Apartment developer buys six office buildings in Mendota Heights for $40 million

A St. Louis Park developer and investor known for apartment and senior living housing has purchased a six-building office portfolio in Mendota Heights for $40 million, according to a certificate of real estate value submitted Friday.

This 420,000-square-foot bundle of Class A office space marks the first commercial acquisition for MSP Real Estate. Bloomington-based United Properties is the seller. Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq's capital market's team brokered the deal.

MSP Real Estate has residential properties throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana.

"The investment provides diversification to our portfolio and great balance to the multifamily assets we manage," Milo Pinkerton, chief executive of MSP Real Estate, said in a statement.

The properties, a part of the American Corporate Center and Mendota Office Center, are located just north of Interstate 494 between Pilot Knob Road and Hwy. 55 on Northland Drive. The buildings were constructed between the late 1980s and early 2000s.

"The office properties are well-leased and well-located and the demand certainly indicates that suburban office properties remaind an attractive investment for many organizations," said Scott Pollock, executive director for CWN, in a news release.

Mark Kolsrud and Dave Berglund of Colliers International represented MSP Real Estate. CWN will continue to manage and lease the property.

This is the second major office park sale this summer along the 494 corridor east of the Minnesota River. In June, Eden Prairie-based Excelsior Group bought the former Northwest Airlines headquarters, a 190-acre campus near Dodd Road, from Delta for $10.4 million.

That campus may be larger, at 540,000 square feet, but does not have any tenants.

"One has income and the other does not," Pollack said.

Delta likely had to make a price concession since Excelsior will have to invest in the space and find tenants.

MSP Real Estate bought the six-building portfolio at 90 percent occupancy.