MINNEAPOLIS-The stores feature the drug store retailer's new format geared for women shoppers. The chain, new to the Twin Cities, will open eight more stores here by year-end and ultimately aims for 50 within the next five years.

STILLWATER, MN-A row of old buildings on North Main Street will be demolished to make way for 98 luxury lofts and retail space on the street level. Weis Builders is the general contractor on the project.

MINNEAPOLIS-The money will allow the firm to expand beyond the Twin Cities and Baltimore into several other metropolitan markets. The company also opened in three Target locations in the Twin Cities last month, giving it 14 here.

MINNEAPOLIS-The luxury boutique hotel owners have hired Rockwell Group as the lead designer and locally based Shea as the local architectural firm. The finished space will nearly triple to 85,000 sf.

MINNETONKA, MN-Unlike the Bloomington-based chain's other buffet-style restaurants, the 80-seat, 3,200-sf restaurant at 11300 Wayzata Blvd. offers fresh prepared food delivered to the table.

ST. PAUL-The sale of seven separate properties to Gerdau Ameristeel Corp. of Canada includes a mini-mill in St. Paul with 430 workers, and a grinding ball plant in Duluth.

NEW ULM, MN-The cabinetry firm will open the new plant at 15 Somsen St. by year-end and plans to hire 45 employees in its first year of operation.

CHANHASSEN, MN-The health and fitness center company plans to build two 100,000-sf office buildings, but has yet to decide if it will move its headquarters to the 23-acre site. The company will begin development later this year of a 109,000-sf center on the same site.