Blue Cross sells its Eagan HQ for $152.9M in a leaseback deal

A New York investment firm has purchased the Blue Cross and Blue Shield headquarters complex in Eagan for a reported $152.9 million.

W.P. Carey & Co. said it purchased six buildings in the Dakota County suburb, as well as individual properties in Aurora and Virginia, in the deal. The properties will then be leased back to insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield, W.P. Carey said in a news release.

"The financing is an excellent example of our ability and capacity to be a substantial long-term source of capital to companies looking to strategically grow their businesses," W.P. Carey Managing Director Gino Sabatini said in a prepared statement.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is the largest health plan in the state with some 2.7 million members and about $9 billion in annual revenue.

Pamela Sedmak, Blue Cross of Minnesota's chief financial officer, said the long-term sale-leaseback was the "logical financing option for redeploying the illiquid capital tied up in our real estate holdings to fund strategic initiatives that enable us to improve the health and wellness of our members and all Minnesotans." A spokesman declined to comment further.

Finance & Commerce, citing records in the Dakota County assessor's office, reported a sale price of nearly $153 million, a figure neither Blue Cross nor W.P. Carey would confirm.

This is the third big sale-leaseback deal in recent months locally.

UnitedHealth Group's Optum division sold its Eden Prairie headquarters buildings for $50 million to a New York firm called AGNL Health, according to Hennepin County property records. And a division of Hines Global REIT Inc. of Houston said it purchased an office building on Excelsior Boulevard in Hopkins from agribusiness giant Cargill Inc., according to a securities filing. The purchase price was $69.5 million.

Janet Moore • 612-673-7752