautiful it was,” Brownson said. “That day we spent six or seven hours just walking the land and talking about what we wanted to do.”

But once Brownson became involved, things changed and evolved.

What’s ahead?

Because of the beauty of the land, the true objective was to develop it in such a way that the housing worked with the land rather than the other way around. They aimed at serving most of the segments of the upscale housing market but without being too high end.

“Building a golf course just didn’t seem like it was going to be real feasible at that point in time,” Brownson said. “Back then, it seemed like everyone was building golf courses, so we redeveloped the whole area into mixed-use housing and put together a PUD on the whole area.”

Brownson explained most developers try to get as many houses as they can onto a piece of land to maximize the profit, but that was never the intent in developing the Cove.

“We tried to create a plan that basically allowed for people to enjoy what was here,” he said. “Fifty-three percent of the entire area is being left as open space right now.”

A person purchasing their “piece of heaven” would get more than the lot their home was on. They would actually have access to about 100 acres they could use and enjoy, Brownson explained. With five miles of privately developed trails and a landing on the river for residents, every homeowner in the development would have access to the 14 miles of river stretching from beyond Rice down to Sartell.

While the concept was a good one, difficulties developed again. Around 2007, a recession hit. The Cove entered a phase of arrested development. Home buyers hunkered down and for more than eight years, development has been slow. Only 14 homeowners occupy space developed for 83.

The lonely restaurant site, occupied only by an excavator and front-end loader, sits empty.

“That is the only commercial land on the river,” Brownson said. “We’ve had a lot of people look at it and wanted to recreate that (the original Pirate’s Cove), but it was very difficult to get financing.”

Banks for a number of years were not open to financing a restaurant, but it appears the financial freeze is beginning to thaw, Brownson said.

“We are optimistic there are going to be a lot of people enjoying this in the next 10 years,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for people to live here, to use the river that they didn’t have before.”