Former UnitedHealth HQ building goes into receivership as loan deadline looms for owner

A Hennepin County judge has assigned a receiver to take control of UnitedHealth’s former headquarters building in Minnetonka after the $47 million mortgage payment was at risk for default, according to documents recently filed in Hennepin County District Court.

The court appointed John Boich, a managing director at CBRE Inc., as a limited receiver for the 10-story, 344,000-square-foot office building that UnitedHealth occupied since 1998.

The health care giant in December 2022 declined to renew its lease at 9900 Bren Road East. The lease expired on Tuesday.

The building is now vacant, according to a UnitedHealth spokesperson. Employees moved into an Eden Prairie building occupied by UnitedHealth’s Optum Group, which is across the highway from the former headquarters.

UnitedHealth officials have said remote work trends and extra space in the Eden Prairie and Minnetonka area led to the decision not to renew the lease.

The decision to vacate Bren Road set off alarm bells for the landlord, New York-based LCN Capital Partners/LCN UHS Minnetonka. For months, LCN has tried to sell the building or find new tenants or a new use — all without luck.

The trustee for the mortgage holder, Wilmington Trust, National Association, petitioned the court last week to immediately assign a receiver to the case because the building loan would be defaulted upon in a matter of days.

In court documents, Wilmington Trust officials argued that the receiver was badly needed to handle the building insurance, tax payments, rent, maintenance and other matters, in the wake of a loan default, to ensure the property was not harmed.

Judge Bridget Sullivan agreed and granted the request.

UnitedHealth had occupied the Bren Road building for 26 years. It originally owned it but sold the building in 2014.

It remains to be seen what will become of the building long term. Some real estate experts said the office property might become a conversion candidate for apartments or some type of mixed-use structure.

“That building going back to lenders or being put in a receivership is something that happens in good, in bad, in all signs of markets,” said Brent Robertson, a managing director of commercial real estate services firm JLL’s Twin Cities office. “[These actions are] going to be more prolific over the next, I would say, three years. But there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s probably part of the commercial real estate cycle. Sometimes owners pay more than buildings are worth for single tenant buildings, and when those tenants choose not to renew their leases, it can ... lead to the situation we’re finding with the UHG building.”

The building, along Hwy. 169 just north of Hwy. 62, is the latest example of upheaval facing the commercial office sector in the wake of a pandemic that popularized work-from-home trends and slowed the return of workers to once-bustling downtowns and big office campuses.

The Dayton’s Project building, formerly Dayton’s Department Store, was put in receivership in October 2024. In June 2024, the Capella Tower, also in Minneapolis, was returned to its lender after a new buyer could not be found for the requested sales price.

The 24-story Wells Fargo Plaza in Bloomington was auctioned off in a foreclosure sale in September.