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St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 15th, 2013, 4:08 pm
by Didier
This thread doesn't appear to exist yet, so in light of this potentially damaging news I thought I'd make one.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... -move.html

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 15th, 2013, 4:09 pm
by mattaudio
Beat me too it. And they still owe $20 million on that?

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 15th, 2013, 8:53 pm
by twincitizen
"The entire building was part of an business-incentive effort by former Mayor Norm Coleman to lure Lawson Software away from its former headquarters in Minneapolis. As of 2011, the city still owed more than $20 million on the $101 million project (which included a large parking ramp), the Star Tribune reported."

Everything from Norm Coleman to Parking Ramp just makes me want to puke.

I wish I could say we know better now, but then again St. Paul somehow managed to get $ out of the Vikings stadium deal.

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 15th, 2013, 9:13 pm
by mulad
Huh... For some reason I thought Lawson had been bought by Microsoft some years back, but I guess I was misinformed on that front. There are some Microsoft folks in Saint Paul, though...

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 15th, 2013, 9:16 pm
by Nick
Huh... For some reason I thought Lawson had been bought by Microsoft some years back, but I guess I was misinformed on that front. There are some Microsoft folks in Saint Paul, though...
Doesn't/didn't Microsoft have office space in St. Anthony Main?

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 15th, 2013, 9:19 pm
by seanrichardryan
Microsoft has their regional office at Centennial Lakes in Edina.

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 16th, 2013, 11:24 am
by Didier
I think Microsoft recently moved to that location from St. Anthony Main. I can't find the evidence, but here is the evidence that Microsoft at one time did have space in St. Anthony Main.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/s ... l?page=all

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 16th, 2013, 1:46 pm
by seanrichardryan
Yes, they opened last summer at that location.

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 16th, 2013, 2:03 pm
by lordmoke
Don't know where else to put this, but the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul is closing after this semester. Remaining students will be going to MCAD. Not a good week for St. Paul so far.

http://www.startribune.com/local/187164311.html

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: January 16th, 2013, 3:12 pm
by mattaudio
Didn't they used to have space out near Normandale Lake too? Did they consolidate when they moved to Centennial?

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 2:57 pm
by THERAT
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/216646981.html

http://www.startribune.com/local/east/215879701.html

This along with West Academic coming DT certainly has to have officials breathing easier after a tough Spring with Macy's and the LT Stadium surprises.

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: July 23rd, 2013, 3:09 pm
by mattaudio
Was anyone else wondering how USB has 220 people on 10 floors? 22 people a floor?

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: August 14th, 2013, 1:15 pm
by lordmoke
Cray (Galtier) Plaza is up for sale:
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... r-20m.html

Re: St. Paul Office Market

Posted: August 15th, 2013, 5:50 am
by David Greene
Cray (Galtier) Plaza is up for sale:
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... r-20m.html
The sooner NEA is out the better! I work in this building and the maintenance has been awful. After a water pipe break flooded the first floor, all the elevators had to be replaced. They're still working on it. The flood happened just about the time Central Corridor broke ground. We will literally build a 12 mile LRT faster than NEA will fix all its elevators. That is the official schedule posted by building management.

Most of the roof leaks have been fixed but a few remain. There's quite a bit of corrosion on the trusses supporting the atrium roof. There is visible (from eight floors below) water damage in several places. It used to rain occasionally in one of our office suites.

It would be a crime if NEA made $4 million on a sale of a building it purchased for $16 million seven years ago.

Downtown St Paul looks to LRT for growth

Posted: October 15th, 2013, 9:23 am
by at40man
http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_2 ... light-rail

I apologize in advance, as I wasn't sure whether to place it in the Transportation forum or St Paul forum.

Either way, interesting piece in the Pioneer Press. I had no idea downtown ST Paul's occupancy rate was as high as it is - 90%. If that's the case, then it makes sense why the Macy's was purchased so quickly - this is a prime block that could easily be redeveloped.

This streetcar idea keeps getting floated for downtown St Paul. I am curious where they would plan on placing it? Green Line does a good job of making a largely superfluous loop through downtown.

Re: Downtown St Paul looks to LRT for growth

Posted: October 15th, 2013, 9:26 am
by mattaudio
I think we could move this to a general CBD/office thread over in St. Paul, and include a link to the discussion and article in the Green Line thread.

I remember there was a loop concept floated for the Green Line when it was early in the AA process. It was pushed by downtown boosters (maybe Thune?) but didn't get any traction (which is good).

Re: Downtown St Paul looks to LRT for growth

Posted: October 15th, 2013, 9:31 am
by twincitizen
This belongs in the St. Paul subforum, since we already have topics for the Green Line LRT and the St. Paul streetcar study.

I wouldn't worry too much about St. Paul getting a streetcar. It just isn't in the cards. There's almost no way they'll have the ability to do a value capture district like Minneapolis did. They're getting the first two aBRT lines: Snelling in 2015, West 7th in 2016 (and East 7th extension in 2018 or later). That should head off some of that nonsense.

I agree though, downtown St. Paul is primed for (re)development. Ideally, I'd like to see them convert a bunch of B and C office buildings to residential. I think downtown St. Paul is going to be a very popular place to live for folks who work anywhere along the Green Line, whether that be downtown Mpls, the U, Midway, Regions Hospital, etc. I don't see downtown St. Paul getting a new large Class-A office tower, unless it's user specific for an entire company moving there.

Re: Downtown St Paul looks to LRT for growth

Posted: October 15th, 2013, 9:36 am
by MNdible
I had no idea downtown ST Paul's occupancy rate was as high as it is - 90%.
I'm pretty sure that it's not. I can't reconcile that statement (which I know you're pulling directly from the article) with every other report that I've read in the last five years. Nor can I reconcile it with this statement, which occurs later in the same article:

For instance, "Class B" office space -- which accounts for 65 percent of competitive space downtown -- had a vacancy rate of 29.7 percent in 2004, but was 23 percent in 2013.

Re: Downtown St Paul looks to LRT for growth

Posted: October 15th, 2013, 9:56 am
by woofner
The report was written by BOMA, who have an interest in making the market look healthy:

http://www.bomastpaul.org/

They pad what they call the "competitive" market, which they acknowledge has a 80% occupancy rate, with government and owner-occupied space, which they assume is fully occupied.

Edit: there is some really good data at the end of the report.

Re: Downtown St Paul looks to LRT for growth

Posted: October 15th, 2013, 10:02 am
by David Greene
I think downtown St. Paul is going to be a very popular place to live for folks who work anywhere along the Green Line, whether that be downtown Mpls, the U, Midway, Regions Hospital, etc. I don't see downtown St. Paul getting a new large Class-A office tower, unless it's user specific for an entire company moving there.
I agree with you, but I am curious as to how it will happen. Right now downtown St. Paul has a deserved reputation as a dead zone after 5pm. Minneapolis' Warehouse District was in really bad shape before it became the hot place to live but even then downtown Minneapolis as a whole was relatively lively at night. St. Paul needs a kickstart. Maybe the Green Line will be it but that same Green Line also makes places like Prospect Park much more desirable. Downtown St. Paul will have competition for the "live on the Green Line" set.