Foreclosure auction looms for part of Normandale Lake Office Park as lender alleges $73M owed

Part of the largest multitenant office complex in the Twin Cities is going up for a foreclosure sale at the end of November.

A sheriff’s sale for the prominent 8500 Tower of Normandale Lake Office Park in Bloomington will have a public auction 10 a.m. Nov. 26 at the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in downtown Minneapolis, according to a public notice published earlier this month.

The 467,016 square-foot office building’s original sale was set for Oct. 10, per a complaint the lender filed in Hennepin County District Court in August. Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Advisors is the lender of the original $65 million loan from 2022. As of Oct. 12, the owner of the tower owed $73.4 million

An attorney for the lender did not immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment.

New York-based Opal Holdings bought the five-tower Normandale Lake complex for $366 million in 2022 when office values were falling post-pandemic because of remote and hybrid work.

The property, close to the Interstate 494 and Hwy. 100 interchange, has faced other financial issues. Its 8200 Tower went into receivership in May after Apple Valley-based Wings Credit Union sued to foreclose on the building in April, alleging Opal owed $40.3 million at the time. As of last year, Opal also hadn’t fully paid nearly $10 million in property taxes, including nearly $850,000 in penalties.

But the vast office complex still has been one of the most coveted in the area, with its occupancy rates around 80%. The office vacancy rate for the Twin Cities’ combined suburbs is 11.5%.