The Ackerberg Group is done waiting.
8-story MoZaic East offices to move ahead in Uptown without tenant locked down
It has a possible tenant with "significant interest."
May 10, 2017 at 2:09AM
After it lost its main tenant for an office building it planned for the Uptown area of Minneapolis several years ago, the group has decided to build anyway without a lease locked down.
According to city documents, Ackerberg plans to build its eight-story, 198,000-square-foot MoZaic East office building at the site of a surface parking lot behind its MoZaic West office building off Fremont Avenue S. along the Midtown Greenway.
"The success of the commercial and office space (currently 96 percent leased) as well as significant interest from a major office tenant is driving the development," according to the documents.
It will be the final phase of Ackerberg's MoZaic project. Its MoZaic West office building, completed in 2012, also didn't have any takers when construction first started but now is mostly occupied.
Back in 2014, software company Code 42 stepped away from its deal to be the single tenant of the planned MoZaic East and left the project in limbo. Instead, the company opened its offices in the revamped Washington Square in downtown.
The new MoZaic will be created for multiple tenants. The complex, which was designed by Minnetonka-based Opus Group, also looks different from its earlier adaptation with enhanced public features. The new building will include about 12,000 square feet of retail space, 51 underground parking stalls and the expansion of a public art plaza.
MoZaic East will also have about 130 bike racks scattered indoors and out, showers and lockers and multiple terraces.
While Ackerberg declined to go into detail about the project, Chief Executive Stuart Ackerberg said in February that it was his hope that the firm concentrate more on current and future developments.
If the development goes through as planned, MoZaic East will be one of only a few new constructions in the Twin Cities office market. The recently completed T3 building in the North Loop as well as the Offices at MOA were both built on spec, without signed tenants, as well. Ryan Cos. occupies a portion of its new Millwright office building in East Town but has yet to announce a tenant for its planned Block One office tower closer to U.S. Bank Stadium.
The Minneapolis Planning Commission is expected to discuss MoZaic East at its May 22 meeting.
Nicole Norfleet • 612-673-4495
Twitter: @nicolenorfleet
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