EAGAN, MINN. — JLL Capital Markets has arranged a $52.5 million loan for the acquisition of Grand Oak Business Park in Eagan. The 10-building business park is located on 83.5 acres of land. The Class A property comprises eight office buildings and two retail buildings for a total of 550,224 square feet. The buildings were constructed between 1999 and 2007. The property is 92 percent occupied. Adam Schwartz, Aaron Appel, Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz, Matt Collins and Patrick Heitmann of JLL arranged the loan on behalf of the borrower, Group RMC. Morgan Stanley provided the loan.
PLYMOUTH, MINN. — Ten Capital Management (TCM) has acquired Atria Corporate Center in Plymouth, located about 15 miles west of downtown Minneapolis, for an undisclosed price. The 358,941-square-foot office property was built in the late 1980s and substantially renovated in 2017. Atria offers food service, a complimentary coffee bar, fitness center, locker room with showers, training center, onsite management and heated parking. The seller was not disclosed.
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Kraus-Anderson Realty has purchased Midway Marketplace in St. Paul for an undisclosed price. Built in 1994, the 324,430-square-foot retail center includes anchor tenants Cub Foods, Walmart, TJ Maxx, LA Fitness and Dollar Tree. Other tenants at the property include Sprint, Leann Chin, The UPS Store, Mother Nature’s Vitamins and Midway Tobacco & Cigar Place. Beachwood, Ohio-based RVI sold the asset.
The Twin Cities apartment market is historically characterized by high occupancy and minimal volatility, with consistent and solid year-over-year rent increases, minimal concessions and a sustained vacancy rate well below 5 percent. As a result, there is abundant interest from investors and lenders alike to place capital in the Twin Cities. The lending environment for Twin Cities’ apartment owners appears poised for another great run in 2019, with all lender types having a large appetite to place capital in the market. Agency lenders Agency lenders (Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and HUD) have been extremely active, and that will not change. Their allocations remain high, and all agencies are expected to compete aggressively for business. Additionally, there is an increased focus on products catering to affordable and workforce housing, not only for existing properties, but in providing loan commitments and locked interest rates for takeout financing for affordable or workforce housing projects. The agency reach extends geographically to secondary and tertiary out-of-state markets as well, with minimal impact on underwriting standards. Agency lenders are able to provide relatively high leverage, longer-term, nonrecourse financing for all classes of apartments. Their ability to offer partial or full-term interest-only payments is a significant …
HUTCHINSON, MINN. — Kraus-Anderson is scheduled to break ground on a new hospital wing at Hutchinson Health in Minnesota on Monday, April 1. The one-year construction project will expand the hospital’s footprint by more than 17,000 square feet and will include 18 new patient rooms that are twice as big as the current rooms. Wold Architects and Engineers designed the expansion. Hutchinson Health, a part of HealthPartners, is located about 60 miles west of Minneapolis. The hospital currently has 66 beds and is classified as a Level 4 trauma center. It provides initial evaluation, stabilization, diagnostic capabilities and transfer to a higher level of care. A Level I trauma center offers the highest level of surgical care for trauma patients.
TORONTO — WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust, a publicly traded company based in Toronto, has increased its U.S. holdings by agreeing to acquire a 13-property logistics portfolio for approximately US$226 million. The industrial buildings total 2.2 million square feet and are situated in infill submarkets across the United States. The property names and addresses were not disclosed, but WPT says the portfolio will increase its scale in Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. The portfolio also includes assets in three new markets for the REIT, including Los Angeles and Miami. Additionally, WPT has confirmed that eight of the assets are leased to a single tenant and the other five are leased to multiple tenants. “We are very pleased to source a high-quality portfolio acquisition that advances the REIT’s strategic priorities to add scale and diversification with a focus on markets and properties that have the greatest potential to drive long-term growth,” says Scott Frederiksen, CEO of WPT. WPT plans to fund the acquisition with cash on hand and proceeds from its senior unsecured credit facility. In anticipation of the purchase, WPT has received lender commitments to amend and extend the credit facility from US$300 million to $450 million. The REIT expects …
Stakes are rising in the war for talent, and employers are using amenity-rich real estate to win the hearts and minds of the brightest young recruits. Determined to outflank the competition, companies are increasingly focused on occupying buildings with the best available on-site features, proximity to nearby amenities, and the elusive “cool” factor. Competition escalates To heed the call for better offerings, landlords in Minneapolis have begun to offer unconventional amenities including golf simulators and nap pods. As owners of traditional Class B and C buildings undertake renovations and amenity package upgrades to compete with Class A properties, lines between building classes are starting to blur. Tenants will likely start taking a more cautious approach to real estate, reflecting an increase in business uncertainty and projections for slower growth. This mindset will decrease appetites for relocations, prompting more renewals in 2019. Despite this trend, there will be a healthy number of relocations for those tenants that have not yet right-sized by employing modern furniture systems, single-sized offices, more natural light and more collaborative space. Within tenants’ spaces, private offices will grow increasingly scarce, and those that remain will move to the interior to provide more light, greater flexibility and better …
MINNEAPOLIS — Briggs and Morgan, a full-service law firm, has signed a 93,000-square-foot lease renewal at IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis. The firm plans to fully renovate its space, which is located on floors 22 through 25. Plans call for a more modern, open and collaborative space. Briggs and Morgan employs 250 people. Paul Donovan, Jaclyn May, Jeremy Striffler, Jennifer Stumm and Sherry Cushman of Cushman & Wakefield brokered the lease transaction. MP Johnson Construction Inc. and NELSON make up the project team. Completion is slated for mid-2020.
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Money360 has provided an $8.6 million bridge loan for the refinancing of a mixed-use property in St. Paul. The building spans 156,671 square feet. The three-year, recourse loan features a loan-to-value ratio of 58.8 percent. The borrower was not disclosed.
BROOKLYN PARK, MINN. — Midas Hospitality has opened a 107-room Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel in Brooklyn Park, its second hotel within the city. The nearly 58,000-square-foot hotel is part of a $28 million development. The property includes suites with fully equipped kitchens designed for extended-stay use. Amenities include an indoor pool, meeting room, fitness area and patio. MC Hotel Construction served as the general contractor.