Toward the end of May, developer Rob Clapp — known for popular destination projects such as St. Paul Brewing, Can Can Wonderland and the newly reopened Dark Horse Bar & Eatery — logged a win of sorts before the St. Paul Planning Commission, which voted to recommend against the city’s efforts to rezone part of the historic Hamm’s Brewery campus for new housing.

Clapp has long maintained that converting the brewery’s east end parking lot into more than 100 units of affordable housing will eliminate needed parking for his multiple businesses.

Within two hours of the vote, according to Clapp, a senior city planner arrived outside St. Paul Brewing to take pictures that would later be used by the city’s Department of Safety and Inspections to threaten his liquor license. The next day, city inspectors put a stop-work order on a landscaping project at the brewery that was intended to make room for new trees outside the former 11 Wells Distillery.

The stop-work order was resolved within 24 hours through an explanatory telephone call.

The day after that, for reasons that remain unclear, an inspector from the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration stopped by the distillery, which is not currently open to the public.

Clapp said he doesn’t believe in coincidences.

“It’s just harassment,” said Clapp, in an interview Thursday. “Within two hours of the Planning Commission decision not to rezone, she was there, filing this complaint, which just seems retaliatory. This is coming from PED, which is Planning and Economic Development. It shouldn’t be Planning and Reverse Economic Development.”

The mayor’s office has denied any sort of retaliation. A spokesperson said St. Paul Brewing posted a picture to social media on May 29 showing a completed patio expansion onto city-owned land without a use license from the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority. The patio included a portable outdoor stage, sound equipment and lighting constructed without permits, as well as liquor service.

‘Accusations of retaliation are false’

“Accusations of ‘retaliation’ are false,” said Jennifer Lor, the mayor’s press secretary, in a written statement Thursday. “There is no connection between the rezoning hearing on May 30 and actions taken regarding St. Paul Brewing’s unauthorized operations.”

She added: “The city followed standard procedure to confirm the unauthorized operations through interdepartmental collaboration … St. Paul Brewing acknowledged these issues and cooperated with the city to resolve it within a few days.”

Clapp said Friday the simple set-up included string lights that have been on site for several years, as well as a shipping container with no mechanicals, which has been used for the past year as a mobile stage, and a portable generator. City officials from St. Paul Parks and Rec, the Department of Safety and Inspections, Planning and Economic Development and the city attorney’s office had walked through the property on multiple occasions since the stage was installed in June 2004, he said, and they had never previously raised concern.

The war of words between a housing developer, the owner of St. Paul Brewing and top city officials over proposed real estate development at the sprawling, 1865-era brewery on St. Paul’s East Side has entered a new phase, with the restaurant owner accusing city planners of bad faith on the eve of what could be a decisive city council vote.

Developer JB Vang and the St. Paul mayor’s office have long hoped to install dozens of new affordable housing units within the old Hamm’s Brewery campus on Minnehaha Avenue. Those plans hit a major obstacle on May 30 when the city’s Planning Commission determined the proposal involved “spot zoning,” or a zoning reclassification limited to a relatively small parcel of land to accommodate a particular project, which is illegal in Minnesota.

Despite the Planning Commission recommendation, the St. Paul City Council is expected to take up the rezoning question on Wednesday.

Still, the negative decision represented at least a temporary win for Clapp, the principal behind Eclective Creative Collective — a combination of eight restaurants, real estate holding companies and creative businesses — who has argued that housing construction will remove needed parking for a series of businesses he operates on the Hamm’s campus, including St. Paul Brewing, the former 11 Wells Distillery, the Wonder Studio fabrication shop and a planned lounge or event center.

At 11:30 a.m. May 30, within about two hours of the Planning Commission vote, a senior staff member with St. Paul Planning and Economic Development, or PED, was spotted on security video taking photos through a security fence at the back entrance of St. Paul Brewing’s outdoor patio, just as the restaurant was opening, according to Clapp and his Eclective Creative Collective team.

A hand-delivered correction notice

Clapp maintains he recognized the planner and reached out by email to ask what she was looking for and if he could assist. Nicolle Newtown, the city’s PED director, emailed him back to say city staff would be on site from time to time. Part of the brewery campus remains owned by the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

“We don’t need anything from you at this time,” she wrote. “Thanks much.”

Instead, on June 16, the restaurant received a hand-delivered correction notice from the city’s Department of Safety and Inspections, or DSI, demanding they correct an apparent violation of their liquor license or lose their license entirely. A section of the back patio, near the back exit dock, sits on city land and had offered outdoor seating under a shared-use agreement between the restaurant and the city’s HRA for four years, according to Clapp. The agreement had apparently lapsed.

“We’ve done this for years, where we’ve had a license agreement with the HRA, and no issues,” Clapp said. “We were surprised to find this correction notice coming from DSI, when I’m reaching out twice to (the senior city planner) to see if she needs anything. Any time they’ve made that request, we’ve turned it around in 24 hours, and that’s the end of it. This had a major impact on 25% of our patio for a week during a summer month.”

Sean Ryan, a former project manager with Can Can Wonderland and government relations manager with Clapp’s collective, said they attempted to determine who filed the complaint over the lapsed license near the back dock, but they were informed by DSI that complainant information is protected under data privacy laws.

“We did push back saying that if a city employee did file the complaint in the course of their public work it should be available,” Ryan said. “No response.”

Ryan said the team had hoped, after the May 30 Planning Commission vote, that city planners would sit down with them and attempt to find common ground. Instead, the spot zoning question will go before the city council on Wednesday.

JB Vang’s development plan shrinks

JB Vang was awarded tentative developer status by the St. Paul HRA in 2023 based on a proposal that included at the time a total of 259 affordable housing units and a two-level indoor marketplace.

Under that plan, an existing brewhouse building would be remodeled to host the marketplace and about 84 mostly one- and two-bedroom rentals, as well as some ownership live/work studios. Elsewhere on the campus, the proposal also called for 11 family-sized, owner-occupied rowhomes next to 164 rental apartments in a new building, which would fill in a surface parking lot on the site’s northeast corner.

JB Vang has now put any effort to establish the rowhomes on pause, and reduced the number of proposed units in the new building from 164 to 110 to allow for a 70-stall parking lot. The company also been unable to find a partner to help develop the marketplace.

“The rowhouses were removed from the project based on regulatory issues that prevented rental and ownership units being under the same roof,” said Stephanie Harr, a project development consultant for JB Vang, in an email Friday. “The marketplace component of the project has not executed any contracts with partners yet; we are continuing to talk with potential partners and determining what the partnership arrangement would look like.”

Clapp has said with JB Vang’s tentative developer status expiring this year, the city should work with him to reconfigure the project entirely.

Over Clapp’s objections, the city has nominated much of the brewery campus for a local historic designation, borrowing the boundaries from a previous nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, which was reviewed by the State Historic Preservation Review Board in January.

The city council likely will consider the local nomination in August, with a vote tentatively scheduled for Aug. 20.

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Every day for the past couple weeks, rehearsals for Circus Juventas’s upcoming summer show, “Lumiere,” have been intense.

The full cast and crew arrives around 4:30 and often doesn’t leave till after 10. Students in the youth circus school will perform a few-minute scene, flipping and juggling and dancing, then the adults spring into action.

After one scene, aerial coach Chimgee Haltarhuu shouts a few tips up to four performers suspended in the air on bungees, and choreographer Jarod Boltjes chats with dancers on the ground to help refine their movements. During another scene, as a trio of performers spin on German Wheel and Cyr Wheel, acrobatics coach PD Weisman gives “jazz hands” to remind them to maintain their theatricality.

A pair of Circus Juventas student aerialists hang from a massive chandelier during a rehearsal for the school’s Old Hollywood-themed summer show, “Lumiere,” on July 14, 2025. Alongside aerial acts — including the rare Wheel of Steel — the show also features a variety of juggling, dancing and acrobatics. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

Meanwhile, along the sidelines, artistic director Rachel Butler-Norris and executive director Rob Dawson check in with the lighting and sound designers, prop masters and artistic staff. The rigging team huddles to discuss the flow of moving safety mats, hooking up aerial equipment to the rafters and preparing for the next scene.

“At this point, all the acts are set, all the choreography is set,” Butler-Norris said. “It’s really just those little details that connect it all together so we have that seamless flow. It’s sculpting it, making it cleaner and clearer every time we do it.”

The show’s plot sees five kids zapped first from 1985 back to 1935, to the fictional Hotel Lumiere during the Golden Age of Hollywood, then subsequently through a portal to a Twilight Zone-style world they have to escape to return to their own timeline.

“Lumiere” runs for 15 performances between Friday, July 25 and Sunday, Aug. 10. Tickets range from $25 to $55 and are available online at circusjuventas.showare.com or by phone at 651-309-8106. Shows take place at the Circus Juventas big top arena; 1270 Montreal Ave.

The show’s vibe is inspired by the classic Tower of Terror ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Butler-Norris said.

“The first half (of the show) has all this glitz and glamor, and the second half is much darker and spookier,” she said. “I’ve always loved the Tower of Terror and was really inspired by old Hollywood, the Mission Inn and all that decor, the cobwebs in the lobby, these people in an old elevator that gets struck by lightning. Then we created our own narrative to the story.”

Performers rehearse on the Wheel of Steel for Circus Juventas’ annual summer show in 2021. (Courtesy of Dan Norman)

During the first half of the show, bellhop characters ride on luggage carts and toss suitcases. Aerialists swing from a massive chandelier. The climax involves the Wheel of Steel, a massive rotating apparatus that has not been featured in a Circus Juventas show since 2022.

“It’s a very technically high-skill-level act that no other youth circus does,” Butler-Norris said. “We haven’t had students that were at that level the last couple years, and now we have students who have been training really hard to perfect it. I’m really excited for people to see that act because it’s just mind-blowing.”

Everett Smith, 15, is one of six students performing on the Wheel of Steel during the show and has been training at Circus Juventas since he was 2 years old.

“I was skeptical at first, because I’d seen it and it was freaky, honestly,” he said. “It’s a little less freaky now. When you’re in the moment, you kind of forget how dangerous it is.”

The second half of the show features fire acts, which have become an impressive mainstay of Circus Juventas shows in recent years. In one scene, Jacy Johnson Becker, 17, spins a long staff that’s flaming on both ends, “like what Darth Maul has, if you’ve seen Star Wars,” he said. To learn to perform circus acts with fire, he said, coaches first guide students to feel comfortable extinguishing small flames, then larger ones, and meanwhile they learn to perform the acts without fire.

“Really, fire just makes it look cool,” Johnson Becker said. “But if you can do the trick without fire, you can do it with fire.”

Tilly Breimhorst, 17, who plays a main bellhop and performs in Russian Cradle, has been training with Circus Juventas for more than a decade. While her primary focuses are theatrics and dancing, she said, she appreciates that she’s constantly able to explore different acts and gain new skills.

“Our coaches here are so supportive of us,” she said, “and that makes it a lot easier to get skills down, because you know your coaches are there for you.”

Other performers agree.

“It’s just very rewarding, learning a new trick and having friends supporting you,” Smith said. “It’s fun to come out and do. You forget about a lot of things and just flip away.”

If you go

What: Circus Juventas’ summer show, “Lumiere”

Description: The St. Paul youth circus school, the largest in North America, is showcasing its top students’ skills in this show that blends Old Hollywood and the Twilight Zone.

When: 15 total performances, including matinee and evening shows, from Friday, July 25, through Sunday, August 10

Where: Circus Juventas Big Top, 1270 Montreal Ave., St. Paul

Tickets: $25-$55; circusjuventas.showare.com or by phone at 651-309-8106

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A man was arrested Saturday morning after he fired several shots into windows between the front doors of the Sherburne County government center in Elk River, Minn., and entered the building, an official said.

The man was arrested outside the building as he was walking away holding a long gun, Sherburne County sheriff’s Cmdr. Ben Zawacki said. Nobody was injured.

The suspect has been booked at the Sherburne County jail and has been identified as Zha Vang, 51, of Elk River.

Several law-enforcement agencies responded to the government center at about 9:30 a.m. after the reports of shots fired.

An investigation is underway into whether Vang committed any other crimes before and/or after shooting at the building.

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DENVER — On Friday, the Twins fell victim to a pitcher, Kyle Freeland, whose 10 losses were tied for third-most in the majors. On Saturday, they lost to his teammate, Antonio Senzatela, a starter who has lost a league-leading 13 games.

A series against the Colorado Rockies that looked like it would provide a soft part of the schedule for the Twins has turned into anything but. The Twins lost their second straight game to the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night, this one a 10-6 defeat at Coors Field. With it, the Rockies, who are threatening the 2024 Chicago White Sox for the worst record in Major League Baseball history, won their first series at home all season.

Colorado broke open a tied game in the fifth inning after Zebby Matthews, fresh off the injured list, allowed a pair of hits to the first two batters of the inning, leading to his departure. Brock Stewart was summoned from the bullpen to replace him and after getting two outs, the first pitch he threw to Ezequiel Tovar ended up over the head of a leaping Byron Buxton beyond the center field wall.

The Rockies (24-74) pushed across another pair of runs an inning later and two more in the eighth with their 10-run outburst coming on a day in which the Twins (47-51) did little through the middle innings of the game.

After scoring three runs in the second — Ryan Jeffers doubled, Kody Clemens tripled him home, Carlos Correa’s double scored another run and Matt Wallner collected just his third hit with a runner in scoring position all season to bring in the Twins’ third run — Twins hitters saw fewer than 10 pitches in each of the next four innings.

Senzatela threw eight pitches in the third, seven in the fourth and just six in each of the next two frames. The Twins’ potential opportunities were squashed in two of those innings by double plays.

While the Twins did make some noise in the eighth — Clemens brought home two more runs with a double — their threat came to an end when Correa swung at a Tyler Kinley slider for strike three and in the bottom of the inning, Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman then hit a two-run home run to extend Colorado’s lead again.

Matthews, in his first major league start since landing on the injured list with a shoulder strain in early June, gave up five runs in the loss. The first came in the second inning. Two more came in the third, with Jordan Beck, who collected an infield hit on a ball that appeared to be rolling foul before catcher Ryan Jeffers picked it up, scoring on Ryan McMahon’s game-tying home run. The final two came after his departure, when Stewart gave up the home run that put the Twins down for good.

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