Buyer emerges for former Northwest Air HQ in Eagan

Delta Air Lines has found a buyer for the former global headquarters of Eagan-based Northwest Airlines, six years after putting the 190-acre campus on the market.

The two buildings totaling 552,000 square feet are under contract for sale to the Excelsior Group, based in Eden Prairie, according to Chris Hickok, executive vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle in Minneapolis. Excelsior principal Chris Culp declined to comment.

The airline has struggled to sell the buildings, which have sat vacant for years.

One of the buildings had a large Northwest logo painted atop it for years, a sign of home for Minnesota air travelers flying into Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The emblem was painted over after Northwest was acquired by Atlanta-based Delta in 2008.

The buildings, at 2700 Lone Oak Parkway and 2600 Lone Oak Point, are just south of Interstate 494 and east of Dodd Road. The headquarters was in 2700 and flight training was in 2600.

The property, built in the late 1980s, is 6 miles from the airport, according to JLL's property details. JLL marketed the building on behalf of Delta.

"The sale of the buildings has no impact on our Minnesota operations or employees," Delta spokesman Paul Skrbec said. "The property itself has been up for a sale for a number of years, and that was a process of the merger."

In addition to its airport operations, crew and maintenance bases, Delta still has one of its two major information technology facilities in the Twin Cities, as well as a call center. Meanwhile, the airline's call center in Chisholm is undergoing a multimillion renovation, Skrbec said.

Delta in 2010 reached a tentative deal to sell the building, but that fell apart when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs walked away from plans to lease it.

Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767