I could be wrong, but I think it was on the front page of the DNT when they first announced it.

It was in the DNT Jan. 20.  The story is pay-walled, but here's the same article on a third party website: 

You can win a storefront in downtown Duluth

Someone should get a nice French bakery going, Washburn and Ashland both have stellar French bakeries who are making Duluth look bad.  Parking is  a problem in the DT.  I appreciate being made with love, but I'm not  crazy about 3rd Street bread, they don't have crust.  Their cookies are swell, for what, $25/dozen?  And while I'm ranting, a burrito as big as your head that doesn't cost ten bucks, but has been downsized to  'big as your thumb' would be nice too. Are they (you know who) charging for napkins now?  Maybe I can start printing up my own coupons.  Should there be a new pizza place?  I don't think there's enough pizza around here. Or burgers. Or peanut butter and banana sandwiches with fried coconut.

sustenanceartisanbreads.com/ in soup town ...delicious .....

Why do these discussions always have to go political?

Agree with Zra. And does not mean necessarily retail. I think a strong, vibrant downtown leads to a strong, vibrant city. I'm all for creating a critical mass of entrepreneurs downtown -- whether or not they're hiring.

Get ready for Duluth's first Halfbakery.

It is retail:

"Aspiring entrepreneurs will compete with their business concepts and plans for the opportunity to open their own retail store downtown."

My point is that if you're going to put money into something like this, why not do it in a manner that will create something more than a couple of minimum wage jobs for the college students? Especially since said student will most likely walk across the stage, grab their diploma and continue on to their already-loaded vehicle to move back to the Cities.

They gotta think bigger than this.  They'd have better luck if they put this money into luring tech startups and other budding industries to Downtown Duluth.

Part of bringing large companies here is to have enough interesting things in the area to attract the employees that they'd have to hire. Adding new retail and nightlife to downtown adds to Duluth's interesting-ness rating.

One thing the shop will have is a post on PDD with 20 comments.  I'm going to take a look next time I walk by.  I'm going to notice what's there next spring.